For media contacts:
Kenneth King
email: hillboy23@suddenlink phone: 304-752-2260
Dr. Harvard Ayers
email: Harvard@boone.net
Dr. Barbara Rasmussen
email: brasmu@digitalconnections.net
For the Blair Mountain Research Project or to Volunteer:
Brandon Nida, M.A.
email: nida13@berkeley.edu
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Also, we have a comment section below. If you would like to leave a remark or comment, or to just say hello, fill in your email address and we will try to respond.
Keep up the great work!
Everytime I see a picture of those mountaintop strip mines I get physically ill; my stomach and intestines contract and the tears come to my eyes. The people responsible for this desecration don’t deserve this earth.
I just recenrly went from the ranks of employed Special Education Teacher to unemployed Special Education Teacher all within the blink of budgetary constraint eye. My Government and my American studies classes watched Sayle’s movie on the Matewan Massacre and they studied about the Monongah, Wv. mine disaster and Blair Mountain because I wanted them to know about labor history. I have plenty of time on my hands and would like very much to do anything I can to save Blair Mountain. Living in Mercersburg, Pa I can’t just drive right down but I can help with research or to volunteer in any way I can. My political blog Philadelphia Progressive Examiner can also be utilzed to write articles as I have done about mountain top coal removal and Blair Mountain in the past. Because I did legal research for 13 years for a defense attorney in Frederick Md. I have pretty good research skills. If you take a look at Smith Rebellion website I ghostwrote all of that site and did some archeology tech work on that site as well so I can help in any number of ways you might need.
Tim McCown ocracoker@comcast.net
Thank you so much Tim! There a place to sign up to volunteer at ” What can I do.” I’m sure we could use your help. I will check out your site and I included my blog address, I think you would enjoy my, Wisdom of old Blair Mountain.
As I look over the encouraging messages on here, my heart is filled with joy.
Wilma
Great Site! I am eagerly awaiting the availability of merchandise, specifically a high quality decal sticker and a logo tshirt. Thanks and Keep fighting the good fight.
soon, my friend, soon
I want to meet up with the March on Weds June 8 after I get off work and march the last 2 days. Will we be camping out every night? I have my own tent and bedding. Where would I drive to on Weds eve? Where would I leave my car for 3 nights? How would I get back to my car on Sat Jun 11 after the rally? Is food provided for the marchers, or do we need to bring our own? I want to be a part of it, but I don’t have enough vacation time to take off the whole week. I also can’t make it to the meeting on Sun June 5, but I have been involved in marches and non violent protest since the early 70′s.
Was just looking up Blair Mountain because I’ll be there the last week of June looking for a cemetery (and my family were among the original marchers). This is a great site – wish I could join the march!!! I would like to know what shape the cemetery on the mountain is in, if anyone can tell me? I do cleanings and restorations and wonder what supplies I may need to bring with me.
Just wondering which family cemetary you were planning to visit. My mother’s family is in Sharples, which is very close to Blair. It is very concealed due to a strip mine. The primary families are Mullins and Brownings.
Great work ! It would be sweet if all UNION Miners would show up for the march.
How do I sign up for the march?
hello,
I have attempted to register to be a member, but the registration form seems not to be working. I will try again, but, in the mean time, please let me know if you received by membership.
Peggy McKee
I’ve been trying to bring up the Cecil Roberts editorial you have a link to, but all I can see is the photo with no text. Is it possible they deleted it? In any case, it might be a good idea to post the article directly on the website. It seems important to make it as easily accessible as possible for our efforts to reach out to organized labor.
vacation spent in your lovely area many years ago but have never forgotten how beautiful the mountains were, the wild life at your fingertips, the historical sites and history….I’m with you 100% and guess what, I live in Savannah, GA but hope one day I can take another wonderful vacation in West Va and your beautiful Blair Mountain.
Don’t give up the fight to save this historical site. As a Canadian interested in coal mining/labour history, I’ve travelled through West Virginia several times and stopped at Blair Mountain. I can’t believe they still want to mine it! There is an opportunity here for tourism and education. Or a park or something!
First of all please correct typo its receive not recieve like in “recieve our newsletter”.
I just saw the documentary by CNN’s Soledad O’Brien. It was great that she did a one hour special although she needed another hour to tell the full story. I lived near the Potomac River Generating Station in Alexandria Va. for over 30 years and that coal fired plant received its supply from West Virginia via CSX. The height of the stacks on this generating station built in 1948 were limited because they were next to the flight path along the Potomac River serving National Airport. Particulate effluent from the stacks settled and affected the nearby residential areas and people got sick. There is more to this story but I wanted the point out that where the coal is mined is not the end of the story and the effects of coal mining are visited upon those who live near where it is burned to heat up water for steam generating electricity. Alexandria is far away from Blair Mountain yet the effects of coal mining are not. We experience air pollution affecting our lungs. Soledad should do a sequel and show how coal however it is mined affects public health. Also the Potomac River starts in West Virginia so we are receiving whatever pollutants are fed into the river at its source. The documentary touched upon the fact that mountain top removal methods actually are intended to eliminate coal mining jobs by replacing human hands with huge machinery. Soledad should have pointed out that the coal industry will not be a growth industry and source of employment for West Virginians in the future. Unlike the truck driver who found another job elsewhere you can’t find another Blair Mtn. if it is destroyed and leveled. People can move- mountains don’t unless blown up by humans.
I’m not a tree bugger by no means and don’t completely oppose mtn top removal mining! I’m pro coal and will always be pro coal! Take pride in your heritage people this is real…. Stand up and tell em NO!
Keep up the fight! I’ve signed up for your newsletter. I only recently started reading up on the Mine Wars (I’m a historian, although mainly mediaeval/18C), and was horrified to discover that Blair Mountain was in danger. To me, besides being an environmental disaster, this looks to me like a deliberate attempt to eradicate physically a vital piece of working class history. The miners’ rising is an epic story that deserves to be known more widely. (Most of my US friends haven’t heard of it!) I’ve mentioned it to my regular newspaper here in the UK and am hoping they may write something. – best wishes,
Marianne in Glasgow, Scotland.
I made this video about wall street occupy and Blair Mountain, please feel free to share!
http://vimeo.com/31865764
JPico