The Murder of Frank Little
In 1917, Butte was the site of one of the most notorious unsolved murders in American history. The murder of union organizer Frank Little happened in the midst of what was then the biggest strike in the history of Butte’s copper mines. It also happened in the midst of World War I, just months after the United States had entered the war. Butte’s mines were the biggest copper mines in the world, and copper was an utterly essential strategic material in the war.
Little's murder remains officially unsolved, although there are many intriguing clues and theories about how, and why, he was killed. More broadly, Little’s life and death is a fascinating window into the history of corporate power, class conflict, and radical labor organizing in the early 1900s.
Frank Little Tour: Introduction
Nationally Known Union Organizer
Little's organization, the radical Industrial Workers of the World, sent him to Butte amidst the biggest strike Butte had seen. Two weeks later he would be dead, dragged out of bed and hanged from a railroad trestle.
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Frank Little Tour: Silver Bow Club
Meeting Place of Butte's Wealthy Elite
In the early 1900s the opulent Silver Bow Club was emblematic of the difference between the classes in Butte, which lead to the rise of radical labor movements.
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Frank Little Tour: Butte Miners Union Hall
The BMU was an effective advocate for Butte miners in the late 1800s
Along with the “Richest Hill on Earth,” Butte also garnered the label of the “Gibraltar of Unionism.” Butte was indeed a fortress of solidarity. But as it turned out, that fortress could be blown up, just as much as the hard granite encasing Butte’s rich copper deposits.
In the late 1800s, Butte…
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Frank Little Tour: Federal Building
Site of 1917 Clash Between Antiwar Protesters and Police
Union organizers saw suppression of the antiwar demonstration as an attack on labor organizing. The IWW sent one of its most experienced organizers to Butte: Frank Little.
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Frank Little Tour: Granite Mountain Memorial
168 Men Died in 1917 Fire
Since the Butte Miners Union’s demise in 1914, tensions between miners and mine owners had only grown more severe. War exacerbated this, first by ramping up copper production, which yielded big profits for mine owners but only minimal benefits for mine workers. And second by threatening to draft…
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Frank Little Tour: View of Columbia Gardens Location
Site of Frank Little's Most Famous Speech
The speech, given at the Columbia Gardens baseball stadium to a crowd of 6,000, was castigated as treasonous and seditious, and garnered national press attention.
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Frank Little Tour: Finlander Hall
Strike Leaders, and Frank Little, Held Meetings Here in 1917
It was in this modest, two-story brick building that Butte’s union leaders, and Frank Little, hashed out strike strategy. The building was known as the Finlander Hall (or Finnish Hall). The original address was 318 North Wyoming, but the building was demolished in 1941, leaving only this parking…
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Frank Little Tour: Nora Byrne's Boarding House
Site of Frank Little's Kidnapping
The large Butte Brewing Company took up much of the 200 block of North Wyoming. Wedged between the Brewing Company and the Finlander Hall was a residential flat and a boarding house. The boarding house was where Frank Little stayed in Butte, and where he spent his last night on earth.
The…
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Frank Little Tour: Milwaukee Train Trestle
Site of Lynching of Frank Little
On the southwest edge of Butte in 1917, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad line crossed above a little dirt road on a wooden train trestle before heading out of town along Silver Bow Creek. That trestle was the final destination for Frank Little’s kidnappers in the early morning of…
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Frank Little Tour: Mountain View Cemetery
Frank Little's Gravesite
From the murder site, Frank Little’s body was sent back uptown, to the Duggan Mortuary on North Main, right across the street from the old blown-up Miner’s Union Hall. From there, the body travelled back down south for burial in the Mountain View Cemetery. But Little didn’t travel there alone.
On…
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Frank Little Tour: Hennessy Building
Headquarters of the Anaconda Company
The murder of Frank Little was never solved. At the time many people believed the order to kill Little came from the sixth floor of the Hennessy Building.
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