The Second Battle of Blair Mountain

In August 1921, during southern West Virginia's coal wars, a pitched battle took place at Blair Mountain. Probably 100 people died, mostly on the miner's side, during the next week. This important event in American labor history has been almost totally forgotten about.

That is, until the West Virginia Division of Culture and History decided to name the site to the National Register of Historic Places. Governor Joe Manchin, while trying to ride the fence, clearly supports this action. Why are they doing it? A couple of reasons. First, there is the potential for mountaintop removal coal mining in the area. Placing the site on the National Register would make stripping that land more difficult. Second, I think there is still significant resistance within the coal companies and their lackeys that rule West Virginia to remembering this important event that is only the largest armed uprising in American history since the Civil War.

I've talked many times before of the hell of mountaintop removal. That the UMWA supports it is a travesty--it is a job destroying, community destroying, environment destroying way of mining coal. But with relatively weak leadership by UMWA president Cecil Roberts, it's hardly surprising that the coal miners are caving on this issue. Maybe it'll take destroying a historically important area to get a little public attention to the issue. That it's the site of a labor struggle makes me skeptical, but Huffington Post is now on the story, so that's a good start. And as with all things coal, Ken Ward is all over it.

Most Endangered Historic Sites

The National Trust for Historic Preservation released its annual list of the 11 most endangered historic sites yesterday.

As always, this was a great list reminding us both of the fragility of our physical history and of the importance of remembering less revered moments of our past. Previous lists have included the motels on Route 66, including many in Albuquerque that today are basically hourly establishments; Blair Mountain, the labor battle in West Virginia that was the site of the largest insurrection in U.S. history since the Civil War and which is indeed under major threat from coal developers; the old Filipino community in Stockton, California; the Lower East Side of New York City, where rapid redevelopment has stripped the area of its incredibly important history; and Daniel Webster's farm in New Hampshire.

This year's list is really great. It includes the hanger in Utah where the Enola Gay started its journey to drop the atomic bomb upon Japan, the Century Plaza hotel in Los Angeles, one of the nation's most important modernist structures; the old South Dakota insane asylum in Yankton, which is supposed to be architecturally amazing; the cast-iron architecture of Galveston, Texas; and New Mexico's Mount Taylor, a holy site for many native peoples and under threat from uranium mining. None of these places capture the public imagination, but all are important pieces of our past. Since the National Trust for Historic Preservation started these lists in 1988, only five sites have been destroyed. No doubt we would have lost more without them. Without public attention, what would save buildings like the South Dakota insane asylum. Who's even been to Yankton? Yet these are amazing places.