By distinguished author Denise Giardina; originally printed in the Appalachian Voice, June 2005

In late August and September of 1921, the largest armed rebellion in the U.S. since the Civil War was mounted in the coalfields of southern West Virginia. Union coal miners gathered, in numbers estimated anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 strong, outside of Charleston. It is perhaps misleading to call them an “army”, for they had few resources and lacked formal military discipline. And yet it would be too cavalier to label the miners a rag-tag gathering. They had leaders, they had arms, they had organization, and they even had supporting groups of doctors and nurses to treat the expected casualties.

The miners’ intention was to march to the southwestern coalfields and free their fellow miners from some of the most abject treatment in the history of American labor. In Mingo, Logan and McDowell counties, miners worked under abominable conditions, were paid next to nothing, had no freedom of speech or assembly, and were killed with impunity by mine guards and local politicos in an atmosphere reminiscent of a third-world dictatorship. In 1921, thousands of miners and their families were living in tents in deplorable conditions, evicted from their homes after having the temerity to join a union. The Miners’ March, as it was called, was set to change all that. (more…)

Lucas Brown and Lauren Benningfield, AV Staff

These entries are based on research or interviews conducted by Appalachian Voices staff and volunteers- we’d love for you to add another story or eulogy, and let us know if you’d like to request a change.

History of the Homeplace
Blair Mountain’s heritage is rooted in local miners fighting for their rights. In 1921, Blair was the battlefield for the clash between over ten thousand miners fighting for the right to unionize, and the anti-union forces of the local sheriff and neighboring non-union counties. Labor organizers had decided to march on the area in protest of Sheriff Chafin’s harsh and violent treatment of union supporters, and they knew that they were “calling for the union to gamble its future in one desperate show of force” – if the march was successful in the Logan County, “the bastion of nonunion labor,” then the United Mine Workers would be able to organize in any mine in the state. If they failed, it would take years to recover.

Miners started pouring in from all over the coalfields, either hiking in on the roads or hijacking trains to carry carloads of miners to the area. When President Harding threatened to send in Federal troops , the miners voted to go home rather than take on the whole U.S. army. False rumors started to spread, however, that Sheriff Chafin was shooting women and children, and the miners turned back around and “the greatest domestic armed conflict in American labor history” began. After days of brutal fighting, in which home-made bombs dropped from planes marked the only time the U.S. has bombed its own soil, (more…)

Penny Loeb is a distinguished author and the web designer for http://www.wvcoalfield.com , who has generously allowed her articles to be reprinted here.

Vicki Moore has battled the mine above her home for more than two years. Often she has fought the Division of Environmental Protection. It’s been hard. But she can deal with it. What is tearing her up is the announcement of the closing of the elementary school down the road in Sharples. Her son will have to go to school in Boone County and will be in three different schools in the next three years.

“This coal company did take everything. The school is closing,” she said. “Everywhere we turn a coal company has messed it up. Everywhere a school closed, a coal company came by. This school closing has tore me up because when it closes, we lose everything.”

Already nearly two-thirds of the some 200 homes in the historic town of Blair are gone. A real estate subsidiary of Arch Coal Inc., which owns the mine above Blair, bought the houses over the past couple of years. At least two dozen of the houses were then burned, including the fire above on April 13, 1997. Arch said it is not responsible for the fires. The remains of the burnt houses littered the community for months. Last summer, a good amount of the rubble was cleaned up.

The first sight of the mine above Blair is startling as you drive up from Sharples. Several hundred feet have been cut off the mountain above Vicki and Tommy Moore’s trailer. They had to move to Sharples because the dust aggravated their son Dustin’s asthma. In April 1997, the mine had only gone a few hundred feet by the Moore’s trailer. Now it stretches another half mile down the road, all the way to Pigeon Roost. Every time one drives through Blair, it seems as if more of the mountain and the community have disappeared.

For about six months, the mine has been directly behind Carlos Gore’ s house. Earlier in the year, he hadn’t fought the mine: it wasn’t affecting him. “Now it’s me and Vicki,” he said. The 20-story dragline that towered over the Moore’s trailer in the Spring now sits behind Gore’s house, clanging and clacking as it chews away the mountain 24 hours a day. In early August, an especially hard blast sent rocks as large as footballs sailing into Gore’s yard.

The DEP ordered the mine to move blasting back 1,000 feet. Then Gore showed his rocks during the Citizen’s Mine Tour. DEP officials announced they would move the mine back to 2,000 feet from Gore’s property. This forced the dragline to shut down. Mines never stop draglines. They are the sun around which the entire operation revolves. So much capital is invested in this $100 million machine, that stopping it makes the mine lose thousands of dollars an hour. Immediately, Arch’s attorneys went into action. DEP was able force Arch to modify its blasting plans. But it could not keep the mine 2,000 feet from Gore’s house. By law, a mine is allowed up to 300 feet of a home.

Gore has become one of the most outspoken about the problems of mountaintop removal. On Jan. 21, he spoke to more than 250 representatives of the coal industry, officials from the Office of Surface Mining, Environmental Agency and other agencies at a symposium on coal mining in Washington, D.C. “You are destroying our community,” he said.

Arch Coal has applied to mine 3,200 more acres.

It would fill down the valley at the bottom of the photograph. The valley fill would end about half a mile from the main road through Blair. More than a 100 people turned out for a public hearing on the mine in early December. Many spoke out against the mine. A smaller number, some employees of Arch, spoke in support. The DEP denied the permit because it lacked some key technical information. DEP will make a decision after it receives additional material. The verdict should come within the next six months.

Recently Vicki Moore got a bit of good news. The school closing has been delayed for awhile. It is quite possible the Sharples school will still be open in the fall. Dustin won’t have to ride the bus to Boone County.

The following is an excerpt from a report by Harvard Ayers, Ph.D. of the Dept. of Anthropology, Appalachian State University; originally printed in the Appalachian Voice, June 2006.

The area of the Battle of Blair Mountain is being nominated under category A of the National Register criteria, as it is undeniably associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of regional and national history. … This case has been made from historical documentation, both from archival data and from interviews of participants and others. Significant historical events can frequently be understood not only from such historical sources, but also from data from the ground on the battle site. Such is the case with the Battle of Blair Mountain.

Over the last 15 years, field researchers have made significant findings along the ten mile length of Spruce Fork Ridge from the crests of Blair Mountain to Mill Creek Gap. The data gathered from the sites along this area clearly substantiate and corroborate the historical record. Historical sources tell us that the main hostilities were concentrated at three locations, the North and South Crests of Blair Mountain, the Crooked Creek Gap and the Mill Creek Gap. The archeological data gathered from these three areas clearly shows evidence of heavy fighting yielding limited subsurface features as well as large numbers of shell casings and unfired cartridges.

The record also tells us that… (more…)

(more…)

January 31, 2007
Taken courtesy of West Virginia Gazette

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

Three environmental groups on Tuesday asked a federal judge to block Arch Coal Inc. from operating on the largest strip mine permit in West Virginia history.

Lawyers for the groups said that “time is of the essence” because Arch’s Mingo Logan Coal Co. subsidiary has already begun clearing timber and brush to prepare for mining.

In papers filed late Tuesday, Joe Lovett of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment asked U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers to issue a temporary restraining order to block the company. (more…)