Coeur d’Alene Uprising (1899)

Sat Apr 29, 1899

Image: A photo showing the interior of a “bull pen”, with imprisoned workers eating their food off the ground.

On this day in 1899, 1,000 striking miners seized a train in Burke, Idaho, drove it to the Bunker Hill Mine in Wardner, destroyed the mine with dynamite, and burned down both the company office and the home of the mine manager.

In April of 1899, in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was launching an organizing drive of the few mines in the area that had not yet unionized. The superintendent Albert Burch declared that the company would rather “shut down and remain closed twenty years” than to recognize the union. He then fired seventeen workers he believed to be union members and demanded that all other union men collect their back pay and quit.

On this day in 1899, 250 union members seized a train in Burke, northeast of Wallace, and began making their way to the Bunker Hill mine in Wardner, valued around $250,000. At each stop through Burke Canyon, more miners climbed aboard, eventually numbering over 1,000 strong.

Upon arriving at the mine, the men carried 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) of dynamite into the mill and detonated it, completely destroying the mill. The group also burned down the company office, the boarding house, and the home of the mine manager. The miners re-boarded the “Dynamite Express” and returned the way they came.

State authorities used federal troops to commit mass arrests - over 1,000 men were rounded up and put into a “bullpen”, including some elected officials and at least one sheriff. Most were released within two weeks, although some were held until December.

• Date: 1899-04-29
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org