No Greater Love: the 'rest of the story'

Original production to mine the depth
of history to tell tale through arts

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Granite Mountain-Speculator Mine Fire, the No Greater Love LLC Board of Directors is producing a new musical called "No Greater Love." Those familiar with the 1917 mine fire know that there are many heroes and many events associated with the disaster. The value in producing this piece for Butte is that "No Greater Love" tells a story that is a "mile high" and a "mile deep."

To avoid producing something that is a "mile wide and an inch deep," decisions had to be made about what to include in the story and what not to include. Many folks are aware that the tragedy began near midnight on June 8, 1917, that there was a three-ton cable that crashed and that an accidental fire trapped 400 miners about 1/2 mile below the surface killing 168 miners. We can only imagine the terror and helplessness the miners must have felt in these circumstances.

History, however, is not comprised of facts alone because facts –– as expressed in numbers, graphs and words –– are limited. The whole truth of history is partly revealed by expressing what might have been going through the minds, hearts and souls of those above and below ground before, during and after the disaster. This critical aspect of the Granite Mountain Fire cannot be explained without the arts.  Therefore, we are producing "No Greater Love" that contains the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey used to say on the radio years ago.

We hope that those reading about "No Greater Love" will come and join us on June 9-10 at the Mother Lode Theater to be moved and captured by the "rest of the story."