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Events/Strike or conflict · 1921

Battle of Blair Mountain

Strike or conflict, late August to early September 1921, United States.

What happened

Union miners marched through the southern West Virginia coalfields. In late August 1921 they met mine guards on Blair Mountain in Logan County, and fighting began on 30 August after a dawn patrol skirmish.1,2

Why it matters

It was the largest armed labour uprising in the US.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Dudley Colliery explosion

    The regulator describes the mine as dry and dusty, with 292 workers.3,4

  2. Balmain Colliery shaft bucket accident

    The regulator uses it as a case study of shaft winding risk.5,6

  3. Stanford Merthyr fire and explosions

    The explosion was heard as far away as East and West Maitland.7,8

  4. Monongah mine explosion

    E-WV links public outrage to the creation of the US Bureau of Mines in 1910.9,10,11

  5. Coal Mines Act 1911

    It was the main British coal mine safety code of the early twentieth century.12,13

  6. Senghenydd colliery disaster

    It led to tighter mine safety enforcement in Britain.14,15,16

  7. Mineral Leasing Act

    The BLM says that since 1920 the federal government has leased fuels and certain other minerals, while locatable minerals stay under the 1872 Mining Law.17,18

  8. Mother Jones dies

    Mother Jones dies (date from Wikidata).19

Open the full timeline

Where next

People

An example ofFrank KeeneyKeeney was a strike leader in the West Virginia mine wars.20An example ofMary 'Mother' JonesMother Jones took part in the West Virginia mine wars, and died aged 100.20

Events

ExamplesLudlow MassacreLudlow killed 21 in Colorado in 1914. Blair Mountain in 1921 was the largest armed labour uprising in the US.21

Sources

  1. The Battle of Blair Mountain US National Park Service
  2. Battle of Blair Mountain (item Q3329738), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. 1898 Dudley Colliery case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  4. Dudley (item Q5311786), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  5. 1900 Balmain Colliery - Winder case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  6. Balmain (item Q2881464), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  7. 1905 Stanford Merthyr Mine case study (Learning from disasters) NSW Resources Regulator
  8. Kurri Kurri (item Q1793195), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  9. Monongah (1907) e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia (WV Humanities Council)
  10. Coal fatalities, 1900 to date US Mine Safety and Health Administration
  11. Monongah (item Q2731020), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  12. Coal Mines Act 1911 UK National Archives (legislation.gov.uk)
  13. London (item Q84), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  14. Miners' lives at 5.5p each: the Government Enquiry into the 1913 Senghenydd mine disaster Amgueddfa Cymru, Museum Wales
  15. Site dedicated to thousands of lives lost officially recognised (12 Mar 2024) Cadw (Welsh Government)
  16. Senghenydd (item Q3404686), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  17. About Mining and Minerals US Bureau of Land Management
  18. Washington, D.C. (item Q61), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  19. Wikidata item Q107082 (Mother Jones)
  20. Mary Mother Jones (article) US National Park Service
  21. War in the Coalfields: the Ludlow Massacre and its impact on the eight-hour workday US National Park Service

Pictures on this page: Frank Keeney.jpg, Unknown author (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.