Destroying History (Blair Mountain, West Virginia to harvest coal)

[Omaha Steve]

In September of 1921, 13,000 union workers marched to Logan County, West Virginia. More than 2,000 armed deputies met them at Blair Mountain.

The battle that followed represented the biggest armed revolt in America since the Civil War, and it prompted the passage of labor laws currently in effect in the USA.

To this day, Blair Mountain, West Virginia is steeped in the cultural and political history of Appalachia. Historic markers tell the story of the confrontation, and on the battlefield the artifacts from both sides of the armed standoff still lie where they fell.

Yet all of that history is under threat -- as are the beautiful hardwood forests and the mountain itself -- because Big Coal has plans to blow up Blair Mountain as part of a massive mountaintop removal coal mining operation.

That's why Blair Mountain is the latest addition to the list of America's Most Endangered Mountains.

Learn more about Blair Mountain by watching this short video:

http://www.iLoveMountains.org/Endangered

After you watch the video, please be sure to forward it on to 5 friends, and ask them to join us at iLoveMountains.org. They can join by clicking here:

http://www.iLoveMountains.org/Take_Action



Your efforts to help us spread the word are critical -- and they make a tremendous difference. In the last year alone, you've helped us:

* Reach a total of 92,000 views of the America's Most Endangered Mountains video series
* Recruit more than 600 bloggers for the iLoveMountains Bloggers Challenge, who are helping everyday to get the word out about the dirty secret behind "clean coal"
* Recruit more than 31,000 supporters at iLoveMountains.org

And what have we achieved by growing iLoveMountains.org and helping to spread the word about the devastation of mountaintop removal coal mining?

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent in PR and advertising by the coal industry, your actions-- and the actions of tens of thousands of other activists working across the country -- have delivered major setbacks to Big Coal's plans. In the last year, people like you have:

* Stopped a proposed Coal-to-liquid fuels plant in West Virginia
* Haulted plans for the construction of over a hundred new coal power plants around the United States
* Led the way in proposing positive alternatives to mountaintop removal coal mining through the Coal River Mountain wind power project
* Helped us reach a record 150 co-sponsors in Congress for the Clean Water Protection Act, which would sharply curtail mountaintop removal coal mining

Big Coal has been dealt setback after setback by the combined actions of thousands of people like you who love our mountains.

So please, take just a moment to watch the video about Blair Mountain, and then take a moment to forward it to five friends:

http://www.iLoveMountains.org/Take_Action

Together, we can save Blair Mountain -- and help turn this country toward a clean and sensible energy future.

Mary Anne Hitt
iLoveMountains.org



PS Your contribution to iLoveMountains can help us keep the pressure on to end mountaintop removal coal mining. Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution.

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1741/t/6886/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=1807

[hunter]

1. There's no such thing as "clean coal."

It's that simple.

:kick:

[stuntcat]

2. I love I Love Mountains

I got a sweatshirt from them :headbang:
Those mountains are the most beautiful place in the world to me. I'll sending the site to all my peeps :) some of them are IN those mountains.

[codjh9]

3. One of the MANY, MANY atrocities allowed by Bush & Co.

[MountainLaurel]

4. I was thinking of Blair Mountain yesterday

When I saw the article about active duty military being used for "security" purposes in the U.S. The Mine Wars mark the only time the U.S. government has dropped bombs on its own people.

[struggle4progress]

5. "As a result of the Matewan Massacre, Hatfield had become a hero to many of the miners. On August 7,

a crowd varyingly estimated from 700 to 5,000 gathered on the capitol grounds in Charleston to protest the killing. Among others, UMWA's leaders Frank Keeney and Bill Blizzard urged the miners to fight. Over the next two weeks, Keeney travelled around the state, calling for a march on Logan. On August 20, miners began assembling at Marmet. Mother Jones, sensing the inevitable failure of the mission, tried to discourage the miners. At one point, she held up a telegram, supposedly from President Warren G. Harding, in which he offered to end the mine guard system and help the miners if they did not march. Keeney told the miners he had checked with the White House and the telegram was a fake. To this day, it is uncertain who was lying.

On August 24, the march began as approximately 5,000 men crossed Lens Creek Mountain. The miners wore red bandanas, which earned them the nickname, "red necks." In Logan County, Don Chafin mobilized an army of deputies, mine guards, store clerks, and state police. Meanwhile, after a request by Governor Morgan for federal troops, President Harding dispatched World War I hero Henry Bandholtz to Charleston to survey the situation. On the 26th, Bandholtz and the governor met with Keeney and Mooney and explained that if the march continued, the miners and UMWA leaders could be charged with treason. That afternoon, Keeney met a majority of the miners at a ballfield in Madison and instructed them to turn back. As a result, some of the miners ended their march. However, two factors led many to continue. First, special trains promised by Keeney to transport the miners back to Kanawha County were late in arriving. Second, the state police raided a group of miners at Sharples on the night of the 27th, killing two. In response, many miners began marching toward Sharples, just across the Logan County line ...

On September 1, President Harding finally sent federal troops from Fort Thomas, Kentucky. War hero Billy Mitchell led an air squadron from Langley Field near Washington, D.C. The squadron set up headquarters in a vacant field in the present Kanawha City section of Charleston. Several planes did not make it, crashing in such distant places as Nicholas County, Raleigh County, and southwestern Virginia, and military air power played no important part in the battle. On the 3rd, the first federal troops arrived at Jeffrey, Sharples, Blair, and Logan. Confronted with the possibility of fighting against U.S. troops, most of the miners surrendered. Some of the miners on Blair Mountain continued fighting until the 4th, at which time virtually all surrendered or returned to their homes. During the fighting, at least twelve miners and four men from Chafin's army were killed.

Those who surrendered were placed on trains and sent home. However, those perceived as leaders were to be held accountable for the actions of all the miners. Special grand juries handed down 1,217 indictments, including 325 for murder and 24 for treason against the state. The only treason conviction was against Walter Allen, who skipped bail and was never captured. The most prominent treason trial was that of Bill Blizzard, considered by authorities to be the "general" of the miners' army. In a change of venue, Blizzard's trial was held in the Jefferson County Courthouse in Charles Town, the same building in which John Brown had been convicted of treason in 1859. After several trials in different locations, all charges against Blizzard were dropped. Keeney and Mooney were also acquitted of murder charges. John E. Wilburn and his son were convicted of murdering the Logan County deputies. Both were pardoned by Governor Howard Gore after serving only three years of their eleven-year sentences."

http://www.wvculture.org/hiStory/minewars.html