Environmentalists and historians have accused coal companies of pressuring the National Park Service into reversing its decision to list as a historic place the Blair Mountain Battlefield, where unions fought the biggest battle in American labor history.

 

The park service agreed to add Blair Mountain to the National Register of Historic Places in March 2009, after a majority of property owners in the area voted in favor of the decision. Less than a year later, federal officials decided to de-list the historic site in West Virginia, claiming some owners who objected to the designation had not been counted in the original vote. Coal mine operators want to use part of the site to develop surface mining.

 

The Sierra Club, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Friends of Blair Mountain and the West Virginia Labor History Association have filed a legal challenge to stop the park service from removing Blair Mountain from the historical register.

 

In August and September 1921, at least 10,000 coal miners fought a 10-day battle with law enforcement over the right to unionize workers. President Warren Harding declared martial law and sent in the U.S. Army and Air Corps, who actually dropped bombs on U.S. citizens. About 100 people were killed on both sides combined and more than 900 were arrested.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Groups Sue over Blair Mountain De-listing (by Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette)

Blair Mountain Removed from National Register of Historic Places; Sierra Club Takes Action (Sierra Club)

Blair Mountain Battlefield De-listed (Friends of Blair Mountain)