First, the bad news:

Blair Mountain coming off historic register

By The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Blair Mountain Battlefield's brief listing on the National Register of Historic Places is coming to an end. The 1,600-acre site of a bloody battle in Southern West Virginia over union organizing in 1921 will likely be removed from the list sometime next month.

West Virginia Division of Culture and History Deputy Commissioner Jacqueline Proctor said Monday that state officials received e-mails Thursday indicating that official notification of the change was being mailed to the division's director, Randall Reid-Smith. Following a published legal notice and a 30-day public comment period, the Logan County battlefield would then be designated only as eligible for listing.

Historians and environmentalists have argued that the site is as historically significant as better-known battlefields like Gettysburg. But property owners and coal industry figures say the preservation effort is an attempt to block new surface mining operations from starting in the area.

Read the rest of this news release in the WVGAZETTE for 6 July 2009

PAWV Executive Director Karen Carper has also been interviewed
recently on this development by WV Public Broadcasting

Now, the call to action.

If you want to contribute a comment on this topic to the National Register staff, write to:

Barbara Wyatt, Historian
National Register of Historic Places
National Park Service
1201 Eye St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20005

Email comments will be accepted at: barbara_wyatt@nps.gov

For the background on Blair Mountain, see the PAWV page HERE and the dedicated website HERE.