Across the alley from the Butte Archives is the remaining wall of the Butte Miner's Union Hall.

On the annual celebration of Miner's Union Day, June 13th, 1914 an angry crowd ransacked the Miner's Union Hall after their own parade erupted into a riot. When the acting mayor, Alderman Frank Curran appeared in the union

hall to plead for calm, he was told to "Go to hell," and then pushed out of the second story window. All semblance of order followed him out the window.

 

The mob removed the union's safe from the building and took it to a field in the valley below. One miner doused the safe with a liquid from a bottle that he swore was filled with nitroglycerin. When it turned out to be whiskey instead, dynamite was used to blow open the safe.

 

Charles Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners came to Butte to attempt to mediate the conflict at the next regular meeting of the union on June 23rd. At that meeting, he might have wished he had stayed home.

 

During the contentious meeting, shots were fired, killing one man. Moyer and other union officers vacated the hall and once again dynamite was the tool of choice. The hall was destroyed as the Uptown rocked with the repercussions from blasts throughout the night.

 

The remaining original wall of the hall now serves as a Labor History Wall with interpretive plaques.

 

A simulated rubble wall built adjacent to the remaining wall further interprets the history of the labor history site.