1. Write your letter

Tell Carol Shull why you want her to reverse this insulting and disrespectful De-listing of the Blair Mountain Battlefield. Add your own personal experiences and concerns to the above facts—very important.

 

2. Send your letter

Send your letter to this address:

Ms. Carol Shull, Keeper
National Park Service
National Register of Historic Places
1201 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005

Cc:

Hon. Ken Salazar, Secretary
Department of Interior
1849 C. Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20240

Mr. Randall Reid-Smith
WV SHPO
The Cultural Center
1900 Kanawha Blvd. East
Charleston, WV 25305-0300

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TAKE ACTION - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >

Help turn up the heat on the Keeper of the National Register, Carol Shull, to Reverse the De-listing of the Blair Mountain Battlefield

Write a letter to Carol Shull of the National Historic Register asking to have Blair Mountain's listing re-instatedJanuary 25, 2010

Please help save Blair Mountain by writing a letter to Carol Shull, Keeper of the National Register, asking to reverse the de-listing of Blair Mountain as a historic battlefield.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION BY WRITING A LETTER TODAY --->

Details are in the column to the right, and talking points are listed below.

The Facts That Matter

  1. The Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia in 1921—last of the “Mine Wars”-- is the largest insurrection in U.S. history since the Civil War. Ten thousand coal miners fought several thousand coal industry forces for five days facing machine guns and the U.S. Army and Air Corps.
  2. To recognize and honor the many coal miners and others who fought and died at the Battle of Blair Mountain, it was Listed on the prestigious U.S. National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 2009.
  3. One week later, West Virginia State Historic Preservation Officer, Randall Reid-Smith, made an after-the-fact appeal of the Listing to Keeper Carol Shull based on a flawed list of the 60 or so property owners of the 1700 acre battlefield who had signed letters objecting to the Listing.
  4. In September, during an official comment period, archeologist Harvard Ayers and WV attorney John Kennedy Bailey found the errors in Reid-Smith’s owner’s/objector’s list and presented the evidence to Carol Shull.
  5. Both Shull and Reid-Smith refused to evaluate Ayers’/Bailey’s comments which would have made the De-listing null and void.
  6. Despite this evidence to the contrary, on December 30, 2009, Carol Shull officially De-listed the Battlefield.
  7. While the site is still considered eligible for the National Register, the official recognition of this historic battle and the men who fought and died there is gone.

The De-listing of the Blair Mountain Battlefield must be reversed!