P a g e 6 G h o s t T o w n s a n d H i s t o r y o f M o n t a n a N e w s l e t t e r HER GLORY DAYS Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz She may not look like much today but in her time, The Miner’s Union Hall in Granite, Montana was a real beauty. Looks weren’t all she had. She had a mission; To retain the standard of wages and the standard of comfort to the workingman and his family. It was the fall of 1888 when the local miners of the Flint Creek district took the first steps toward forming a union and on the evening of September 28th of that same year, it became a reality. The first set of officers was elected and by 1890 the union would erect one of the finest buildings in Granite- The Miner’s Union Hall. It would cost a bit- $23,000 to be exact but that price came with many amenities. The main hall measured 44 by 53 feet and could seat 6000 people with ceilings reaching up 15 feet high. The upper hall clocked in at 30 by 44 feet and was to be used for business meetings. There were several rooms for offices on the second floor including an office for the president, secretary, a library room, reception rooms, a council room and several apartments. The stage dimensions were 16 by 44 feet and it was said to be arranged “in every way advantageous to the presentation of any kind of entertainments”. The ground floor was to be occupied by merchants. The first floor was constructed of native Granite, the upper stories were brick. Furnishings in the hall represented an additional $20,000. Like most unions, the Granite Miner’s Union would have its ups and downs. When first starting out, it had about 200 members and just two years later, had over 1200 miners enrolled in the books. From 1894-1895, members were scattered all over making it hard to scrounge up enough faces to even hold a meeting. Sometimes the treasury barely had a dollar to its name and other times, the cash balance would be over $5,000. A branch of the union was even established at Garnet under the Granite Chapter. But alas, as mining operations ceased, the town became abandoned and by 1921 the building was being sold by the Western Federation of Miners for $150. Photo by Jolene Ewert-Hintz The Madisonian, (Virginia City, MT), Feb. 12, 1886, Accessed via: www.montananewspapers.org The Semi-weekly Miner, (Butte, MT), Feb. 4, 1882, Accessed via: https:// chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ SUET PUDDINGOne cup chopped suet, one cup brown sugar, one cup molasses, one cup sweet milk, one cup each of raisins and English currants, one teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, soda, and salt; one small nutmeg, five cups of flour; steam hard three hours. Serve with foam sauce, flavored with anything you wish. One-half this recipe is enough for five persons. Warming over, by steaming, improves it as it also does the bread.
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