MT, Montana

Granite Mountain Memorial Brick Pavers…

In 1917 on the night of June the 8th, the Granite Mountain Mine in Butte turned into a ball of flames. It all started when a group of men went into the deep mines to inspect a fallen electrical cable. While inspecting the cable one of the men accidentally touched his hand-held lamp to uncovered paraffin paper wrapping and the cable then caught on fire.

The fire was so disastrous because Granite Mountain is a very well ventilated mine, which allowed the smoke and the flames to spread through the mine at a fast rate. The fire even fanned through to connecting mines, and resulted in 168 lives lost.

This was a devastating tragedy for the city of Butte, which had already had its fair share of mining disasters. Consider that the city of Butte only has a population of 100,000 people and this fire killed just as many people as did the Oklahoma bombing in 1995.

In 1996 the Memorial Overlook was constructed at Granite Mountain to remember those that lost their lives in the fire of 1917. It also reminds visitors and locals of all the hard work done by the early residents of Butte, Montana. This is quite surprising that the memorial was not set up earlier; it just never seemed to happen.

Brick grids were laid, which made room for 1,200 memorial brick pavers and bricks to be sold to donors who would like to have their names engraved on the pavement of the plaza. Each brick paver will have the name of the donors who have contributed to the Memorial at Granite Mountain. These brick pavers will last a lifetime, and will display the names of the donors for generations to come, which means that they will be commemorated for their generosity.

There are also a number of plaques at the memorial which tell stories of the different men who lost their lives at Granite Mountain Mine. This will ensure that their memory and legacy will continue, and that they will always be remembered.

About Montana, MT... Montana is featured in the western part of America. It is an inland state that is regarded as the 4th largest state of America. Montana is considered to be made up of many mountainous ranges. But in actual fact 60 per cent of the state is considered to be prairies.

Montana features many mountain ranges and its natural wonder is the glacier national park. The glacier national part features the made famous St Mary’s Lake.

Montana ’s population is relatively small which is surprising because it is such a large state. Originally many Native American groups called this state their home. Nowadays it is know for majority of Montana’s population to be of European descent.

Montana became the 41 st state of America in 1889 due to Abraham Lincoln’s appointment. Montana is also the state that is nickname The Treasure State, which one quarter of this state is covered by forests and mountain ranges.

For more information go to The official website for the state of Montana

Cities of Montana