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Earlier this week, Blair Mountain in West Virginia made it onto the list of the National Register of Historic Places. In an often overlooked historical moment, the site was home to what many historians consider as the largest armed insurrection in the post-Civil War period. In 1921, thousands of union coal miners took up arms and marched to other counties in West Virginia to unionize their fellow workers. Federal troops were called in to declare martial law after a battle pitting the miners against state and militia forces raged for days. With this in mind, however, the designation of Blair Mountain is not simply a matter of historical posterity. Environmentalists hope that now, as a historic place, it won’t be subject to strip mining or the controversial practice of mountaintop removal. They cite a regulation in the National Registry Federal Program that stipulates a property’s historic value must be considered in the issuance of coal mining permits. The practice of mountaintop removal mining has recently been questioned by the Obama administration. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will review the permits for two surface mines, one of which is in West Virginia, that filed for an application to carry out the practice.

GUESTS: Jeff Biggers, writer, educator, radio correspondent, and community organizer, author of the United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment to America, Stephanie Pistello, Legislative Associate with Appalachian Voices in DC

For more information, visit www.ilovemountains.org, and www.appalachianvoices.org, www.friendsofblairmountain.org.

Read Jeff Biggers’ article about this story at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/31-14