The Charleston Gazette

Authorities are haggling over whether a majority of landowners approve -- or disapprove -- of listing Logan County's Blair Mountain on the National Register of Historic Places. So far, it's on-again, off-again. The peak was listed, then delisted.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Authorities are haggling over whether a majority of landowners approve -- or disapprove -- of listing Logan County's Blair Mountain on the National Register of Historic Places. So far, it's on-again, off-again. The peak was listed, then delisted.
Logan lawyer John Kennedy Bailey counted 60-plus property holders, and said more than half want historical recognition. But state Culture and History Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith says the lawyer's count was submitted "outside the listing comment period." As we suggested before, a legislative committee should hold a hearing to resolve this fuss.

Regardless of how the landowner count turns out, West Virginia should do more to spotlight the Battle of Blair Mountain, America's largest insurrection since the Civil War, and its worst-ever armed labor conflict. This peak event in the state's notorious "mine wars" had profound significance.

The struggle in the early 1900s featured near-warfare between armed mine guards and armed strikers. Some episodes:

Strikers, evicted from company homes, set up tent cities on Paint Creek. In 1913, mine owner Quinn Morton put machine guns on an armored train that sprayed the tents, killing one. The county sheriff rode with Morton in the mow-'em-down attack. In retaliation, strikers raided a guard compound, killing 16.

A reprise of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral happened in 1920 at Matewan, Mingo County, killing seven Baldwin-Felts guards and four strike supporters. Police Chief Sid Hatfield, who backed the strikers, later was gunned down by Baldwin-Felts men as he appeared for a court hearing.

Angered by Hatfield's murder, around 10,000 strikers marched southward like an army. To stop them, Logan Sheriff Don Chafin -- paid by mine owners to squelch union efforts -- installed machine guns and fortifications on Blair Mountain, and recruited hundreds of company-paid "deputies" to man them. The battle raged nearly a week, ending when U.S. Army units and fighter planes arrived.

The Blair site is vastly more historic than many places on the National Register. Whether you're union-oriented or company-minded, nobody can doubt the importance of this battleground. More should be done to preserve the saga.

A movie was made about the Matewan Massacre. Maybe Blair deserves the same. Perhaps a state museum should be created at the locale. Commissioner Reid-Smith says federal officials in Washington still have an option of restoring Blair to the National Register. One way or another, state leaders should support factual recognition of this storm in West Virginia's past.