Mark your calendars! 
Ironwood based singer/storyteller Bill Jamerson will present a 50-minute-long program of songs and stories about life in the iron mining towns of Negaunee and Ishpeming to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Pabst Mine disaster.
Where: Wakefield-Marenisco School Gymnasium
When: Thursday, April 16th, 2026 @ 2:20 PM (Gym doors open at 2 PM)
Who: W-M students in grades 7 through 12, as well as the public
This event is free to attend and will last until a little past 3 PM.
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Bill combines stories, original songs, and video to create a program as entertaining as it is important, as honest as it is fun. Dressed as an iron miner with guitar in hand, he talks about the discovery of iron ore, the arrival of the immigrant workforce, mining the ore, and growing up as a child in a mining location. He will also discuss the Pabst Mine Cave-in of 1926 in which 43 men were trapped underground for five days.
Some of the other songs he performs include Born to be a Miner, which tells the story of a boy growing up in a mining town, New Americans describes the waves of immigrants that came to the range cities, and Miners Lunch, a song about children bringing lunch to their fathers at the mines. The Strike of ’95 tells the story of union organizing efforts. The songs range from heart-felt ballads to foot stomping jigs.
Bill has written and directed historical documentaries for Michigan Public Television, produced CDs of songs and written a historical novel on the Civilian Conservation Corps. For more information about the program, please contact the Wakefield Historical
Society at [email protected], or visit Jamerson’s website, billjamerson.com
