In 2008, the United States stand to lose Blair Mountain,WV. Our loss may very well be at the hands of our own coal companies that want to see this special place turned into a mountaintop removal mining site. But before we can save it, we want people to understand why we believe the mountain deserves to stay.
… On August 25th, 1921 in Logan County, West Virginia, began a skirmish which would quickly swell into the largest armed labor conflict in American history. On the 1,600-acre Spruce Fork Ridge of Blair Mountain, there was a showdown between an army of as many as 15,000 pro-union miners and a federally backed 2,000-man defensive force. The miners – abused, exploited, and upset by lack of decent working conditions, living conditions, and lack of collective bargaining ability, had taken up arms. The United Mine Workers of America had been working to organize workers in the coalfields, due to constant oppression and tight control of coal-towns in Appalachia, and a long-simmering tension exploded into armed conflict upon to the murder of pro-union Matewan Police Chief Sid Hatfield.
[Miners were] seeking the right not only to unionize but also to exercise civil liberties such as freedom of speech and assembly.
The anti-union defensive force was led by Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin and other law officers, many of whom were on the coal companies’ payrolls. Chafin’s men were “bolstered by private planes that dropped homemade bombs on the miners.” Blair Mountain remains the only place in our country where American’s have dropped bombs on other Americans from the air.
The New York Times archives reports: (9/3/1921) (html/.pdf)
Upon the arrival of federal troops, these coal-miners were quickly out-manned, outgunned, and surrounded. Enmeshed in the largest post-Civil War battle ever on American soil, the miners relented – refusing to fight their fellow veterans, whom many considered their fellow “brothers-in-arms” from WWI.
Across the invisible barriers of race and ethnicity, these coal-stained warriors had gathered enough support to be kept from unionizing only by the United States Army.
It turns out, however, that they may have ended up saving Blair Mountain. These days, the only way too keep Blair Mountain from being destroyed by the coal companies are by keeping it preserved as a historical site. In Fact, The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently recognized the Blair Mountain Battlefield, along with the neighborhoods of New Orleans, and the Vesey St staircase at the WTC, as one of the 11 most endangered historic places in the entire country.
Over the years, various local efforts to preserve the battle site have been blocked by the coal companies that own or lease the property where the conflict occurred. Now coal companies appear intent upon strip-mining Spruce Fork Ridge, which would completely obliterate the well-preserved and intact site. Only by drawing national attention to the importance of the events at Blair Mountain is this threatened battlefield likely to be saved.
Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, offers great perspective on the importance of this battle, and of the miners’ struggle because of its relation to current mining struggles.
“It is particularly important, given the recent mining tragedies in West Virginia, that we not lose this symbol of the bravery and determination of union miners to improve their working conditions.
Fierce opposition from the coal companies that own or lease most of the ridge – Hobet Mining, Arch Coal, Massey Energy Company and Aracoma Coal Company, among others – have stopped previous preservation attempts. The coal companies are intent on strip-mining, which would destroy the battlefield.
By increasing public awareness of the significance of the Blair Mountain battlefield, preservation advocates hope to win support for permanently protecting the site with easements and developing a economically sustainable interpretive program, possibly through the National Coal Heritage Area, which would allow the region to take advantage of West Virginia’s fastest-growing industry – tourism.
Protecting Blair Mountain is important because of the fact that, besides being one of the oldest and most beautiful mountains in the world, its historical significance is unparalleled. A historic site that would bring tourists to this breathtaking place is a far better long-term solution than simply blowing up the mountain for coal, as Massey Energy would have us do. We owe it not only to the mountain herself, but to those who gave their lives.
Up to 30 deaths were reported by Chafin’s side and 50-100 on the union miners side, with many hundreds more injured. By September 2, however, federal troops had arrived. Realizing he would lose a lot of good miners if the battle continued with the military, union leader Bill Blizzard passed the word for the miners to start heading home the following day. Miners fearing jail and confiscation of their guns found clever ways to hide rifles and hand guns in the woods before leaving Logan County. Collectors and researchers to this day are still finding weapons and ammunition embedded in old trees and in rock crevices. Thousands of spent and live cartridges have made it into private collections.
Which leads us to the discoveries of Kenny King and many many others. Harvard Ayers tells us that archeology may yet have a lot to tell us about the Battle of Blair Mountain that we do not yet know.
But the archeological record does more than simply corroborate the historical accounts. It adds considerable depth to our understanding of the battle. Whereas the history tells us that heavy fighting occurred at the three key locations, it does not tell us much about how these areas were defended. It documents in a broad sense the number of combatants, the main types of armaments (machine guns are frequently mentioned), and the broad ebb and flow of the battles. But it does not tell us for instance, the exact locations where the defenders made their stands. It does not detail how many of what weapons were used or the likely number of combatants at the defensive positions. The archeological record for the Battle of Blair Mountain has already yielded important information that fills some of these gaps in the historical record and has the potential to add even more to our understanding of the battle with future research.
… Of the thirteen archaeological sites documented by the reconnaissance surveys of West Virginia University and Appalachian State University, all are stated to have potential for yielding further important information about the Battle of Blair Mountain.
The story of Blair Mountain deserves to be told fully. To learn more about what you can do to help, please visit FriendsofBlairMountain.org
1. Featured Activist: Kenny King For over 17 years, one man has really been at the forefront of the charge to preserve Blair Mountain, and that is Kenny King. Mr. King has been the most passionate voice to fight for the preservation of this historic place, to tell people about the important battle that occurred there, and the attempt to ultimately list the 1,600-acre Spruce Fork Ridge on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. As a proud worker in the coal industry, he understands the significance of West Virginia’s coal heritage to the history of our country. Like many of us, he has a personal connection to the events at Blair Mountain – namely, relatives who fought on both sides of the battle. Please see the new America’s Most Endangered Mountain video about Blair Mountain to hear Kenny talk about his work to save Blair Mountain. A resident of Blair Mountain since 1962, Kenny explains how this historical site is threatened by a 333 acre mining permit. (h/t Greg Coble)
2. Virtual Flyover of Blair Mountain / Permit Area
As it is now, before the proposed mountaintop removal operations have started.
The boundaries of the historic area are outlined in yellow.
3. Appalachian Music of the Week
I just caught my first Martha Scanlan show last week and she was amazing. You may recognize her from the Reeltime Travelers, but I prefer her album West Was Burning. Live, her accompaniment (the Stuart twins) masterfully showcase a number of fiddle and old-time tunes, which makes their live show a real treat for anyone who likes contemporary or old-time acoustic music.
In September of 1921, 13,000 union workers marched to Logan County, West Virginia. More than 2,000 armed deputies met them at Blair Mountain.
The battle that followed represented the biggest armed revolt in America since the Civil War, and it prompted the passage of labor laws currently in effect in the USA.
To this day, Blair Mountain, West Virginia is steeped in the cultural and political history of Appalachia. Historic markers tell the story of the confrontation, and on the battlefield the artifacts from both sides of the armed standoff still lie where they fell.
Yet all of that history is under threat — as are the beautiful hardwood forests and the mountain itself — because Big Coal has plans to blow up Blair Mountain as part of a massive mountaintop removal coal mining operation.
After you watch the video, please be sure to forward it on to 5 friends, and ask them to join us at iLoveMountains.org. They can join by clicking here:
Recruit more than 600 bloggers for the iLoveMountains Bloggers Challenge, who are helping everyday to get the word out about the dirty secret behind “clean coal”
Recruit more than 31,000 supporters at iLoveMountains.org
And what have we achieved by growing iLoveMountains.org and helping to spread the word about the devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining?
Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent in PR and advertising by the coal industry, your actions– and the actions of tens of thousands of other activists working across the country — have delivered major setbacks to Big Coal’s plans. In the last year, people like you have:
Stopped a proposed Coal-to-liquid fuels plant in West Virginia
Haulted plans for the construction of over a hundred new coal power plants around the United States
Led the way in proposing positive alternatives to mountaintop removal coal mining through the Coal River Mountain wind power project
Helped us reach a record 150 co-sponsors in Congress for the Clean Water Protection Act, which would sharply curtail mountaintop removal coal mining
Big Coal has been dealt setback after setback by the combined actions of thousands of people like you who love our mountains.
So please, take just a moment to watch the video about Blair Mountain, and then take a moment to forward it to five friends:
There have been some remarkable happenings in the last two weeks in the fight against mountaintop removal.
For the first time EVER, both major Presidential candidates are publicly against mountaintop removal coal-mining. Last week at a town hall meeting in Orlando, Florida Senator McCain re-iterated what he told Appalachian Voices back in February. When asked if he supported a ban on mountaintop removal mining, the Senator bluntly said “I do.” McCain raised the ire of many of the more anti-environmental members of his caucus, including WV-02 Representative Shelly Moore Capito. McCain’s response “caught me off guard,” and said “such a stance could hurt McCain in West Virginia.”
Senator Barack Obama first indicated his opposition to mountaintop removal last year, when asked by Appalachian Voices. Obama said:
We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal, than simply blowing the tops off mountains.
The Green and Libertarian party candidates also oppose mountaintop removal.
In another HUGE testamant to the success of the national netroots and the barrage of regional activism and citizen lobbying, the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169), just hit 150 co-sponsors last week. That is 150 people from 30 states, 1 territory, and the District of Columbia. This legislation is now supported by 142 Democrats and 8 Republicans from Maine to Hawaii to Florida to Washington state, and that list is growing every week. See if your Representative is a co-sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169).
In an important development in the fight for Coal River Mountain, local activists have proved that we could provide more jobs and more energy by using Coal River Mountain for industrial wind energy rather than turning it into a mountaintop removal site. Due to overwhelming public pressure, blasting was averted last week, and citizens are working with state and local officials to deliver sustainable solutions in the heart of coal country. Please drop Governor Manchin a line and let him know you support the efforts to put clean energy on Coal River Mountain instead of turning it into a mountaintop removal site.
Also, for the first time to my knowledge, a court ruled that global warming bore a higher cost than the operation of a coal-fired power plant. Six activists who wrote the Prime Minister’s name down the side of a smokestack with the intention of shutting down a coal-fired power plant in the UK had the “lawful excuse” that they were protecting the planet from global warming.
Jurors accepted defence arguments that the six had a “lawful excuse” to damage property at Kingsnorth power station in Kent to prevent even greater damage caused by climate change. The defence of “lawful excuse” under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 allows damage to be caused to property to prevent even greater damage – such as breaking down the door of a burning house to tackle a fire.
West Virginians for Affordable Health Care analyzed a 2008 report from Harvard which examined life expectancies in the U.S. They found that Southern West Virginia has some of the lowest life expectancies in the country. McDowell, Logan and Mingo counties were rated among the lowest one percent for shortest life expectancy in the United States. Another three counties — all in southern West Virginia — were rated among the lowest ten percent for life expectancy in the U.S.
A number of counties in West Virginia experienced a reduction in life expectancy for both men and women. For women the reduction in life expectancy was far more pronounced. In Logan County life expectancy for women dropped by more than 2 1/2 years from 1989 to 1999. In Boone County life expectancy fell by almost 2 1/4 years between 1992 and 1999. In Taylor/Barbour counties life expectancy for women fell by 2 1/4 years between 1988 and 1999.
We last wrote to tell you about an ambitious grassroots plan to save Coal River Mountain in West Virginia from mountaintop removal coal mining.
The plan calls for Coal River Mountain to become the site of a major wind farm facility — a facility that would demonstrate that our mountains can be preserved and can help meet our nation’s energy needs through the production of clean wind power.
But the Big Coal Company that has plans to blow the top off Coal River Mountain — Massey Energy — has since circumvented the law and altered their permits, and are set to begin blasting the mountain for coal today, September 10th.
If they are allowed to proceed, the blasting will eliminate some of the potential for the production of clean wind energy and the creation of good, green jobs on Coal River Mountain. And it will be harder for local residents to stop the continuation of the mining once it has started.
Can you contact West Virginia’s Governor Joe Manchin today, and ask him to issue a “stay of execution” for Coal River Mountain? He already knows that there is a real alternative to mountaintop removal at Coal River Mountain — but he needs to know that the state and the nation are watching him, and demanding that he act.
The best way to contact him is by calling 1-888-438-2731 — a sample message is included at the bottom of this email.
Alternately, click here to send a message to Governor Manchin via email:
We also need your help spreading the word about what is at stake. Please forward this email to your friends and family, and enourage them to watch the online video that explains the campaign to save Coal River Mountain. They can watch the video and learn more here:
PS If you plan to be in in West Virginia on September 16th, please consider joing a rally at the State Capitol. Click here for more info: http://www.coalriverwind.org/?page_id=117
Sample letter
Governor Manchin,
I am asking you to support the Coal River Wind Farm and halt blasting until you can look into this opportunity further. Massey Energy has issued notice for blasting at the site to begin today. Community members have requested for weeks that you put a freeze on the mountaintop removal mine and give citizens of West Virginia a chance to save Coal River Mountain.
Many people across southern West Virginia and across the United States were excited to learn recently that you are planning to make your case for renewable energy development in your upcoming “State of the State” speech, and that you have been publicly supporting the development of renewable energy in West Virginia in various speeches. During your 2008 State of the State address you pointed out “that the main ingredient to a successful energy future is sustainability” and encouraged the development of renewable energy like wind and solar. For this reason we hope you will be supportive of this landmark opportunity to put West Virginia on the renewable energy map.
Coal River Mountain in West Virginia has enough wind potential to provide electricity for over 150,000 homes and create 50 well-paying, good jobs, forever. The proposed wind farm would also help diversify the local economy in an area historically dependent upon sparse, temporary coal mining jobs. This opportunity depends upon the mountain being left intact.
We feel you could do no better than to highlight Coal River Mountain, and to lend your full support for the development of a utility-scale wind farm as an economically viable alternative to Massey’s proposed 6,000+ acre mountaintop removal operation that is currently planned for the mountain.
By supporting this project, you will show both the state and the nation that you are truly committed to diversifying West Virginia’s energy portfolio, and that you are willing to make tough choices in order to ensure the future of energy production and strong economy for the state and nation.
Citizens everywhere are concerned about the state of our economy and rising energy prices. Recent estimates produced by the U.S. Geologic Survey show that West Virginia has only 20-30 more years at which current levels of coal production in West Virginia can be maintained, so the time to begin developing these alternative energy sources is now, for as remaining coal runs out, the price of electricity will skyrocket.
However, we have a new and better option, and we are asking that you lend your full support for this project based on its long-term economic, social and environmental benefits, especially as they compare positively to the short-term benefits and long-term costs that will result from proposed strip-mining operations.
Governor Manchin, the choice is yours, and we hope that you make the right one Â- for the residents of Coal River Mountain, for West Virginia, and for the nation.
We’ve reached a cross-roads in Appalachia. We can choose between the economically and environmentally destructive resource of coal, or clean, green, economically invigorating industrial wind power. Right now there is a battle going on at Coal River Mountain to decide whether to turn the mountain into a mountaintop removal site or an industrial wind farm (learn more), and in order to save this mountain and the surrounding communities, we need your help.
Isn’t it wonderful how, when debating mountaintop removal or new coal-fired power plants in southwestern Virginia, the argument that seems to trump all others is the “economic benefit” all this coal digging and burning will bring to SWVA communities? Well, so much for that theory:
The coal-fired power plant under construction outside St. Paul, Va., was not the first to promise jobs, economic development and prosperity for Southwest Virginia. The same promises were made here 50 years ago when the Clinch River Plant was built.
“The coming of the plant into Southwest Virginia will stimulate other plants to locate in the area and to utilize the vast natural resources. It will mark the beginning of a new era,” said American Electric Power President Philip Sporn at the plant’s groundbreaking on May 16, 1956.
[…]
In half a century, the jobs have not materialized, and there is a sharp difference in opinion on whether the company has kept its promises.
The people who live here in the shadow of the smokestacks say the plant’s negative effects go beyond dust and noise. They say it has destroyed their community’s spirit and reduced its numbers, and many claim that there are high numbers of cancer cases among Carbo residents.
Einstein famously said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
More investment in coal means more mountaintop removal.
More mountaintop removal in Appalachia means more poverty.
More mountaintop removal in Appalachia means fewer mining jobs.
More mountaintop removal in Appalachia means more toxic waste our drinking water.
More mountaintop removal in Appalachia probably means more toxic waste in your drinking water if you live in the eastern US.
More mountaintop removal in Appalachia means fewer mountains.
More mountaintop removal in Appalachia means more global climate change.
Its established that there are NO good consequences for this pillaging of our homeland.
So why in the world, in the face of skyrocketing coal prices and decreasing production, should we blow up Coal River Mountain? Especially when we have a chance to create more energy and more jobs with industrial wind at the same site. Please join the fight and help us change Appalachia and move our country away from mountaintop removal coal.
Thats it for this morning. If you care to add a link to, or video of your favorite Appalachian music in the comments, I’m sure we’d enjoy hearing it. 🙂
On August 25th, 1921 in Logan County, West Virginia, began a skirmish which would quickly swell into the largest armed labor conflict in American history. On the 1,600-acre Spruce Fork Ridge of Blair Mountain, there was a showdown between an army of as many as 15,000 pro-union miners and a federally backed 2,000-man defensive force. The miners – abused, exploited, and upset by lack of decent working conditions, living conditions, and lack of collective bargaining ability, had taken up arms. The United Mine Workers of America had been working to organize workers in the coalfields, due to constant oppression and tight control of coal-towns in Appalachia, and a long-simmering tension exploded into armed conflict upon to the murder of pro-union Matewan Police Chief Sid Hatfield. 
For over 17 years, one man has really been at the forefront of the charge to preserve Blair Mountain, and that is Kenny King. Mr. King has been the most passionate voice to fight for the preservation of this historic place, to tell people about the important battle that occurred there, and the attempt to ultimately list the 1,600-acre Spruce Fork Ridge on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places. As a proud worker in the coal industry, he understands the significance of West Virginia’s coal heritage to the history of our country. Like many of us, he has a personal connection to the events at Blair Mountain – namely, relatives who fought on both sides of the battle. Please see the new America’s Most Endangered Mountain video about Blair Mountain to hear Kenny talk about his work to save Blair Mountain. A resident of Blair Mountain since 1962, Kenny explains how this historical site is threatened by a 333 acre mining permit. (h/t Greg Coble)
For the first time EVER, 
Lowell at 
