Read more in Coal Tattoo

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Blair Mountain -- site of the historic 1921 coal-mining labor battle -- has been named to the National Register of Historic Places, state officials and advocates for the designation said Monday.

The designation, made by the Keeper of the National Register, includes a 10-mile stretch of Logan County ridges where thousands of miners fought federal troops as part of a United Mine Workers organizing fight. The designation covers about 1,600 acres, along a fairly narrow strip that runs northwest from near the town of Blair.

Labor historians and environmental activists have sought the designation for years, with those efforts increasing more recently as part of the fight over mountaintop removal coal mining.

"This is a major victory," said Bill Price, a Sierra Club staffer who worked on the project. "We are just thrilled at the Keeper's decision and of the recognition it gives to labor history in Southern West Virginia."

But the designation does not block mining, and according to state officials could not have been made unless land-owning companies in the area agreed to it.

"It's an honorary listing, principally, that recognizes the area's historical significance," said Susan Pierce, director of historic preservation for the state Division of Culture and History.

Details of the designation were still trickling out Monday evening, as state officials had learned of the move only a few hours earlier. Officials from the National Register, a unit of the National Park Service, did not return phone calls.

Read more in Coal Tattoo

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Blair Mountain -- site of the historic 1921 coal-mining labor battle -- has been named to the National Register of Historic Places, state officials and advocates for the designation said Monday.

The designation, made by the Keeper of the National Register, includes a 10-mile stretch of Logan County ridges where thousands of miners fought federal troops as part of a United Mine Workers organizing fight. The designation covers about 1,600 acres, along a fairly narrow strip that runs northwest from near the town of Blair.

Labor historians and environmental activists have sought the designation for years, with those efforts increasing more recently as part of the fight over mountaintop removal coal mining.

"This is a major victory," said Bill Price, a Sierra Club staffer who worked on the project. "We are just thrilled at the Keeper's decision and of the recognition it gives to labor history in Southern West Virginia."

But the designation does not block mining, and according to state officials could not have been made unless land-owning companies in the area agreed to it.

"It's an honorary listing, principally, that recognizes the area's historical significance," said Susan Pierce, director of historic preservation for the state Division of Culture and History.

Details of the designation were still trickling out Monday evening, as state officials had learned of the move only a few hours earlier. Officials from the National Register, a unit of the National Park Service, did not return phone calls.

Efforts to preserve Blair Mountain date back to the early 1990s, when UMW officials and environmentalists teamed up to fight strip-mining proposed by non-union Massey Energy. More recently, Massey and several land companies filed suit to stop the state historic preservation office's support for the national site designation.

In 1921, armed union coal miners marched from Marmet toward Logan to confront Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin, whose deputies and specialty commissioner guards were defending non-union coal mines from UMW organizers. Federal troops and airplanes eventually stopped the march. Many of the miners and their leaders were then prosecuted for treason.

The battle that developed along Spruce Fork Ridge on Blair Mountain was the largest armed labor conflict in U.S. history, a pivotal event often forgotten today.

A 1991 study had identified six critical historic sites covering about 30 acres, but preservation advocates expanded their nomination to include a much larger area.

Three years ago, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Blair Mountain as one of America's 11 most endangered historic sites.

The most recent nomination for Blair Mountain was presented by Barbara Rassmussen, a West Virginia University historian, and Harvard Ayers, an anthropologist at Appalachian State University.

Ayers discovered 10 major battle sites along the 10-mile stretch covered by the designation, including hundreds of artifacts, especially along Crooked Creek near the crest of Blair Mountain.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.