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Preserving West Virginia Labor History

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Friday, September 3, 2010   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Events this weekend will commemorate the mine wars and West Virginia's labor history. In Fayette County, the Whipple Company Store will be holding an open house at the building now being restored as part of a historic coal camp.

Wes Harris will be there. He's the editor of "When Miners March," a book about the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain. He says the store was built like a blockhouse.

"It was designed as a safe place to keep money - the American dollars, not the coalmine scrip. And also as a fortress to keep the United Mine Workers out of Whipple and the New River Coal Company."

The chair of the West Virginia Labor History Week Coalition says a place that played a key part in the mine wars is endangered. Bill Ramsey says Blair Mountain should be a historic site of national importance because of the five day fight there involving huge numbers of men. But he says it could be destroyed if the state decides to abandon a road.

"There are permits for mining that have already been issued if the road leading to this site gets abandoned by the Department of Transportation and the state of West Virginia."

The industry says the land's owners don't want it preserved.

According to Harris, the state's labor history has a lot to teach us.

"I don't know what our kids are going to face in terms of the problems in their generation, but I know that if they don't understand their own history, they have no hope of really solving their own problems in the future."

The mine wars included the largest armed insurrection since the Civil War, pitting thousands of unionized miners against thousands of mine guards and their allies.

More information is available at www.whipplecompanystore.com.




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