Underground Fire: Hope, Sacrifice, and Courage in the Cherry Mine Disaster

On Novem­ber 13, 1909, the coal min­ers of Cher­ry, Illi­nois, went to work, just like any oth­er day. By late after­noon, smoke and fast-mov­ing flames fill the mine’s under­ground tun­nels more than 300 feet below the land’s sur­face. Hun­dreds of men were trapped under­ground. Over eight days, a trag­ic sto­ry unfolds.  Alter­nat­ing with above­ground res­cue efforts and below­ground ter­ror, it is a tale of hero­ic res­cue attempts, sac­ri­fice, and a group of min­ers’ hope and absolute will to sur­vive. Under­ground Fire is rich with archival pho­tographs, pri­ma­ry source doc­u­ments, and fol­low-up infor­ma­tion about sur­vivors, res­cuers, and families.