It's actually refreshing to hear of a company that at least TRIED to do things right and not on the cheap and offered some compensation. Good for them. They showed true empathy with their workers and the workers families.
@sendthis9480, you’re probably right, nonetheless it’s good to hear stuff like this as we usually only hear about the non-caring owners who get away with everything.
@@sendthis9480 That's actually it's the norm for well operating businesses. You only hear about the nefarious stories because those are the ones that have disasters caused by selfish or down right stupid people. People don't care about an office building that operates smoothly. Stories that are eventful are the ones that sell.
How un-American of him. That sounds like socialism or something!!! Hell no!!! -Whitey Fisk Lifelong Member of the Diabetic Association of America, NRA, and proud drawer of Social Security. I stand with Izzreal, you zoomers dont even stand to piss!!!
@@punbug4721 I'd moreso say he sounds like a rare gem among bosses of the time, considering that just five years prior to that the US was just finishing up almost three decades of intermittent warfare between mine operators and mine workers known as the "Mine Wars" so bad it nearly resulted in a second civil war.
Hi, I'm Jordan, who did the research and writing for this script (you can find me in the video description). I'm also a quarter-Finn of my mother's side, who's from Ontario. I'm glad we could do them justice in a small way, and I do remember coming across Ralph Maki's interview transcript during my work on this story, along with quite a few others. Of course, not everything makes it into a final release, and if we went down the full rabbit hole it would end up being the life story of every single person in the whole town, but I wanted to let you know that I have read many of them - including your family's. Perhaps more people will as well, if this story sparks some curiosity in them, I hope.
@@yangsrealm2536these "average" jobs back then were enough to buy a house and fund a family of 5 kids, "average" jobs used to be good. its just the corporations today are evil greedy tribe members.
When you said that the ladder broke, my heart sank and I knew that no one else was going to survive the accident. It’s incredible that Mr. Wills survived.
Cleveland Cliffs was a decent company. Even in the 70s they gave us kids in school a snack bag around Christmas with a couple oranges and apples and some chocolate on the last day of school before Christmas break. It's something they didn't have to do, but they did. I graduated high school in Ishpeming in 1978, but never worked in the mines except for a mining supplier in the summers between college years.
I’ve watched so many of these videos and read so many cases of old business moguls that it’s refreshing to hear these guys actually cared about their workers, relative to the rest of the industry at the time at least. That’s all you can really do while trying to stay competitive
@zoomer9686 I feel bad for the owners, they actually tried, they did everything in their power to make this operation as safe as possible and it still ended up badly. I must commend them for how they handled it too, they gave compensation to the families when they had no obligation to. That's admirable as fuck. (I know it wasn't a lot, but at the very least it was something, which is better than nothing.)
I occasionally have to climb tower cranes (so nothing close to what he climbed): climbing a ladder is a lot harder than it might seem and we're taught to take a breather at every landing. I simply cannot comprehend how he managed to climb that distance, non-stop and in those conditions, even with a dose of adrenaline: absolutely superhuman.
It's no wonder that he passed out immediately! Sheeeesh! Amazing what the human body is capable of, when flooded with adrenaline, plus the intense urge to survive
He climbed on average 4 stories every minute, in the dark, with freezing water rushing down then up towards him, on a metal ladder with drenched work clothing and boots on is just absolutely insane. And all the while trying to gather and lead men out with him, THIS man is a hero, with incredible heart to worry about his co-workers in such a hectic situation(as that's when one's true character is shown).
Yeah, it must have haunted him to know he was the only survivor and even those he tried to help couldn't make it out let alone those who had no chance.
It's so terrifyingly sad to be going up with the boys and yal are gonna make it and you look back and they're just fucking gone. May they all rest in peace and brother Wills, a true legend.
If you've ever climbed a very tall ladder, you'd know that it's VERY hard to do without taking frequent breaks. Now, climbing 800 feet in 15 short minutes, without slowing down for even a moment, covered with freezing cold water, in total darkness, has to be one of the most insane things I've ever heard. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug.
That's right and when I was a young feller back in the day we had to work hard for a living! None of this sissy stuff nah nah mate we were tough and rugged! These days lads just wouldn't understand
My grandfather was 9 years old when this happened. His dad (William Huot) was one of the few bodies found after the incident. William Huot had 7 kids when he died. Thank you for the video, I learned a lot more than I had previously known.
Pure freaking adrenaline. I 100% don’t blame him for passing out when pulled out. Today we better understand PTSD and survivors guilt. May the dead RIP.
I've seen people do that at the refinery I work at, climb a 40 foot ladder in like 3 seconds. If something's goin' on, you gotta respond. (Of course, to keep it up for 80 stories is insane)
Although it was a horrible tragedy, it’s refreshing to hear about a mining company that didn’t screw over the relatives of the lost miners and compensated them.
A small note from a Marquette County resident and Eagle Mine employee; On the map at 2:00 showing the mine's proximity to Ishpeming, the mine location is shown north of Michigamme, about 10 miles west of its actual location. The rest of the maps are accurate. Great video, love to see local history promoted like this.
Yea I’m ngl even though I wasn’t there just picturing that made my heart drop and panic. Imagine looking back and seeing the men following you gone and nothing is there but rushing water
@@Lowclasswarrior778 The feeling of being the only survivor would also be haunting. I mean most of those men didn't even have their bodies recovered, poor souls.
There are at least 19 finnish last names on that memorial stone at 16:42. Didn't realize there were so many finnish miner families in that area at that time. Many familes here in Finland also lost many relatives in this disaster. Terrible loss of life, and my heart truly goes out to those children losing their fathers.
Oh hey, this happened not too far from my hometown I see a few people saying how stupid it was for them to build a mine next to/underneath a lake, but I just want to point out that there are lakes EVERYWHERE in the upper peninsula. You're never too far from one. There are also mines everywhere. Most small towns here probably started out as mining towns (I.e. I'm originally from Iron Mountain, guess what was mined there?). Basically, you can't mine around here without being next to a lake or pond, it's just how it is. The U.P. was (and still is) abundant in iron, copper, and coal, and the value mining brings outranks the danger of being near a lake. Also I can't help but mention that you mispronounced Ishpeming :') It's pronounced like Ishpa-ming, with no emphasis on the midde of the word.
I lived next to Cass Lake, Pontiac Lake, Orchard Lake, Crescent Lake, Elizabeth Lake, should I go on? This points out the dangers of water very vividly if ignored or abused in any way. Not saying they abused the area's under those lakes, but you never know what's going to happen. Michigan has always been known for it's beautiful lakes. Not just the great lakes either.
Pretty crazy to hear about a company that was actually being as safe as it could (for the time period) and cared enough to give them all pensions. This one actually WAS an accident, the ability to safely mine limited by the technology at the time and the knowledge of how certain geological features worked. Those poor men.
The fact they were being as safe as they could likely saved them costs in the court case as there was nothing to say they were negligent. I'm not saying that was the reason as the owners of the company seem like genuinely good people from what I've read but it likely did effect how things turned out.
From the title, I was expecting another take on the Lake Peigneur breach. But this one was new to me and MUCH more disastrous. Vey well covered and presented. Mining was and still is a dangerous occupation.
Are there any suggested solutions you might have learned of? Ways to have made the mining safer in that area without completely closing the mines, I mean. It's an interesting problem. I wondered if filling the emptied underground lakes back up with material from the mine would have helped.
@@Nylon_riot just look it up - you're smart enough to use words like superfluous, but incapable of a google search apparently. MSHA is a common acronym in trades - otherwise known as "those safety people that ticket your for doing dumb shit"
I'm very into holding businesses accountable, and I know how companies were even shittier in 1923, but even I can't fault anyone for that disaster. Not even geologists today can always predict what actions might cause a sinkhole, so in 1923 they'd be even more out of luck.
The main thing is they did do everything they could to reduce risks to their workers. There wasn't really a way to prove negligence because they were doing everything they could at the time. It was just an accident and it was assumed to be safe...
@@Alice-si8uz 100% they actively tried to make the operation as safe as possible for workers. They had the latest equipment, they had a relatively simple mineshaft layout (less confusion in getting around the mine) and they tried to drain that pocket of water thinking that it would be safer for the miners. I can't blame them at all.
Right? I’m never going caving, cave diving, or anything in a submarine. Basically, if water is involved and it’s not a swimming pool, it’s not happening.
Yeah, he and MrBallen are responsible for dozens of irrational fears I've acquired over the last few years, but I keep watching anyhow and racking up more and more fears of things I'll likely never actually have to worry about happening. So, today I'm worried about underground lakes and mineshafts even though I'd be willing to bet that I'll never end up in a mineshaft underneath any sort of lake -- or even in a mineshaft, period.
@@ajstramaski6211I take it you haven't seen the video done about the girl who had her intestines sucked out while in the shallow end of a swimming pool. 😆 Even swimming pools are bad, apparently. So, basically, if you want to go on living a normal life free of irrational fears, ya gotta give up this type of content. Unfortunately, I enjoy watching it way too much to give it up, acquired fears or not.
Scary Interesting does a great job of putting you in the shoes of the people in the story. You really feel the anxiety of the guy climbing the ladder while the water is rushing up to get you. I'll never forget the one where the lady ran out of rope rappelling down a cave hole...
I think what is heartbreaking is that this disaster happened despite honest efforts by the company to keep the men safe. Mining is inherently dangerous, but it feels so unfair. My heart goes out to the families.
Hindsight is the biggest bastard you could have keeping you safe for the future, and hopefully the company managed to come up with something for a situation like this in the future
I think your right that this story isn't that well known. I was born in the UP and grew up in Michigan and haven't heard this story before. Very interesting story, thank you.
How did UA-cam send me this? I am very connected to this disaster. Rutherford Wills was married to my grandmother's sister Bruna. That's her pictured. Their father was Sam Phillipi, who perished. My grandfather's brother was Pete Mongiat, who also perished. I had heard this story told many times from my grandmother. Amazing.
Probably by your account being associated with an IP that you use, or used, from that area. Thats a big factor, combine that with factors like older men generally being into such short somber high quality real-tragedy documentaries, or in other words the preferences that the yt algorithm associates with you(r account) and the video being rather new so the algorithm is still "playing around with it", showing it to people with differing interests to get to know who clicks on it. If it was a rhetorical question oh well. Have a good one
@@StellaBellarI agree, I think he gets the survivors guilt a bit worse knowing if he didn't get his shift taken.. he'd be dead. The guy who was working his shift at least had the opportunity to warn others. They still passed, but only because debris destroyed the ladder.. at least they had a chance because of him. The PTSD must he crazy though, thats probably what the man climbing the ladder deals with the most
@@zacharylortie2786unfortunately if the water was rising fast enough to reach the fastest person’s torso, no one else really had a chance even if the ladder didn’t break, they still would have drowned while trying to climb which may have been slower/worse.
this is back before every company was owned and controlled by the "small hats" who view you "goys" as cattle...also there was always a chance the locals would revolt if they did nothing and the CEOs would find themselves at the end of a rope.
I'm a caver and have explored a few mines including a big lead mine near Wrexham in N.Wales. Climbing ladders for any sort of distance is hard work. Climbing them when water is coming down is much harder. You're almost blinded by the spray, sometimes the only air space is from the lip of your helmet and you're getting pummeled by the force. Of course climbing for your life is serious motivation but knowing how knackered I've been from shorter ladder climbs I'm not surprised he passed out when he reached the top after forcing himself upwards for 15 mins without a break.
Another well researched video your attention to detail is what makes your videos the best on youtube. Here are some suggestions for you to perhaps do videos on: Bayonne, New Jersey - Railway Wreck on September 15, 1958 or here's another Richmond Hill, Long Island, New York - Railway Wreck on November 22, 1950. Here's one the Katie Jane Nursing Home - Fire on February 17, 1957 or this one St Anthony's Hospital - Fire on April 5, 1949 or this one Littlefield Nuring Home - Fire on March 29, 1953, or this one Little Sisters Of The Poor - Fire on July 24, 1931. Then this one is interesting in Chicago, Illinois - Streetcar Wreck on May 25, 1950, or this one the Haber Corporation - Explosion on April 16, 1953 or this on the Taeyunkak Hotel - Fire on December 25, 1971 or the New York Telephone Company - Explosion on October 3, 1962 and finally also in New York City - Collapsing Building on December 12, 1946, all these man-made disasters are fascinating and I think your audience would enjoy hearing about them.
Most people wouldn’t appreciate how hard it would have been to climb a ladder that high, much less a wet and muddy one. I’ve climbed 100’ ladders offshore and it’s grueling. Adrenaline can only do so much. Terrifying
Wow so cool to see my suggestion make it into a video. As a michigander I wish more people knew of our history in the mining industry. While it's not as prevalent today the iron, copper and coal mines were vital in the economic boom that kick started the auto industry.
And that my friends is what a company should do after a tragedy. They proved they valued each and every life that was lost that day. It was refreshing to see that even though they had done nothing wrong they still accepted responsibility and helped every family who lost someone.
My mom was born in the UP and her dad worked for the local copper mining industry up in Lake Linden, Michigan. When my grandparents passed away my mom inherited the house and we use it for a summer home. You can still find the ruins of copper mines, refineries, rail networks, dredges, and other cool objects silently rusting away over the years its pretty cool to see. My mom would tell me stories of a lake that she was explicitly forbidden to swim in because it was tainted with tons of heavy metals from the copper mining. Today the lake is swim able and is a popular boating area due to decades of conservation and recovery efforts to clean up all the heavy metals
As always, I freaking LOVE your channel! 1) PLEASE do a series on disasters! Your work is always incredibly detailed, respectful, and well-researched. It'd be great to hear you (in particular) share more stories on disasters. 2) I'm a native troll (michigander who lives under the Mackinac bridge) but I lived in the Yoop for 6 years. Ishpeming is pronounced "ish-pim-ing." It's a very quick pronunciation; not much time is taken pronouncing the "pim!" Rolls right off the tongue~
It sucks when incidents like this happen but it sucks worse whenever the company and workers involved were doing everything as safely as they could at the time.
It's really terrifying to just have to grope around in the dark tunnels of the mine. To then hear the roar of death racing to fetch you is unimaginable. RIP to all those who lost their lives.
The company still compensated the families of the dead even after it was ruled to not be their fault, and from what you said about the company they seemed progressive and caring for their employees I can believe it wasn't their fault. WHY AREN'T MORE COMPANIES LIKE THIS?!
I think because caring for anything outside of profit margins, roi of investors, versus an ocean of companies that do care only about those things, make you uncompetitive? It would have been a better world if this kind of company behavior was the norm..
@@sabotabby3372 you need iron clad laws to keep corporations in check. Yet they have so much power as their wealth rises that they end up overturning those laws.. Once there is a clear monopoly in any sector, that means, the so called free market has reached it's final form.. Corporation isn't human, there is no room for empathy, compassion or anything else. It shows it's face quite clearly in how much percentage of CEOs are certifiable psychopaths.. It is fashionable to have them in video games or movies as main bad guys, yet people still menage to forget that they are like that in real life too.. Blackrock would buy any property in USA if it is allowed to and raise the prices of new construction or taxes on private property to such a level, that any person not a millionaire would have no choice but to rent.. And why shouldn't it, it achives in such a way, it's only reason for existence.. Masking human greed, that is infinite, behind a legally recognized entity, that can do such things as PR, lobbying and investing in think tanks that shape public opinion by producing fake studies and such.. USA in it's totallity currently is more akin to conglomerate of some of most powerful corporations on Earth, then it is objectively a democracy.. People get to vote in a talking head, but as far as business dealings go, in both domestic and foreign politics, people don't have the dough to compete with lobbying power of big players..
Back in thise days a lot of guys started as the lowest rank laborer and rose through the ranks so he or his family could've worked as miners in those terrible conditions.
I shared this story in the comments of a previous video. Super nice to see this story get some attention. A horrifying tale, and there are more like it. The UP of Michigan was a booming mining industry. You can talk to almost any local from around here and they will have a relative who was once a miner and might share horror stories such as this. I always appreciate my small community getting some attention. Crazy to think that this mine is just around the corner from where I frequently golf in the summer.
Probably my favorite mining disaster ive ever heard. Always love your underground, maritime and survival stories. Youre killling it man super high lever production.
In the 1970s I was far more comfortable as a commercial deep sea diver working at 400 fsw in the Gulf of Mexico than I was at the top of a 20 ft ladder at my house We are sometimes strange creatures. Hey--just thought of this: check out my avatar. That large crane block is from a job I was on (my photo).
This was so well done! I'm curious if you'd be willing to tell a couple of other stories from the U.P. of Michigan like this. One story would be the Italian Hall disaster which took place in Calumet and 73 people died from a stampede after someone shouted 'fire' in a Christmas ball, 59 of the victims were children. Another is the story of Angelique Mott who was a 17 year old woman that survived living alone on Isle Royale through a winter, after her husband Charlie died of starvation. Charlie was a voyageur and prospector sent to survey the island for copper. They were promised a supply ship would come and provide provisions they would need to stay several months on the island, but it never came.
You are darn right this is little known even in Michigan. And it does deserve to be remember. I live in Michigan and am a history buff. This is new to me. Thank you for covering it, and for doing this with sensitivity.
“Thanks for watching, and hopefully I will see you in the next one” Personally, I hope you don’t see me in the next one. You cover a lot of stories with no survivors, I want to live a long life! 😂
Michigan's upper peninsula was the most popular destination for Finnish immigrants, and in some areas almost half of the people have Finnish family background. There are 22 Finnish names on the memorial: Säntti, Wepsälä, Jokinen, Timoharju, Mäki, Aho, Kallio, Heino, Luoma, Koskinen, Laituri, Kuiri, Wiljanen, Mattila, Haapala, Tuomela, Simonen, Hanna, Myllymäki, Välimaa, Ranta, Kakkuri
another excellent telling of absolute disaster as someone mentioned in other comments the length of this video is about all it took for it all to happen pretty insane to think how quick things happen. thank you for the great telling of this piece of history
If you're subbed to a few of these types of channels, mines under lakes isn't an odd thing apparently. There was a video I saw recently about a mine that extended out under the sea bed from shore. Not saying it always works out great but they do keep trying. lol
My mother's father's family all worked in the mines in northern Michigan. The patriarch came from Slovakia - without a finished gradeschool education - but he could speak a passable amount of about five eastern and northern European languages from all his coworkers.
Please make more videos about mine collapses and disasters. I have about a year and half of underground experience myself working as a coring driller. I find these stories interesting because they remind us that while mine cave ins are much more rare now than even 50 years ago, many men paid with their lives to make that the case. These videos are a good way of reminding people of the sacrifices some men became to offer so many of us the modern convenience that mining has offered the world over the years. Thank you
@14:00 - something you didn't mention, at 400' of water over the 600' depth, the water pressure at that depth would be 200 psi. on the bottom level, it would be around 400 psi. even if there were any air pockets, the human body cannot withstand that great a pressure change in that short a time. While diving bells for deep sea diving certainly see pressures higher than that, descent to those depths takes hours to allow the body to equalize to the pressure. with only a handful of minutes for that pressure rise, nobody except the one man who was able to climb out would have still been alive when the water stopped rising.
Very unfortunate that they were playing it safe as far as they knew. Such a shame we have to learn things like this sometimes. Good on the mining company though, and great video as always.
I have been following this account since it has had 200,000 subscribers and it is still the best account for these types of stories that I have ever found, keep up the good work man, we love it
I just started listening to your channel, and I listened to ALL them within a few days. You were an excellent storyteller, and a wonderful narrator, and the respect that you give to each story is wonderful. You have an excellent voice! Thank you so much for the work you put in and I always look forward to watching your videos. Super excited to be the first comment and the first like!!!❤
I'm horrified. As a Michigan resident, when I was 10 we went on a family vacation up north. My dad took us to this ghost town, and we all thought it was boring as hell. I didn't feel right there. At all. I thought it was just a factory town, even though the factory was small, and just off the coast of Lake Superior. Now I know why I felt that way. I feel absolutely awful for taking a small fragment of slag I found on the beach. To think a disaster went on right below my feet decades ago.
I lived a few miles from the mine in West Ishpeming. My house was owned by one of the miners who died. We didnt know that. We had several add-ons and additions but the original house was owned by a miner. Several of the miners would come shower in our house after shift in the 1920s. Our house was EXTREMELY haunted. There were crazy noises all the time. Things moved around on their own and we would see dark shapes moving in the dark. We had a priest come bless the house and that helped but we would hear knocking on the entrance the miners would use late at night. It was creepy. My kids woukd have sleepovers and their teenage friends would complain of noises and feeling afraid of the basement. We eventually renovated the house and sold it off after less than 2 years there. We couldnt take it anymore.
Reminds me of the old slave quarters that was still standing on a farm we use to lease in Alabama. The stone hearth had all kinds of stuff carved into it. Just standing in the one room cabin would make the hairs on my neck stand up.
Michigan and those few surrounding states have an abundance of old houses / buildings, and it's always interesting you dwell into the history of each historic building itself. I wonder what stories are held with the age of your old home!
@@papachub9528 well, one story I know about is the self-termination that happened right before we bought the house. They gave us a deal on this massive, beautiful home. They never told us their adult child had taken his own life (as the law required). We didnt tell my son because we decided to sell shortly after finding out. It explained so much of what was happening. We fixed the place up to modern standards and sold it. We just didnt want to be there anymore. I forgot to mention, the way we found out is that one day, a year and a half after we bought the place some old people showed up with the previous owners. They tried to get into the house using their old key. They thought we werent home. I had changed all the locks because the neighbors told us these people had given out keys to nearly everyone around us. So I caught them trying to get inside. I stepped out and these old people were talking about how they wanted to see the place for old times sake. Then the old lady, the grandma said, "well, this is where my grandson took his life". I was pretty pissed. Fortunately we had changed ALL the locks and added security. Who knows why they were really there? Anyway, now you have two stories.
Born and raised, and neither have I! Maybe it's because I'm from the Mitten though, and they only taught us so much about the UP in schools (we learned more about the lakes themselves than that peninsula).
@Napalm_Candy what's crazy is I know of Ishpeming. Tom Izzo coached at the highschool a long time ago. I just checked the wikipage, this event was just added in 2023!!! You'd think such an event would permantly be etched into the town's identity like the Chicago Fire.
Terrible. Thank you to the person who kept the mines historical records used in the story. I remember during a school assembly one morning the sound of an "alarm?" or "siren?" filled the air and everything just stopped - a feeling of foreboding filled the hall. Later that morning news of the Box Flat Disaster filtered through. Miners killed at Box Flat would have had kids enrolled at many of the schools in Ipswich and a shared sadness filled the city. Wherever there are mines, there is always the possibility of a mine disaster.
So crazy, I’m 29 and have lived 20 minutes from this mine my whole life and never heard this story. I asked my coworker who is in his 40s and has lived here his whole life and hasn’t heard this story either.
I live nearby in Wis and I had no idea this happened! I know towns around me were mining towns, but I had no clue about this disaster! Thank you for bringing it to light and I hope everyone who's families were involved are living a good life now!
600 feet = 182m 1m = 9.8kpa of head pressure 182m x 9.8kpa = 1783 kpa In Australia our standard domestic water pressure is generally 500kpa. 1700kpa is what i get out of my karcher high pressure water cleaner. And you cannot put that onto direct skin
I don't think it was a complete column of water 600 feet high, since the water level in the lake dropped immediately. And some energy would have been absorbed from the water as it made its way through the tunnels. So the pressure by the time it reached the main shaft would have been considerably less than you calculated (if there had been 600 feet of head pressure, it would have filled all the way to the top of the shaft). The water would have accelerated to a high speed as it fell down the main shaft, though. It would have certainly been very different to climb through.
My fiancé works for a Cleveland Cliffs-acquired steel mill in PA. Even now the company takes good care of the workers, and he has amazing benefits (also thanks to the UAW). RIP to these workers and their families. The compensation and dedication of the workers speaks to the quality of the company.
I can confirm, as a Michigander, I've never heard this story before and I'm usually the one in my friend groups who knows weird Michigan history like this. Thanks for the awesome content!
What a dumb comment my dude you think people want to go mining under lakes? It's not like that dead idiot rotting in nutty putty since, many of these guys need money and didn't have much say in it how they got it
Im trying to imagine the terror that man faced when he witnessed the water free falling down the main shaft inches from his face. The sound must have been unimagineably loud also.
Something similar happened to a salt mine in Louisiana in the 1980s. An oil drilling operation at Lake Peigneur accidentally punctured a salt dome, creating a sinkhole that swallowed barges and caused the Delcambre Canal to flow backwards. A brick chimney and fireplace protruding from Lake Peigneur, a remnant from the destruction of the 1980 drilling accident. UA-cam has a video from a helicopter.
I found this video while thinking about my great grandfather Peter DeRoche, who was one of the killed in this disaster. His son (my grandfather) was hired by the mining superintendent at age 14 to do landscaping for Cleveland Cliffs (“CCI”) and worked for CCI for the rest of his working life, but never worked underground. Thank you for this excellent video!
It’s become his signature. Between the ominous music and the way his voice sounds and they way he speaks, I actually hardly ever notice that he only has 2 or 3 pictures and rudimentary illustrations being reused throughout the entire show, ok ok, 4-5! 😂 Scary Interesting makes grade A+ content! I’m ok with knowing that I was hypnotized into thinking I’m watching a show, it’s kinda like being a little kid and using your imagination, only it took me a few hundred episodes to realize that I was!
Imagine the super human strength and stamina it took for that guy to climb that ladder while soaking wet without stopping, people just aren't as strong as they use to be, the food, environment and easy living has made us weak, very few people these day's could've climbed out of that mine.
My desire to explore the dark corners of the earth diminishes every time this channel pops up. It was not very strong to begin with - they dug to deep and all that - but now it is near nonexistent xD
It's actually refreshing to hear of a company that at least TRIED to do things right and not on the cheap and offered some compensation. Good for them. They showed true empathy with their workers and the workers families.
The company wasn't Jewish owned for once, funny how that made such a difference.
That’s actually the norm.
You just only hear about the nefarious situations.
Those are the stories that sell.
@sendthis9480, you’re probably right, nonetheless it’s good to hear stuff like this as we usually only hear about the non-caring owners who get away with everything.
@@sendthis9480If you watch anything from mining disasters, they have one thing in common and empathy for workers isn't it.
@@sendthis9480 That's actually it's the norm for well operating businesses. You only hear about the nefarious stories because those are the ones that have disasters caused by selfish or down right stupid people. People don't care about an office building that operates smoothly. Stories that are eventful are the ones that sell.
That superintendent was pretty cool. He valued safety and even after it was ruled an accident, paid every family compensation
Very rare!
They don't make bosses like that anymore.
wouldn't/couldn't happen today
How un-American of him. That sounds like socialism or something!!! Hell no!!!
-Whitey Fisk Lifelong Member of the Diabetic Association of America, NRA, and proud drawer of Social Security. I stand with Izzreal, you zoomers dont even stand to piss!!!
@@punbug4721 I'd moreso say he sounds like a rare gem among bosses of the time, considering that just five years prior to that the US was just finishing up almost three decades of intermittent warfare between mine operators and mine workers known as the "Mine Wars" so bad it nearly resulted in a second civil war.
Thank you for this segment. My great-grandfather, Emil Maki, died in this tragedy. He left behind a wife and five children.
Hi, I'm Jordan, who did the research and writing for this script (you can find me in the video description). I'm also a quarter-Finn of my mother's side, who's from Ontario.
I'm glad we could do them justice in a small way, and I do remember coming across Ralph Maki's interview transcript during my work on this story, along with quite a few others. Of course, not everything makes it into a final release, and if we went down the full rabbit hole it would end up being the life story of every single person in the whole town, but I wanted to let you know that I have read many of them - including your family's.
Perhaps more people will as well, if this story sparks some curiosity in them, I hope.
@@yangsrealm2536these "average" jobs back then were enough to buy a house and fund a family of 5 kids, "average" jobs used to be good. its just the corporations today are evil greedy tribe members.
@@yangsrealm2536 bro what was the point of this comment? no one asked you how you felt about 5 kids lol have some respect
Everyone has a bunch of kids back in the day due to not so good birth control and infant mortality rates being what they were at that time.
@@jasonharrod3070strength in numbers
The lake took 15 minutes to drain and this video is 17 minutes long. Crazy to think all that could happen in such a short period of time
Well said.❤
Perspective. 💯
wait that’s crazy …
That point is deep than the mine.
Why?
When you said that the ladder broke, my heart sank and I knew that no one else was going to survive the accident. It’s incredible that Mr. Wills survived.
Well he was, after all, strong Willed
@@Arterexius Nobody had climbed a corporate ladder faster than this man.
SAME i had to pause the video and give myself 2 seconds to comprehend it
@@Limrasson He might feel like he's swimming upstream, but I'm sure he'll make it to the top.
@@Limrasson especially with lesser competition
It's rare to hear that the company involved in one of these tragedies handled it well.
Especially for the time. The treatment of workers, and especially miners was generally poor.
@@tillitsdoneIt still is, I can tell you from experience.
Yeah, I’m glad there was at least one company that cared a little about its workers.
Cleveland Cliffs was a decent company. Even in the 70s they gave us kids in school a snack bag around Christmas with a couple oranges and apples and some chocolate on the last day of school before Christmas break. It's something they didn't have to do, but they did. I graduated high school in Ishpeming in 1978, but never worked in the mines except for a mining supplier in the summers between college years.
@@markeasterwood1187I’m on the other end of Lake Michigan, cleveland cliffs is alright still. Compared to the others
I’ve watched so many of these videos and read so many cases of old business moguls that it’s refreshing to hear these guys actually cared about their workers, relative to the rest of the industry at the time at least. That’s all you can really do while trying to stay competitive
Wasn't about competition they just wanted to save a life and they realized no amount of money could do it
Ethics are a rare treasure among rich business owners.
@zoomer9686 I feel bad for the owners, they actually tried, they did everything in their power to make this operation as safe as possible and it still ended up badly. I must commend them for how they handled it too, they gave compensation to the families when they had no obligation to. That's admirable as fuck. (I know it wasn't a lot, but at the very least it was something, which is better than nothing.)
George Westinghouse was another such person, as well as being one of the original pioneers of electrification in the US.
I occasionally have to climb tower cranes (so nothing close to what he climbed): climbing a ladder is a lot harder than it might seem and we're taught to take a breather at every landing.
I simply cannot comprehend how he managed to climb that distance, non-stop and in those conditions, even with a dose of adrenaline: absolutely superhuman.
And I can really understand how he had nightmares of it all. He only barely made it!
Adrenaline is one hell of a hormone/drug crazy what people are capable of when it’s pumping through them
It's no wonder that he passed out immediately! Sheeeesh! Amazing what the human body is capable of, when flooded with adrenaline, plus the intense urge to survive
@@trillianca5666He was also young and fit. That had to help. But yeah terror filled adrenaline for sure with that water rising! Poor guy.
I thought so, too! 80 stories!!! My goodness! He climbed a skyscraper in 15 minutes... using a ladder!!!! Just incredible.
He climbed on average 4 stories every minute, in the dark, with freezing water rushing down then up towards him, on a metal ladder with drenched work clothing and boots on is just absolutely insane. And all the while trying to gather and lead men out with him, THIS man is a hero, with incredible heart to worry about his co-workers in such a hectic situation(as that's when one's true character is shown).
Yeah, it must have haunted him to know he was the only survivor and even those he tried to help couldn't make it out let alone those who had no chance.
I can believe he could even do this, amazing work
Amen that dude stood out a MAN of men
He probably had multiple Angels of past family members looking out to give him just enough strength to live 🙏
It's so terrifyingly sad to be going up with the boys and yal are gonna make it and you look back and they're just fucking gone. May they all rest in peace and brother Wills, a true legend.
If you've ever climbed a very tall ladder, you'd know that it's VERY hard to do without taking frequent breaks. Now, climbing 800 feet in 15 short minutes, without slowing down for even a moment, covered with freezing cold water, in total darkness, has to be one of the most insane things I've ever heard. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug.
That's right and when I was a young feller back in the day we had to work hard for a living! None of this sissy stuff nah nah mate we were tough and rugged! These days lads just wouldn't understand
My grandfather was 9 years old when this happened. His dad (William Huot) was one of the few bodies found after the incident. William Huot had 7 kids when he died. Thank you for the video, I learned a lot more than I had previously known.
@@thatrandomerfromhudds7478 What in the flying f//k has this random commenter done to you so that you wish the death of his bloodline?
@@thatrandomerfromhudds7478 Man you're an absolute waste of oxygen aren't you?
@unfathomablyunfathomablewhat are you talking about?
Was the guy even climbing at that rate? Dude was more like running up the ladder.
As someone else pointed out, it filled up at the same rate as this video. About 1 foot a second I think.
Pure freaking adrenaline.
I 100% don’t blame him for passing out when pulled out.
Today we better understand PTSD and survivors guilt.
May the dead RIP.
Adrenaline is a hell of a drug
I've seen people do that at the refinery I work at, climb a 40 foot ladder in like 3 seconds. If something's goin' on, you gotta respond.
(Of course, to keep it up for 80 stories is insane)
@@URProductions 40ft in 3 seconds straight up? Got Damn!
Although it was a horrible tragedy, it’s refreshing to hear about a mining company that didn’t screw over the relatives of the lost miners and compensated them.
A small note from a Marquette County resident and Eagle Mine employee; On the map at 2:00 showing the mine's proximity to Ishpeming, the mine location is shown north of Michigamme, about 10 miles west of its actual location. The rest of the maps are accurate. Great video, love to see local history promoted like this.
How about mispronouncing the town's name? Drove me crazy.
I just wanted to say I recently found your channel. I think I've binged the entire thing. You do good work!
Did the same about a year ago, such a cool find
me too! no other channel like scary interesting
I agree! I enjoy this channel so much! I discovered it about six months ago. I love these videos.
I have binged all videos, and just discovered I wasn't subscribed 😮. I am now, tho 😁
God, that moment when he realised the ladder was broken would have been utterly horrifying
Yea I’m ngl even though I wasn’t there just picturing that made my heart drop and panic. Imagine looking back and seeing the men following you gone and nothing is there but rushing water
@@Lowclasswarrior778 The feeling of being the only survivor would also be haunting. I mean most of those men didn't even have their bodies recovered, poor souls.
Survivors guilt is a hell of a thing.
There are at least 19 finnish last names on that memorial stone at 16:42. Didn't realize there were so many finnish miner families in that area at that time. Many familes here in Finland also lost many relatives in this disaster. Terrible loss of life, and my heart truly goes out to those children losing their fathers.
Finnish is what gives the Yooper dialect its flavor.
Oh hey, this happened not too far from my hometown
I see a few people saying how stupid it was for them to build a mine next to/underneath a lake, but I just want to point out that there are lakes EVERYWHERE in the upper peninsula. You're never too far from one. There are also mines everywhere. Most small towns here probably started out as mining towns (I.e. I'm originally from Iron Mountain, guess what was mined there?). Basically, you can't mine around here without being next to a lake or pond, it's just how it is. The U.P. was (and still is) abundant in iron, copper, and coal, and the value mining brings outranks the danger of being near a lake.
Also I can't help but mention that you mispronounced Ishpeming :') It's pronounced like Ishpa-ming, with no emphasis on the midde of the word.
A person from Ish says it with an "R"!
❤Thank you! Not a yooper, but I also thought it was mispronounced.
I lived next to Cass Lake, Pontiac Lake, Orchard Lake, Crescent Lake, Elizabeth Lake, should I go on? This points out the dangers of water very vividly if ignored or abused in any way. Not saying they abused the area's under those lakes, but you never know what's going to happen. Michigan has always been known for it's beautiful lakes. Not just the great lakes either.
I was just about to comment on the Ishpeming pronunciation lol. Do you miss Iron Mountain? I grew up in Norway Mich.
@@jamesshefchik9690 Ishpetucky
Pretty crazy to hear about a company that was actually being as safe as it could (for the time period) and cared enough to give them all pensions. This one actually WAS an accident, the ability to safely mine limited by the technology at the time and the knowledge of how certain geological features worked. Those poor men.
The fact they were being as safe as they could likely saved them costs in the court case as there was nothing to say they were negligent. I'm not saying that was the reason as the owners of the company seem like genuinely good people from what I've read but it likely did effect how things turned out.
@@Alice-si8uz It's definitely refreshing unlike companies that ignore their inspectors and manager's warnings about safety and upgrades.
From the title, I was expecting another take on the Lake Peigneur breach. But this one was new to me and MUCH more disastrous. Vey well covered and presented. Mining was and still is a dangerous occupation.
Same, was expecting silly ol' Peigneur with barely any casualties. Oh this is so much worse.
Keep on the good work! Almost one million followers. You deserve everyone of them.
Hey again! You're awesome. Thanks for all of your support!
As a miner, I listen to these stories just before my shift. The sheer terror drives me on!
Whatever floats your boat I guess. lol
Stay safe down there, miner! R&S
As a 69'er I think about this accident before I go down.
I'm a minor and I watched this video
Just please know, if you ever feel or hear that something is wrong. Leave and run immediately!
You're crazy. God be with you always man.
This story is actually a safety topic my MSHA instructors talk about during our classes.
Superfluous use of acronyms is a bad way to communicate.
Are there any suggested solutions you might have learned of? Ways to have made the mining safer in that area without completely closing the mines, I mean. It's an interesting problem. I wondered if filling the emptied underground lakes back up with material from the mine would have helped.
@@Nylon_riot just look it up - you're smart enough to use words like superfluous, but incapable of a google search apparently. MSHA is a common acronym in trades - otherwise known as "those safety people that ticket your for doing dumb shit"
@@WeiderMystic so like OSHA, or are they the same thing?
I'm very into holding businesses accountable, and I know how companies were even shittier in 1923, but even I can't fault anyone for that disaster. Not even geologists today can always predict what actions might cause a sinkhole, so in 1923 they'd be even more out of luck.
The main thing is they did do everything they could to reduce risks to their workers. There wasn't really a way to prove negligence because they were doing everything they could at the time. It was just an accident and it was assumed to be safe...
@@Alice-si8uz 100% they actively tried to make the operation as safe as possible for workers. They had the latest equipment, they had a relatively simple mineshaft layout (less confusion in getting around the mine) and they tried to drain that pocket of water thinking that it would be safer for the miners. I can't blame them at all.
This guy keeps unlocking new fears in my video game of a life. Well done sir
Right? I’m never going caving, cave diving, or anything in a submarine. Basically, if water is involved and it’s not a swimming pool, it’s not happening.
You haven't seen enough videos, even swimming pools can be terrifying lol
I've been a sub of Mr. Ballen for a long time and I'm never going to a lot of places between his channel and this channel.
Yeah, he and MrBallen are responsible for dozens of irrational fears I've acquired over the last few years, but I keep watching anyhow and racking up more and more fears of things I'll likely never actually have to worry about happening. So, today I'm worried about underground lakes and mineshafts even though I'd be willing to bet that I'll never end up in a mineshaft underneath any sort of lake -- or even in a mineshaft, period.
@@ajstramaski6211I take it you haven't seen the video done about the girl who had her intestines sucked out while in the shallow end of a swimming pool. 😆
Even swimming pools are bad, apparently. So, basically, if you want to go on living a normal life free of irrational fears, ya gotta give up this type of content. Unfortunately, I enjoy watching it way too much to give it up, acquired fears or not.
Scary Interesting does a great job of putting you in the shoes of the people in the story. You really feel the anxiety of the guy climbing the ladder while the water is rushing up to get you. I'll never forget the one where the lady ran out of rope rappelling down a cave hole...
I think what is heartbreaking is that this disaster happened despite honest efforts by the company to keep the men safe. Mining is inherently dangerous, but it feels so unfair. My heart goes out to the families.
Hindsight is the biggest bastard you could have keeping you safe for the future, and hopefully the company managed to come up with something for a situation like this in the future
The attention to detail in this video is amazing
I think your right that this story isn't that well known. I was born in the UP and grew up in Michigan and haven't heard this story before. Very interesting story, thank you.
I worked at a Mine just down the street from Ishpaming all summer and i had never heard of this!!
What a survivor Wills was, from split second judgement to pure endurance. Incredible story.
How did UA-cam send me this? I am very connected to this disaster. Rutherford Wills was married to my grandmother's sister Bruna. That's her pictured. Their father was Sam Phillipi, who perished. My grandfather's brother was Pete Mongiat, who also perished. I had heard this story told many times from my grandmother. Amazing.
Probably by your account being associated with an IP that you use, or used, from that area.
Thats a big factor, combine that with factors like older men generally being into such short somber high quality real-tragedy documentaries, or in other words the preferences that the yt algorithm associates with you(r account) and the video being rather new so the algorithm is still "playing around with it", showing it to people with differing interests to get to know who clicks on it.
If it was a rhetorical question oh well.
Have a good one
Rutherford Wills is my grandpa Tippett’s step-brother. My grandpa, Walter Tippett, died in this tragedy….. it was his very FIRST DAY on the job. 😢
Man the survivor's guilt that poor guy must have felt for being the only one left alive.. tragic.
plus imagine the guilt of that guy that traded shifts.. id feel SO bad
@@StellaBellarI agree, I think he gets the survivors guilt a bit worse knowing if he didn't get his shift taken.. he'd be dead. The guy who was working his shift at least had the opportunity to warn others. They still passed, but only because debris destroyed the ladder.. at least they had a chance because of him. The PTSD must he crazy though, thats probably what the man climbing the ladder deals with the most
@@zacharylortie2786unfortunately if the water was rising fast enough to reach the fastest person’s torso, no one else really had a chance even if the ladder didn’t break, they still would have drowned while trying to climb which may have been slower/worse.
Awesome, thanks for making a video on my suggestion! Surprised no one's made a video on Barnes-Hecker before now. Nice work.
In this case, the company looks like they actually cared for their employees. Somethings are just beyond the safety measures.
Hopefully some important lessons were learned. I am assuming we have better technology to asses the risks of a situation like this now.
Indeed. Freak accidents do happen. They are rare but they can happen to anyone at any time.
this is back before every company was owned and controlled by the "small hats" who view you "goys" as cattle...also there was always a chance the locals would revolt if they did nothing and the CEOs would find themselves at the end of a rope.
I'm a caver and have explored a few mines including a big lead mine near Wrexham in N.Wales. Climbing ladders for any sort of distance is hard work. Climbing them when water is coming down is much harder. You're almost blinded by the spray, sometimes the only air space is from the lip of your helmet and you're getting pummeled by the force.
Of course climbing for your life is serious motivation but knowing how knackered I've been from shorter ladder climbs I'm not surprised he passed out when he reached the top after forcing himself upwards for 15 mins without a break.
It’s insane to think all of that happened so quickly.
what kind of wizard creature are you how is your name like that
Another well researched video your attention to detail is what makes your videos the best on youtube. Here are some suggestions for you to perhaps do videos on: Bayonne, New Jersey - Railway Wreck on September 15, 1958 or here's another Richmond Hill, Long Island, New York - Railway Wreck on November 22, 1950. Here's one the Katie Jane Nursing Home - Fire on February 17, 1957 or this one St Anthony's Hospital - Fire on April 5, 1949 or this one Littlefield Nuring Home - Fire on March 29, 1953, or this one Little Sisters Of The Poor - Fire on July 24, 1931. Then this one is interesting in Chicago, Illinois - Streetcar Wreck on May 25, 1950, or this one the Haber Corporation - Explosion on April 16, 1953 or this on the Taeyunkak Hotel - Fire on December 25, 1971 or the New York Telephone Company - Explosion on October 3, 1962 and finally also in New York City - Collapsing Building on December 12, 1946, all these man-made disasters are fascinating and I think your audience would enjoy hearing about them.
Most people wouldn’t appreciate how hard it would have been to climb a ladder that high, much less a wet and muddy one. I’ve climbed 100’ ladders offshore and it’s grueling. Adrenaline can only do so much. Terrifying
Wow so cool to see my suggestion make it into a video. As a michigander I wish more people knew of our history in the mining industry. While it's not as prevalent today the iron, copper and coal mines were vital in the economic boom that kick started the auto industry.
i read michigander and michigan gender and i was honestly excited to see what the fuck that A) was and B) had to do with goddamn anything lmao
And that my friends is what a company should do after a tragedy. They proved they valued each and every life that was lost that day. It was refreshing to see that even though they had done nothing wrong they still accepted responsibility and helped every family who lost someone.
My mom was born in the UP and her dad worked for the local copper mining industry up in Lake Linden, Michigan. When my grandparents passed away my mom inherited the house and we use it for a summer home. You can still find the ruins of copper mines, refineries, rail networks, dredges, and other cool objects silently rusting away over the years its pretty cool to see. My mom would tell me stories of a lake that she was explicitly forbidden to swim in because it was tainted with tons of heavy metals from the copper mining. Today the lake is swim able and is a popular boating area due to decades of conservation and recovery efforts to clean up all the heavy metals
As always, I freaking LOVE your channel!
1) PLEASE do a series on disasters! Your work is always incredibly detailed, respectful, and well-researched. It'd be great to hear you (in particular) share more stories on disasters.
2) I'm a native troll (michigander who lives under the Mackinac bridge) but I lived in the Yoop for 6 years. Ishpeming is pronounced "ish-pim-ing." It's a very quick pronunciation; not much time is taken pronouncing the "pim!" Rolls right off the tongue~
It sucks when incidents like this happen but it sucks worse whenever the company and workers involved were doing everything as safely as they could at the time.
It's really terrifying to just have to grope around in the dark tunnels of the mine. To then hear the roar of death racing to fetch you is unimaginable. RIP to all those who lost their lives.
The company still compensated the families of the dead even after it was ruled to not be their fault, and from what you said about the company they seemed progressive and caring for their employees I can believe it wasn't their fault.
WHY AREN'T MORE COMPANIES LIKE THIS?!
I think because caring for anything outside of profit margins, roi of investors, versus an ocean of companies that do care only about those things, make you uncompetitive?
It would have been a better world if this kind of company behavior was the norm..
@@relight6931 only a truly rotten system rewards the most heartless and cruel and punishes the compassionate
@@sabotabby3372 yeah, my point exactly..
@@sabotabby3372 you need iron clad laws to keep corporations in check. Yet they have so much power as their wealth rises that they end up overturning those laws.. Once there is a clear monopoly in any sector, that means, the so called free market has reached it's final form..
Corporation isn't human, there is no room for empathy, compassion or anything else. It shows it's face quite clearly in how much percentage of CEOs are certifiable psychopaths..
It is fashionable to have them in video games or movies as main bad guys, yet people still menage to forget that they are like that in real life too..
Blackrock would buy any property in USA if it is allowed to and raise the prices of new construction or taxes on private property to such a level, that any person not a millionaire would have no choice but to rent.. And why shouldn't it, it achives in such a way, it's only reason for existence.. Masking human greed, that is infinite, behind a legally recognized entity, that can do such things as PR, lobbying and investing in think tanks that shape public opinion by producing fake studies and such.. USA in it's totallity currently is more akin to conglomerate of some of most powerful corporations on Earth, then it is objectively a democracy.. People get to vote in a talking head, but as far as business dealings go, in both domestic and foreign politics, people don't have the dough to compete with lobbying power of big players..
Back in thise days a lot of guys started as the lowest rank laborer and rose through the ranks so he or his family could've worked as miners in those terrible conditions.
I shared this story in the comments of a previous video. Super nice to see this story get some attention. A horrifying tale, and there are more like it. The UP of Michigan was a booming mining industry. You can talk to almost any local from around here and they will have a relative who was once a miner and might share horror stories such as this. I always appreciate my small community getting some attention.
Crazy to think that this mine is just around the corner from where I frequently golf in the summer.
Probably my favorite mining disaster ive ever heard. Always love your underground, maritime and survival stories. Youre killling it man super high lever production.
In my job we have to climb up to 400/500 feet, sometimes even more. I rather do that than go 50 feet underground.
me too
Geez, that's crazy. If you're comfortable saying on the Internet, what job has you climbing up that high?
@@punbug4721 Probably monkey business
@@punbug4721 Ladder tester.
In the 1970s I was far more comfortable as a commercial deep sea diver working at 400 fsw in the Gulf of Mexico than I was at the top of a 20 ft ladder at my house We are sometimes strange creatures. Hey--just thought of this: check out my avatar. That large crane block is from a job I was on (my photo).
This was so well done! I'm curious if you'd be willing to tell a couple of other stories from the U.P. of Michigan like this. One story would be the Italian Hall disaster which took place in Calumet and 73 people died from a stampede after someone shouted 'fire' in a Christmas ball, 59 of the victims were children.
Another is the story of Angelique Mott who was a 17 year old woman that survived living alone on Isle Royale through a winter, after her husband Charlie died of starvation. Charlie was a voyageur and prospector sent to survey the island for copper. They were promised a supply ship would come and provide provisions they would need to stay several months on the island, but it never came.
14 hour work days every Sunday. Never miss these! Thanks!
Bro same here
Keep grinding!
Good lads
You are darn right this is little known even in Michigan. And it does deserve to be remember. I live in Michigan and am a history buff. This is new to me. Thank you for covering it, and for doing this with sensitivity.
I bet the guy who switched had the worst survivors' guilt.
Yeah... He's technically the third person from that mine who survived. Will, the inspector, and the guy who switched shifts.
@@punbug4721the inspector didn't survive, the superintendent did because he didn't want to walk 7 miles
Laziness prevails! We love to see it!@@tman6117
And the doctor - a hero complex
Thank you for the great stories, visuals and facts! You have gained a subscriber!
how refreshing to watch a disaster not caused by corporate malpractice
Scary interesting just want to say that you are one of my favorite channels. I always look forward to new videos! Keep up the great work.
Wow. I lived just a few miles from Ishpeming for years and never knew this happened. Great job covering it.
This looks solid. You're about to break 1 million! Been here since the first bro, you've earned this. Solid story and video as usual
“Thanks for watching, and hopefully I will see you in the next one”
Personally, I hope you don’t see me in the next one. You cover a lot of stories with no survivors, I want to live a long life! 😂
This is clever 😂
Michigan's upper peninsula was the most popular destination for Finnish immigrants, and in some areas almost half of the people have Finnish family background. There are 22 Finnish names on the memorial: Säntti, Wepsälä, Jokinen, Timoharju, Mäki, Aho, Kallio, Heino, Luoma, Koskinen, Laituri, Kuiri, Wiljanen, Mattila, Haapala, Tuomela, Simonen, Hanna, Myllymäki, Välimaa, Ranta, Kakkuri
another excellent telling of absolute disaster as someone mentioned in other comments the length of this video is about all it took for it all to happen pretty insane to think how quick things happen. thank you for the great telling of this piece of history
This was my first watch of your channel and it was excellent. Not sure why it popped up but I’m glad it did.
"When a mine is built UNDER a lake"
Bro, who is responsible for these construction choices??
They were doomed before their first day inside the mine 💀
rich people
If you're subbed to a few of these types of channels, mines under lakes isn't an odd thing apparently. There was a video I saw recently about a mine that extended out under the sea bed from shore. Not saying it always works out great but they do keep trying. lol
I wouldn't be surprised by it today, but a 100 years ago? They had to manually locate water-filled caverns and geology of the terrain ahead of them.
Flooding is a constant threat for any mine, usually it is just a slow ingress that can be pumped, but rarely you just get unlucky.
Wow, the visuals and graphics for this video are amazing. Your videos are getting next level.
My mother's father's family all worked in the mines in northern Michigan. The patriarch came from Slovakia - without a finished gradeschool education - but he could speak a passable amount of about five eastern and northern European languages from all his coworkers.
Been waiting for a new drop. Need my Scary Interesting fix
Please make more videos about mine collapses and disasters. I have about a year and half of underground experience myself working as a coring driller. I find these stories interesting because they remind us that while mine cave ins are much more rare now than even 50 years ago, many men paid with their lives to make that the case. These videos are a good way of reminding people of the sacrifices some men became to offer so many of us the modern convenience that mining has offered the world over the years. Thank you
@14:00 - something you didn't mention, at 400' of water over the 600' depth, the water pressure at that depth would be 200 psi. on the bottom level, it would be around 400 psi.
even if there were any air pockets, the human body cannot withstand that great a pressure change in that short a time. While diving bells for deep sea diving certainly see pressures higher than that, descent to those depths takes hours to allow the body to equalize to the pressure. with only a handful of minutes for that pressure rise, nobody except the one man who was able to climb out would have still been alive when the water stopped rising.
This is absolute top tier UA-cam. Channels like this are the purest realization of the potential of this platform
Very unfortunate that they were playing it safe as far as they knew. Such a shame we have to learn things like this sometimes. Good on the mining company though, and great video as always.
I have been following this account since it has had 200,000 subscribers and it is still the best account for these types of stories that I have ever found, keep up the good work man, we love it
I just started listening to your channel, and I listened to ALL them within a few days. You were an excellent storyteller, and a wonderful narrator, and the respect that you give to each story is wonderful. You have an excellent voice! Thank you so much for the work you put in and I always look forward to watching your videos. Super excited to be the first comment and the first like!!!❤
Welcome, and thanks for watching!
I'm horrified. As a Michigan resident, when I was 10 we went on a family vacation up north. My dad took us to this ghost town, and we all thought it was boring as hell. I didn't feel right there. At all. I thought it was just a factory town, even though the factory was small, and just off the coast of Lake Superior. Now I know why I felt that way. I feel absolutely awful for taking a small fragment of slag I found on the beach. To think a disaster went on right below my feet decades ago.
I lived a few miles from the mine in West Ishpeming. My house was owned by one of the miners who died. We didnt know that. We had several add-ons and additions but the original house was owned by a miner. Several of the miners would come shower in our house after shift in the 1920s. Our house was EXTREMELY haunted. There were crazy noises all the time. Things moved around on their own and we would see dark shapes moving in the dark. We had a priest come bless the house and that helped but we would hear knocking on the entrance the miners would use late at night. It was creepy. My kids woukd have sleepovers and their teenage friends would complain of noises and feeling afraid of the basement. We eventually renovated the house and sold it off after less than 2 years there. We couldnt take it anymore.
Reminds me of the old slave quarters that was still standing on a farm we use to lease in Alabama. The stone hearth had all kinds of stuff carved into it. Just standing in the one room cabin would make the hairs on my neck stand up.
Michigan and those few surrounding states have an abundance of old houses / buildings, and it's always interesting you dwell into the history of each historic building itself. I wonder what stories are held with the age of your old home!
@@papachub9528 well, one story I know about is the self-termination that happened right before we bought the house. They gave us a deal on this massive, beautiful home. They never told us their adult child had taken his own life (as the law required). We didnt tell my son because we decided to sell shortly after finding out. It explained so much of what was happening. We fixed the place up to modern standards and sold it. We just didnt want to be there anymore.
I forgot to mention, the way we found out is that one day, a year and a half after we bought the place some old people showed up with the previous owners. They tried to get into the house using their old key. They thought we werent home. I had changed all the locks because the neighbors told us these people had given out keys to nearly everyone around us. So I caught them trying to get inside. I stepped out and these old people were talking about how they wanted to see the place for old times sake. Then the old lady, the grandma said, "well, this is where my grandson took his life". I was pretty pissed. Fortunately we had changed ALL the locks and added security. Who knows why they were really there? Anyway, now you have two stories.
production value is going the hell up, i'm glad for you!
Life long Michigander and I've never heard of this before.
Born and raised, and neither have I! Maybe it's because I'm from the Mitten though, and they only taught us so much about the UP in schools (we learned more about the lakes themselves than that peninsula).
Me either. I'd assume neither of us three are yoopers
@BG-lb9rw never been there. Technically, I have but I was a child and have no recollection.
@Napalm_Candy what's crazy is I know of Ishpeming. Tom Izzo coached at the highschool a long time ago. I just checked the wikipage, this event was just added in 2023!!! You'd think such an event would permantly be etched into the town's identity like the Chicago Fire.
Terrible. Thank you to the person who kept the mines historical records used in the story.
I remember during a school assembly one morning the sound of an "alarm?" or "siren?" filled the air and everything just stopped - a feeling of foreboding filled the hall. Later that morning news of the Box Flat Disaster filtered through. Miners killed at Box Flat would have had kids enrolled at many of the schools in Ipswich and a shared sadness filled the city. Wherever there are mines, there is always the possibility of a mine disaster.
I'm family to the lone survivor. Thank you for sharing this story.
Rutherford Wills was my great-uncle. My grandpa died in this tragedy. (Walter Tippett)
Always appreciate your uploads. Great coverage, no fluff, no editorializing for dramatic effect. Keep it up!
So crazy, I’m 29 and have lived 20 minutes from this mine my whole life and never heard this story. I asked my coworker who is in his 40s and has lived here his whole life and hasn’t heard this story either.
I live nearby in Wis and I had no idea this happened! I know towns around me were mining towns, but I had no clue about this disaster! Thank you for bringing it to light and I hope everyone who's families were involved are living a good life now!
600 feet = 182m
1m = 9.8kpa of head pressure
182m x 9.8kpa = 1783 kpa
In Australia our standard domestic water pressure is generally 500kpa. 1700kpa is what i get out of my karcher high pressure water cleaner. And you cannot put that onto direct skin
I don't think it was a complete column of water 600 feet high, since the water level in the lake dropped immediately. And some energy would have been absorbed from the water as it made its way through the tunnels. So the pressure by the time it reached the main shaft would have been considerably less than you calculated (if there had been 600 feet of head pressure, it would have filled all the way to the top of the shaft). The water would have accelerated to a high speed as it fell down the main shaft, though. It would have certainly been very different to climb through.
My fiancé works for a Cleveland Cliffs-acquired steel mill in PA. Even now the company takes good care of the workers, and he has amazing benefits (also thanks to the UAW). RIP to these workers and their families. The compensation and dedication of the workers speaks to the quality of the company.
Damn... Will is a freaking beast
I just want to say thank you these videos are incredibly well done. You do a really good job researching the stories of everyone involved.
2:30 looks like a miniatures shot lol.
I can confirm, as a Michigander, I've never heard this story before and I'm usually the one in my friend groups who knows weird Michigan history like this. Thanks for the awesome content!
No way, would i go under ground let along under a lake.
What a dumb comment my dude you think people want to go mining under lakes? It's not like that dead idiot rotting in nutty putty since, many of these guys need money and didn't have much say in it how they got it
Not even for $3.25 an hour??
Well….
Now it’s a different story..
Is that with or without hazard pay?
Then you may very well live!!
Iv worked underground in a mine before.. It was deff weird at first but u get used to it.
Im trying to imagine the terror that man faced when he witnessed the water free falling down the main shaft inches from his face. The sound must have been unimagineably loud also.
Rest in peace to all souls lost in this video may all your journeys in Afterlife be beautiful
I’m a Mining Engineer and glad that I found your channel. You do a great job.
Bro survived mine water and moved to Flint…talk about oof.
Your editing skills are getting so good it's insane. Nicely done!
Something similar happened to a salt mine in Louisiana in the 1980s.
An oil drilling operation at Lake Peigneur accidentally punctured a salt dome, creating a sinkhole that swallowed barges and caused the Delcambre Canal to flow backwards. A brick chimney and fireplace protruding from Lake Peigneur, a remnant from the destruction of the 1980 drilling accident.
UA-cam has a video from a helicopter.
I found this video while thinking about my great grandfather Peter DeRoche, who was one of the killed in this disaster. His son (my grandfather) was hired by the mining superintendent at age 14 to do landscaping for Cleveland Cliffs (“CCI”) and worked for CCI for the rest of his working life, but never worked underground.
Thank you for this excellent video!
I LIVE for this spine chilling music!
It’s become his signature. Between the ominous music and the way his voice sounds and they way he speaks, I actually hardly ever notice that he only has 2 or 3 pictures and rudimentary illustrations being reused throughout the entire show, ok ok, 4-5! 😂
Scary Interesting makes grade A+ content! I’m ok with knowing that I was hypnotized into thinking I’m watching a show, it’s kinda like being a little kid and using your imagination, only it took me a few hundred episodes to realize that I was!
Thank you for turning on subtitles. For non native English speakers like me it's very helpful. Thanks again ❤
Imagine the super human strength and stamina it took for that guy to climb that ladder while soaking wet without stopping, people just aren't as strong as they use to be, the food, environment and easy living has made us weak, very few people these day's could've climbed out of that mine.
Just submitted the form, but the San Jose mine collapse in copiapo, Chile for me is the most insane mine disaster story I’ve ever heard.
background music is too loud ... very distracting
My desire to explore the dark corners of the earth diminishes every time this channel pops up. It was not very strong to begin with - they dug to deep and all that - but now it is near nonexistent xD
I love your graphics they really help me grasp and help me see what was going on. You do great work on this channel keep it up!