Beneath the Soil of Blair Mountain

The Battle of Blair Mountain was the culmination of decades of violence in the coalfields of West Virginia. For 100 years the story of the Battle of Blair Mountain was been buried. Buried both beneath the soil of the mountain and within the memory of those involved. For decades, the miners kept quiet fearing prosecution by the state or federal government while West Virginia State officials worked to keep accounts of the Mine Wars out of textbooks and the larger national history of the United States. All the while, the material evidence of the battle, bullets and shell casings laid below just a few inches of soil. "The land will tell the story, you follow the land to find the history." -Donald McCoy

Archaeology is a subdiscipline of anthropology, which is the study of humans and their societies, past and present. Archaeologists are scientists who seek to understand past human cultures through the study of artifacts and other forms of evidence that can be gathered from archaeological sites. In West Virginia, archaeological sites span nearly the entire history of the human occupation of North America, from the Paleo Indians to the recent past. In particular, archaeological excavations in the areas surrounding Blair Mountain have helped to illuminate portions of our history that had not previously been told in history books. With each passing year the introduction of stripmining practices such as Mountaintop Removal on the battlefield has threatened to destroy evidence of the war that occurred there in 1921. Coal companies have used the passage of time against coalfield communities, hoping that as evidence of the battlefield faded so too would memory of the struggle. Not only have these artifacts played a key role in helping activists prove the importance of preserving Blair Mountain but they have also helped archaeologists to recreate portions of the battlefield revealing previously unknown aspects such as tactics, access to materials, and battle formations.

Today, the battle of Blair Mountain continues in the fight to preserve its legacy from the mining conglomerates who own most of the battlefield’s nearly 1,700 acres. The continued mining of Blair Mountain and its surrounding areas has the potential to disturb archaeological sites. Bill Price, a senior organizing representative with the Sierra Club, has stated “It would be a disaster to blow up a mountain of such significance. It would be like blowing up Gettysburg.”  

In June of 2011 nearly 1,000 protesters began to march the exact route of the 1921 march on Blair Mountain. By marching, they were seeking to contest the “legally sanctioned definition of the mountain, and by extension all mountains as valuable only for the resources (they) can yield (Brown 2016, 87). In the words of many protest signs, in saving the mountain they were also hoping to save our history. In 2009, the mountain had been selected for placement on the National Register of Historic Places, but was removed after legal action taken by coal companies. The protesters hoped their march would “bring attention to and prevent the impending destruction of the site of the Battle of Blair Mountain by... mountaintop removal”(Brown 2016, 90).

Artifacts don't simply tell us about our pasts, they also inform our present and our futures. In stating that memories are alive in objects and in places, we acknowledge their potential to spark hope, and to inspire other possibilities. In telling the “life story” of an artifact we are participating in an act of remembrance. We are remembering the labor that went into its creation and the labor that each bullet was used to suppress. Through this memory it becomes possible to decenter narratives of production and consumerism that work to erase the textures which make Blair Mountain special. Doing so can inspire us to think critically about the past, to question our traditions and our narratives of the way things are. As Viet Thanh Nguyen writes “all wars are fought twice, first on the battlefield and second in memory” (2016, 4). The bullets of Blair Mountain were fired twice, first in 1921 and again in 2009, when they were used as ammunition in the fight to preserve the Mountain. 

Between 1997 and 2004 Kenny King made repeated attempts to place Blair Mountain on the National Register of Historic Places each of which was rejected by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) because of the view that the mountain had no remaining historical or archaeological integrity. After the 2006 survey, however, the application was unanimously approved.

For one hundred years the story of Blair Mountain has been mediated by federal and state governments as well as the ambitions of coal companies. MountainTop Removal and other forms of mining on Blair Mountain represent a continued effort to obscure the mountain’s place in American history by destroying important archaeological evidence. The practice of remembering and forgetting is rooted, not only in the complicated ways in which memories become histories, but also in the manner in which artifacts end up in the ground and the care that that ground receives over time. The archaeological investigations in 2006 and beyond justified the placement of the Mountain on the National Registry of Historic Places but what separates the bullets, casings and other artifacts from the coal being extracted from the mountain is the care that these objects receive. 

Anthropologists and museum professionals have worked to preserve artifacts from the Battle of Blair Mountain as evidence of what happened there. The existence of these objects makes it harder for those who would like to forget what happened 100 years ago to continue to shape the narrative. Care, however, is not simply fostering objects through time, it is also recognizing the networks that these objects are part of. In reconnecting them to their vast constellations of stories, people and places, they regain their uniqueness and their power.  

Each piece of coal that was sent to the Winchester Factory was mined by an individual with hopes and struggles. Coal piled into train cars dims the power of an individual piece of coal. The harsh edges created by explosions, pick axes and hard labor become rounded with time and distance. With each mile gained the train turns human labor into a commodity, losing its connection to the people and places where it was mined. Coal built the fires that fused copper and zinc to create brass and powered the machines that turned steel into the rifles used to shoot at the miner who fought for human rights. Care is breaking free of these cycles of production and consumption in an attempt to build a picture of the past, by taking hold of a just memory that pays respect to what happened on Blair Mountain 100 years ago ( Nguyen 2016).

If you would like to support efforts to preserve the history of Blair Mountain you can become a museum member or make a one time donation by following the link below. With your support, we're able to share the legacy and impact of thousands of people fighting for human rights, civil liberties & labor justice in Appalachia, past and present.

The artifacts that we’ve pulled together for The Land Will Tell The Story have been organized from several boxes that comprise a large portion of the results of several archaeological digs throughout the Spruce Fork Ridge area between 2006-2009. The digs were all conducted by one or more people from the same group, which included Harvard Ayers, Brandon Nida, Zan Rothrock, and Kenneth King. Ayers, a professor at Appalachian State in Boone, NC led the earliest digs, later digs were probably conducted independently by Nida and King or King independently. 

We lack the full records for the work that was done, but in cataloging these artifacts, we’ve pulled together everything currently available to use. Description notes describe the objects and the area, if much is known. The 2006 surveys included narratives for each site, which are here in the Context notes. If artifacts were identified previously, we preserved those details and elaborated on them where possible. 

Catalog entries are divided into two types. Some of these document the full array of a documented archaeological site, and contain several different types of artifacts within one entry. This preserves the organization of objects as they originally came into our possession, and provides a platform for further site research. Many other catalog entries narrow the lens to specific objects -- coins, for example, or unique ammunition calibers, which begin to weave stories of their own. 

All of these artifacts are now on loan to the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum through the collection of Kenny King.

We acknowledge and pay deep respects to the original people whose lands along the Kanawha, Tug Fork and Guyandotte waterways where Blair Mountain sits today. The Tutelo, S’atsoyaha (Yuchi), Shawandasse Tula (Shawanwaki/Shawnee) and ᏣᎳᎫᏪᏘᏱ Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East) are often backgrounded or erased from public discourse and popular culture. We recognize their presence, their history, and their enduring and continuing contributions to our collective lifeways. In recognizing the Native peoples on whose ancestral land this museum sits we would like to set the stage for us to bring together diverse migrants, from the earliest settlers and enslaved peoples to the most recent immigrant communities to celebrate our collective histories as West Virginians.

Ethan Karnes (exhibit layout, mapping and essay) is an archaeologist/anthropologist, West Virginia native, graduate of Marshall University and current  PhD student at George Washington University . His work explores the connections between memory, materiality and landscape focusing on regions confronting the legacies of long-term resource extraction. He is interested in how the continual modification of the landscape, as well as the legacy of the early 20th century labor movement, is reflected in memory and materiality and the ways these issues have come to impact, adapt to, and produce narratives of climate change, resistance, and identity within Appalachia.  

 Shaun Slifer  (artifact photography and cataloging) has worked as the creative director of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum since the museum first opened in 2015. He designs and builds the exhibitions, has developed branding for both the museum and the Blair Centennial, and serves as a kind of ad hoc collections manager for our collection of over 700 artifacts.. An artist, nonfiction author, and museum professional based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Shaun is a founding member of the  Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative , and an original member of the now-disbanded  Howling Mob Society . His book, So Much To Be Angry About: Appalachian Movement Press and DIY Radical Publishing 1969-79  (West Virginia University Press) is now available.

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