In Bankruptcy, Patriot Coal Creates its Legacy | Sacrificing a Historic Landmark to Coal

In Bankruptcy, Patriot Coal Creates its Legacy By Brian Sewell Concerns over how Patriot Coal will meet its commitments to generations of retirees have rippled throughout Appalachia. When the St. Louis-based spin-off of Peabody Coal filed for bankruptcy in July, it cited “substantial and unsustainable legacy costs” owed to retirees and beneficiaries as factors. Now,…

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Big Coal Wins Latest Battle to Blast Historic Blair Mountain

Is nothing sacred to coal companies in Appalachia? In a jaw-dropping display of contempt and disregard for the communities and landscapes where they mine coal, three coal companies back in 2009 challenged the listing of West Virginia’s Blair Mountain on the National Register of Historic Places. The companies, including mining behemoths Alpha Natural Resources and…

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Concerned Citizens Dispute Water Quality Study

The Whitesville, W.Va.-based Sludge Safety Project is claiming that a recent study of the water quality in an area of Boone County by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection used flawed research methods, contains errors and misinterprets its own data. In January, the WVDEP completed a year-long study that found that drinking water supplies…

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Blair Community Center and Museum Needs Your Support

By Madison Hinshaw, Communications Editorial Intern in Spring 2012. If you’ve ever heard of Blair Mountain, you know the turmoil it has been through in the last several decades. Now this historic mountain and its battlegrounds are being threatened by surface strip mining. That’s why the Blair Community Center and Museum needs your support! The…

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Blair Mountain Community Center and Museum Opens

A note from Chuck Keeney, Secretary of the Friends of Blair Mountain: Since the “March on Blair Mountain: Appalachia is Rising” event, some coal industry executives have claimed that if our preservation efforts succeed and Blair Mountain is spared from mountaintop removal, the “fabric of the community” will be destroyed. We at Friends of Blair…

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Guest Blogger: Chuck Keeney – What’s next for Blair Mountain

Cross posted from iLoveMountains.org C. Belmont Keeney, or Chuck as most people know him, has a Ph.D. in Appalachian and American History from West Virginia University. His great grandfather, Frank Keeney, was president of the United Mine Workers of America and helped organized the Miners March in 1921. Chuck was one of the principle organizers…

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1,000 Rednecks Marched on Blair Mountain!

The following email was sent to the 51,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here. Just a few weeks ago citizens of Blair, WV climbed to the crest of Blair Mountain with over 1,000 new allies. Movement leaders from surrounding states, union workers, students, archaeologists, activists, and friends from…

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