A Ghostly Christmas Carol: Ramblin’ Jack Elliott‘s “1913 Massacre”
Ah, the sounds of yesteryear. For those of us who came of age with the folk revival, the voice of Ramblin’ Jack Elliott is like the crackle of a warm vinyl record—familiar, rambling, and carrying with it the weight of history. His rendition of “1913 Massacre” is one of those deeply felt songs that wraps its melancholy around you, a stark reminder of the struggles faced by working families long ago. The song itself is not an original by Elliott; it was penned by his close friend and mentor, the legendary Woody Guthrie, who first recorded it in 1945. This distinction is crucial, as Elliott was one of Guthrie’s most important disciples, carrying his songs and style across the decades, essentially acting as a vital link between the Dust Bowl troubadour and a generation of singers who followed, most notably Bob Dylan.
It’s a ballad born not of romantic fiction, but of brutal, documented labor history. The song recounts the Italian Hall disaster, which occurred on Christmas Eve, 1913, in Calumet, Michigan, deep in the heart of the Copper Country. More than 500 striking copper miners and their families, members of the Western Federation of Miners, were celebrating a Christmas party in the Italian Hall. They were locked in a bitter strike with the powerful Calumet and Hecla Mining Company. Amidst the laughter and gifts, a terrifying, false cry of “Fire!” rang out. The result was pure, unadulterated panic. As families rushed toward the single, steep staircase, the tragedy unfolded: 73 people were crushed or suffocated in the narrow stairwell, and a heartbreaking 59 of them were children. There was no fire.
The meaning of Guthrie’s song, and Elliott’s subsequent adoption of it, is not merely to mourn, but to accuse. The lyric points an unblinking finger at the mining company, with Guthrie’s version explicitly stating that “the copper boss’ thugs” were responsible for both yelling the false alarm and, crucially, holding the exit doors shut. The song transforms a terrible accident into a purposeful massacre, a powerful piece of folk journalism and labor propaganda designed to keep the memory of the victims and the cause of the union alive. It’s a lament that echoes the grief of the parents carrying their small, lifeless children back to the Christmas tree, ending with the chilling accusation: “See what your greed for money has done.“
Because of its nature as a folk ballad released on the independent Folkways label, primarily to a focused audience of labor activists and folk enthusiasts, “1913 Massacre”—in either Guthrie’s or Ramblin’ Jack Elliott‘s version—did not appear on any major national record charts like the Billboard Hot 100 at the time of its release. Its power resides not in sales figures, but in its ability to endure as a piece of American social history and a testament to the lives lost. Hearing Elliott’s voice now, weathered and steeped in the long road of American folk music, brings back a time when songs truly told the stories that history books often overlooked, making his interpretation a poignant act of remembrance, ensuring that the children of Calumet are never forgotten.