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Contested Blair Mountain Takes Center Stage in Mountaintop Mining Controversy

Case Updates:

May 2, 2006

Over eighty years ago on Blair Mountain in West Virginia, 10,000 coal miners rose up against armed federal troops in defense of their right to unionize. The undeclared civil war that followed lasted ten days and became known as the Battle of Blair Mountain. Today, another battle is being fought on this site of America's largest-ever labor struggle. Despite widespread efforts to preserve this valuable place as a historic site, a mountaintop removal permit is pending on land where parts of the battle occurred. Mountaintop removal blasts the earth and rock of mountaintops apart and fills valleys with debris, and in many cases completely covers streams and causes damage to neighboring homes. The Sierra Club has worked for years with local residents on a successful campaign aimed at convincing the state of West Virginia to nominate the Blair Mountain site for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. In July 2005, the state formally requested that about 1,600 acres of Blair Mountain be included on the National Register. Unfortunately, coal mining companies have now sued the state in an attempt to overturn the nomination. The Sierra Club moved to intervene in the lawsuit to help defend the state's decision, and in May 2006 a West Virginia judge granted the intervention. Local residents who support our legal action agree that the site should be protected, as mountaintop removal mining has already destroyed too much of our Appalachian cultural and environmental heritage.

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