Kenneth King
Miners surrendering their weapons and ammunition to the army in the aftermath of the Battle of Blair Mountain.
On June 27, after more than nine years of highly contentious and emotionally charged debate, West Virginia’s Blair Mountain Battlefield—the site of the nation’s greatest labor rebellion and the largest armed uprising since the Civil War—has been re-listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The determination overturned an earlier decision by federal authorities to revoke the battlefield’s protected status, in response to a petition from coal companies interested in mining the land—and perhaps obscuring the brutal history that played out on it.
Blair Mountain, considered by many Americans to be as sacred a national landmark as Gettysburg and Bunker Hill, was the scene of an all-out battle, fought in 1921 along a twelve-mile perimeter over a four-day period. Some 10,000 armed miners, frustrated to the point of insurrection, exchanged gunfire with thousands of local law enforcement, state troopers, vigilantes, and “gun thugs” hired by the large coal companies. Dozens of people died. The battle ended only after President Warren G. Harding dispatched 2,100 troops to Logan County.
The mountain has long been under threat of mountaintop removal mining, a devastating form of coal removal that destroys entire ecosystems as it extracts its layers of fuel. The re-listing comes just as America’s landmarks are under increasing attack by both the federal government and fossil fuel interests.
A site as sacred a national landmark for many Americans as Gettysburg and Bunker Hill.
In 2009, after years of effort on the part of such non-governmental organizations as Sierra Club and the Friends of Blair Mountain, the site was listed on the National Register. But within months, the state’s powerful coal interests—from the state senate to the offices of such large extraction companies as Massey Energy and National Resource Partners—launched an all-out and ultimately successful campaign to have the battlefield removed from the list.
It would take another seven years of appeals for the federal government to review the removal, at which time a district court judge determined the de-listing to be “arbitrary and capricious.” However, lacking the power to order the site re-listed, he referred it back to the Keeper of the National Register for a final determination.
Paul Loether, who held the Keeper’s position until recently, spared neither effort nor expense in researching the de-listing decision. His office finally determined that the delisting should be invalidated due the irregularities that had occurred, including that the names of deceased residents had been submitted as objectors; some names of objectors were submitted multiple times; and real estate company stockholders who were not property owners had submitted objections.
“I have concluded that Keeper’s December 30, 2009, decision to remove Blair Mountain Battlefield from the National Register was erroneous,” wrote Joy Beasley, the agency’s acting associate director. The ten-page decision puts Blair Mountain Battlefield back on the National Register of Historic Places, much to the delight of those who have fought for years for this outcome.
“Blair Mountain is an important part of our nation's history, and clearly not a place that should be destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining,” says Sierra Club attorney Aaron Isherwood. “This week’s victory is the culmination of a long and hard struggle by many West Virginians, and it’s an honor, and indeed one of the top highlights of my legal career, to assist these true heroes.”
One of the local heroes to whom Isherwood refers is Charles Belmont “Chuck” Keeney III, activist and great-grandson of the man who led the local chapter of the United Mine Workers in their struggle against the coal operators and the corrupt government forces that supported them.
“What we as a society choose to preserve and commemorate says much about who we are and what we value,” Kenney tells The Progressive. “By preserving the Blair Mountain Battlefield, we have chosen to remember the price—and in many instances, the ultimate price—workers paid nearly a century ago, to build a better life and gain a more equitable footing in America.”
“By saving the site of their struggle, we have also opted to embrace new economic possibilities for coal country. Instead of destroying the land, we have chosen to safeguard it for generations to visit, enjoy, and educate themselves.”
Ron Soodalter is an award-winning author, folklorist, and historian who has authored two books and is featured in five others. His article, “The Battle Over Blair Mountain,” appeared in the February/March issue of The Progressive.