Breaking News on The Battle for Blair Mountain II

by: One Citizen

Wed Jun 16, 2010 at 08:04:51 AM EDT

According to Gordon Simmons, president of the West Virginia Labor History Association, his outfit along with the group Friends of Blair Mountain have together mounted a petition drive asking Attorney General Darrell McGraw to stop the state from abandoning the site.

Among the facts under consideration are charges by citizens of the Great State of West Virginia that administrators at the WV Division of Culture and History have shirked their duty to preserve the site of the bloodiest U.S. armed rebellion since the Civil War.

One shocking discovery which reportedly jarred Warren McGraw's office was that although the state currently employs four archeologists for the purpose of preserving our historic assets, not one was consulted prior to the State Historic Preservation Office's decision to green-light the WV DOH abandonment of Blair Road right-of-way!

The Friends of Blair Mountain are now attempting to contact film maker John Sayles to pitch in, because he reportedly wanted to film the famous Blair Mountain conflict, but was constrained due to budget and time considerations.

In other related news, award-winning* journalist J. Paul Nyden for the Charleston Gazette has apparently begun to follow this story closely.

Where to send your last-minute objection to the state's abandoning the right-of-way to Blair Mountain road is below the jump, along with another eye-opening letter to the WV DOH commissioner

*As a Charleston Gazette reporter since 1982, Paul J. Nyden has won thirty newspaper awards including: a George Polk Award for business reporting, two first-place Society of Professional Journalists awards, and one first-place Investigative Reporters and Editors award. source

BLAIR ROAD ABANDONMENT - FR#09-1253-LG

Contact:

Paul A. Mattox, Jr., P.E.
Phone (304)558-3505
Fax (304)558-1004
E-mail dot.commissioner@wv.gov

June 17th is the last day!

OPEN LETTER from celebrated local labor historian Wess Harris:

6/13/10

Wess Harris, President
Appalachian Community Services, Inc.
229 Birtrice Road
Gay, WV   25244

Paul A. Mattox, Jr., P.E.
West Virginia Dept. of Highways
1900 Kanawha Blvd., East
Charleston, WV  25305

Dear Mr. Mattox:

Ref:  BLAIR ROAD ABANDONMENT--FR#09-1253-LG

Please do not abandon the public roadway(s) mentioned above.  This would very negatively impact my business as we give tours of historic sites in West Virginia and the growth of my business depends on access to Blair Mountain.  We bring in considerable money from out of state tourists.  They spend money in our state and will do so for decades to come.

Also, as I know you are aware, the delisting of Blair Mountain from the National Register of Historic Places took place under very strange circumstances--including dead "land owners" objecting to the listing!  Civil and perhaps criminal litigations seem probable and further clouding the water by involving your department in such matters seems a waste of tax dollars and your time.  I am certainly no lawyer but  once you are aware of the possibility of legal entanglements, do you not  have an obligation to avoid doing anything that would potentially make matters worse?

Finally, as you may also be aware, considerable planning is going into an effort to reclaim all of the Battlefield Site under eminent domain so that it can be developed in a long term, job creating fashion to benefit the people of our state and the nation. Abandonment of any currently held state property will only result in the state having to reimburse new "owners" for property that was only recently state owned!  Certainly your office would better serve the people of the state of West Virginia by protecting us from such an absurd possibility.

Let the people of our great state continue to own(at no cost to us) this access to sacred ground--at the very least until all questions outside the domain of your good office are resolved.

Sincerely,
(signature)

THIS JUST IN Courtesy of Sherry Breeden of the WV AFL-CIO:

Chris Williamson

Chris WilliamsonJune 14, 2010 at 2:05pm

Subject: Blair Mountain Needs Your Help

I have not contacted any of the group's members since we successfully got the West Virginia State Legislature to establish Labor History Week in West Virginia. Thank you again to all those that contacted legislators and helped make Labor History Week become a reality. I am sending this message to ask again for your help on an issue that is very important to preserving labor history in West Virginia.

Currently, West Virginia Transportation Secretary Paul A. Mattox Jr. is considering a request (from an undisclosed coal company) to abandon 3.9 miles of County Route 119/7-an important access road for historians and archaeologists interested in preserving Blair Mountain. There are also some concerns that if the road is abandoned it could become a site for mountaintop removal mining. This article from today's Charleston Gazette further tells the story: http://www.facebook.com/l/ef05...

For those of you unfamiliar with Blair Mountain and its historical, economical, and cultural significance, you should read this article from WV Public Radio http://www.facebook.com/l/ef05... or check out http://www.facebook.com/l/ef05...

I am writing to ask your help in contacting West Virginia Transportation Secretary Paul A. Mattox Jr. to ask him not to abandon the Blair Mountain access road. I just sent him an email and expressed to him the importance of labor history in West Virginia, and that the importance was best illustrated by the creation of Labor History Week by the State Legislature. If you have a free moment, please contact Secretary Mattox and ask him not to abandon the Blair Mountain Road. Here's his contact information:

Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox,
West Virginia Capitol Complex (Building 5),
1900 Kanawha Blvd. E.,
Charleston, WV 25305
Phone (304)558-0444
Fax (304)558-1004
E-mail dot.secretary@wv.gov

Thank you.

-Chris Williamson