Welcome to the Friends of Blair Mountain page

Our group is dedicated to preserving Blair Mountain, raising awareness of this historic event, and working for workers’ rights today. Check back often for updates!

Updates:

• The Public Comment period for Left Fork Surface Mine ends Feb 02, 2012. Send in your letters if you haven’t yet. It’s your chance to tell the DEP that the permit renewal should be denied in order to protect the archaeological resources and the ecology of the Blair Mountain battlefield, as well as the health and well-being of communities in the surrounding area. Here is the sample letter and address.
• We now have merchandise! Help raise awareness and support our work to save Blair Mountain by purchasing; ‘Be a Real Redneck – Support Union Miners’ T-Shirt($24), Defend Blair Mountain poster ($20 for b&w or $100 color) or a “Real redneck” bandanna ($10)
• Friends of Blair Mountain is now helping to open a community center and small museum at the foot of Blair Mountain in Blair. We are looking for donated items and volunteers. Blair Community Center and Museum opened September 4th, 5pm. Check back soon for photos of of the museum’s progress and the opening BBQ!

• The March on Blair Mountain: Appalachia’s Rising (June 6th – 11th) was a great success. Check out the website for pictures, audio, video, testimonies and articles from the march. www.marchonblairmountain.org

Overview

Blair Mountain in Logan County, West Virginia, was the site of the largest open class war in U.S. history. In 1921, after a generation of violent suppression and exploitation of the people in the southern coalfields of WV, 15,000 coal miners rebelled in an attempt to overthrow the control of coal barons.

1920-1921 Mine War Locations

They met the anti-union forces of the coal-operator army on Blair Mountain and the surrounding ridges. The battlefront was roughly 15 miles long, and more than one million rounds were estimated to have been fired over the course of the five day battle. Both sides were heavily armed with machine guns, high powered rifles, and explosives. The anti-union forces even employed airplanes for reconnaissance as well as for dropping homemade bombs on the miners.

BM Battlefield

With the battle raging in the hills and hollows around Blair Mountain, federal troops were called in and were able to peacefully stop the conflict without a shot fired. The miners dispersed and went back to their homes, and the news reporters returned to their editors. The battle received above the fold coverage in major newspapers of the day, including the New York Times. But soon, the battle faded into obscurity, and over time has been largely forgotten.

So today, although this battle was the largest insurrection after the Civil War, it is not taught in our schools and most Americans and even West Virginians have never heard about it. Even worse, the battlefield is severely threatened by encroaching surface mining operations, and the fate of this remarkable place is uncertain. We have been attempting over the last 20 years to get the site listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and this is currently our primary focus. For more on this struggle, please visit our page that fully describes our efforts and where the process is right now.

We will continue to work to save one of West Virginia’s most significant historical resources. We feel that there is a balance that should be sought between historical preservation and the need for jobs in the southern coalfields. We have attempted to seek compromise with coal industry officials by expressing our support for a traditional deep-shaft mine to extract the coal, which would be far less detrimental than the wholesale destruction of surface mining. We would stand-by to advise and work with coal companies in order to best manage and preserve this extremely significant archaeological resource. We feel this would allow us to pass this site on to future generations, create jobs for coal miners (which ostensibly would be union jobs), and generate small business growth in the area from heritage tourism.

We invite you to join us in our efforts. Due to the threat of destruction, Blair Mountain is once again being remembered and its symbolism of resistance is being reinterpreted and reasserted by labor unions and social justice movements in contemporary struggles. The tradition of the red bandanna that the miners wore in 1921 remains today, worn by those working to correct injustices in the southern coalfields, and is a powerful symbol of our long heritage of resistance and activism.

Put on your work boots, tie a red bandanna around your neck, and get to work.

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“One thing you gotta always remember when you’re dealing with the boss. There’s a dollar on the table, and you as a worker are the one who put it there. Never lose the ability to take that dollar back off.” – old UMWA miner