During the Copper Country strike of 1913-14, Anna “Big Annie” Clemenc became impossible to miss. The Calumet native marched with striking miners day after day, often carrying an American flag as a reminder that workers were asking to be treated as citizens with rights – not simply as labor underground.
Michigan Women Forward’s Hall of Fame biography describes Clemenc as an instrumental figure in Michigan labor history. She helped organize the women who supported the strike, marched daily, and was arrested and jailed twice for her activism.
A nine-month fight
The strike began July 23, 1913, and ended April 13, 1914. Miners across the Keweenaw Peninsula were pushing back against hazardous conditions and low wages. Clemenc, then in her mid-twenties, helped organize the women’s alliance that supported the miners and their families.
Her visibility mattered. Contemporary newspaper coverage presented her as the “Joan of Arc of the Calumet Country,” a sign of how closely the public associated her with the strike. The work stoppage was ultimately defeated, but Clemenc’s courage made the struggle – and the role women played in it – harder to erase.
Why Michigan still remembers her
Clemenc was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame in 1996. She is one of three women shown on its medallion, representing an early fight for economic justice. A commissioned portrait of her was also unveiled in the Michigan Capitol Rotunda during a day of tribute.
Her story is inseparable from the wider history of the 1913 strike, including the Italian Hall disaster, and from the copper industry that shaped the Keweenaw. For more context, read how Keweenaw copper built communities and connected a growing country.
Sources and image rights
- Michigan Women Forward: Anna Clemenc
- Library of Congress: 1914 Day Book profile
- Wikimedia Commons: Annie Clemenc portrait
- Wikimedia Commons: Calumet Fifth Street featured image
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Sources, credits, and reporting details
Sources & accountability
How this story was reported
Editorial methodArchival synthesis
Accountable editor:Keegan O’Brien, publisher and editor.
Last verifiedJul. 14, 2026
Corrections statusNo material correction note is recorded on this article.
Verification note: The article was narrowed to claims supported by Michigan Women Forward, a contemporaneous Library of Congress newspaper page, and the exact Wikimedia Commons rights records. One inline image with unclear provenance was removed.
Primary sources
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Anna Clemenc – Michigan Women's Hall of Fame — Michigan Women Forward
Accessed Jul. 14, 2026.
Institutional biography used for the core historical chronology and legacy claims.
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The Joan of Arc of the Calumet Country Sizes up the Waitresses' Strike — The Day Book / Library of Congress
Published Feb. 28, 1914. Accessed Jul. 14, 2026. Public domain newspaper page.
Original newspaper page preserved by the Library of Congress.
Photo and media credits
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Anna Clemenc portrait from The Day Book, 1914 — Jane Whitaker / Wikimedia Commons
Published Feb. 28, 1914. Accessed Jul. 14, 2026. Public domain.
Supports: Rights and credit record for the inline portrait.
WP media ID 1755. Wikimedia Commons identifies the 1914 newspaper publication and marks the file public domain.
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Calumet MI Downtown 5th St A 2009 — Andrew Jameson / Wikimedia Commons
Featured image record. Published Aug. 9, 2009. Accessed Jul. 14, 2026. CC BY-SA 3.0; credit Andrew Jameson.
Supports: Creator, attribution requirement, and license for the featured Calumet Fifth Street photograph.
WP media ID 1754. Exact Commons file page verified through the Wikimedia API.
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