Coal in Appalachia

Coal has changed many facets of Appalachia. To some, coal defines Appalachia although not all parts of the region have coal. The history of coal is a divisive issue. One side might say the entire economy of many Appalachian counties relies on coal, while others see coal as the worst possible thing that could have happened to the region. Whatever the feelings on coal, this mineral did lead to the industrialization of Appalachia and a changing culture.

The first event of the history of coal in Appalachia was what Appalachian scholar Ronald D. Eller calls “the selling of the mountains.” Land in the region was being surveyed as early as the middle of the 18^th century. A good portion of land in the region was given to Revolutionary War veterans. It was after the Civil War, however, that the land came to be praised as a wealth of natural resources for a growing industrial nation. Generals of the Civil War that served in the region often came back as land prospectors and began acquiring land for themselves or outside interests. The “selling of the mountains” generally happened in two ways. Large landholders, often controlling huge land grants dating back to the Revolution, would sell or buy up large tracts of mountain land. The second way of acquiring land from unsuspecting rural farmers was the broad-form deed. The broad-form deed was a way of selling mineral rights while maintaining surface rights to a piece of land. For example, George L. Carter, son of a Confederate captain acquired, among other holdings, 300,000 acres of coal lands in Southwest Virginia (Eller). However, mineral rights superseded surface rights thus making the farmer a sort of temporary resident of his own land. If these practices of acquiring land failed, illegal methods such as fraudulent deeds were sometimes resorted to. In these ways, much of the farm and grazing land of small rural farmers became consolidated under the ownership of a few outside corporations who would use the land for resources or lease it out for others to use.

Early in Appalachia’s coal history, most mining was done in the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania. While areas like the Cumberland’s and western Appalachia were still too remote to be of any practical use, coal was flowing from these fields. Mining in these fields in the 19^th century was done by deep-mining methods: shaft and slope mining. Waterways and closer proximity to major cities allowed for easier shipping of coal from these fields. Jeffersonian ideals of agrarian culture quickly gave way to a Hamiltonian system of growth and industry.

As industry grew in the United States, a larger and steady supply of fuel was needed. Industrialists began looking westward to the great forests and bituminous coal seams of mountains like the Cumberland’s. Railroads and companies began building great networks of railways to punch through to the rural areas of South and Central Appalachia. During this time, wood was still the primary fuel source of many industries. Great swaths of land were clear cut for their timber. With larger energy requirements and new technology, coal quickly surpassed lumber as the fuel of choice for industry. Timberlands were bought up or leased to coal companies and during the late 19^th century the coal boom began in the hills of central Appalachia.

A brief history, given above, is important to understanding industries long lasting and continual impact on Appalachia. Lumber came first. Then, and still, is “King Coal.” Extraction of these resources, specifically coal, would greatly alter the culture, environment and lives of people in Appalachia. Coal’s history, especially the social history of coal and coal mining, is convoluted and ever evolving. It has different sides, different viewpoints and different truths depending on who you talk to and where you talk to them at. However, no one can disagree that the coming of extractive industries greatly changed life in the mountains of Appalachia.

Culture in Appalachia was primarily a mixture of the folk cultures brought with the first immigrants of Scotch-Irish, German and English descent. Clothes were traditionally homemade, as were toys. Quilting was an important job for women in the mountains and valleys and styles changed throughout Appalachia depending on the primary ethnicity of the original settlers. Holidays such as Old Christmas were still celebrated. Ballads of English descent were preserved, such as “Barbry Allen.” Schools were usually taught by kin if the children went to school at all. The economy was also typically of folk origins.

What came to be the coal fields of Appalachia was originally subsistence farm land. Rural farmers carved out farms in the hillsides and mountains of Appalachia since the earlier migration from the east coast. Coves and hollows were remote with little contact with the outside world. People mainly lived with their immediate family and rarely, but sometimes gathered for events like church, corn-shucking, and house/barn building. Before the lumber and coal camps, farmers might participate in selective cutting of trees during slow times on the farm, but usually the economy of the mountains was comprised of subsistence farming and bartering. Children helped on the farm, but also had time for playing. Woodlands were used for free range grazing.

In preparation for the coming of the coal towns, the lumber industry gained control of most of this free ranging woodland and clear cut it. Farmers were not without a major factor in their subsistence lifestyle. The lack of abundant livestock due to loss of grazing areas would have to be made up elsewhere. Men started more and more to look for seasonal work in the lumber camps and work on building the new railroads that would transport the raw materials to outside areas.

Lumber camps and work on the railroad was often temporary, but a taste of what the mountaineer would have to get used to when permanent residency in coal towns became his only option. At first, these were temporary, usually all male, residences. However, living in common was an entirely new experience for the farmer used to live a mile from his closest neighbor. However, during the growing season, men still usually farmed as their main source of living. All of that would change when the railroads were completed and the lumber camps became coal towns and the lumber business became coal mining.

By the time the railroads and coal barons came, most mountain land was in the hands of outsiders leaving the mountaineers as a supply of labor in the new coal towns. Coal towns were built on company land. Some were nicer than others. Usually there were houses for families and boarding houses for single men. At the beginning of the coal era when mostly single men worked the mines, fights, drinking and gambling were prevalent in the coal towns. Bosses wanted a steadier supply of labor and started recruiting family men. Demand was high for coal in the beginning of the late 19^th century and miners might move from town to town in search of better jobs or conditions. However, anywhere the coal miner went, towns were generally cramped and the mining dangerous.

Mountain people were use to isolation and moving to crowded coal towns were a dramatic change in a short period of time. Many felt isolated and alienated with the new lifestyle, but made of it what they could since other choices for occupation were few and far between. Prepackaged goods were now bought at the company store with cash or scrip. Children began working in the mines early on with their fathers and would grow up to be miners too. In a generation, knowledge of traditional subsistence farming and some elements of folk culture were lost.

Since the company owned the land for miles around, the company was about the only place residents had to get goods and jobs. Outside businesses were generally not allowed on company land and thus the company maintained a monopoly on jobs, goods and services. This practice would have dire consequences on mountain counties and economic diversification to the present day.

The coal boom of the late 19^th century required coal companies to recruit outside labor as demand was higher than the output that could be achieved by relying solely on local labor. Companies recruited foreign workers which included many Italians and Eastern Europeans. For example, there were 7,600 miners in West Virginia alone at the end of 1910 (Eller). They also recruited labor from the unhappy black sharecroppers of the Deep South. Coal towns were usually segregated like other towns in the South. There were usually districts for whites, blacks and immigrants. Many times coal companies played races off of one another to prevent worker solidarity and unionization. Unionization was always a big scare because non-union workers allowed the company more flexibility to cut wages and undercut the competition from the North where most fields were unionized. Although most coal towns were highly diversified, many immigrants left with the onset of WWI to fight in their home countries. Whites and blacks mainly worked the coal fields after the start of the war.

Recreation and free time greatly changed when the mountaineers moved into coal towns. Before, recreation might include hunting, church, visiting and handmade toys. With the cramped confines of company life came different recreational pursuits. Drinking was always a huge past-time and problem in coal towns. Visiting became easier and even more important, men at the company store and women at the houses. Coal companies instituted baseball as a way to pacify workers and bring communities together. Some companies even built movie houses, soda shops and YMCA’s where the miner could relax and the company could get back more of its money.

Miners became more used to living in crowded towns and began to band together. Many groups were formed to help miners and their families that were in need such as: burial groups, disability and other forms of social services that would later be taken over by the UMWA. Values like helping each other during certain farming events evolved into social benefit groups as the miners moved from farms to coal towns.

Mining has always been a business of boom and bust cycles. With the onset of WWI came a huge boom in the coal business to meet wartime production. But as demand fell away with the end of the way and an oversupply of coal began accruing, the Depression hit the coal fields long before the rest of the world. Coal miners began being laid off and there was little or no work for others. The fight for unionization was about to turn the black coal fields red. It would be WWII before another rise in the coal industry would be seen and the intervening years would be filled with trials and troubles for the miners.

Mining started in Britain, came to America in the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania and eventually moved westward into the central and west Appalachians. First came the lumber camps, but it would be the railroads and coal mines that would come to dominate the economy of Appalachia. Rural subsistence farmers were forced off of their land and into the mines. The demographics of Appalachia changed with the influx of blacks and foreigners to work the mines. With the coming of the coal mines, culture would also change. Farmers would go from rural isolation to crowded and dusty coal towns. Many would remain, and still do, in the coalfields of Appalachia.

Works Cited

Eller, Ronald D. Miners, Millhands and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880-1930. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1982.

Coal Post 1920s

Coal in Appalachia is a broad topic. It covers varied topics including history, ecology, law, folklore, engineering and social studies among others. These topics cover a wide range of time, starting with industrialization in Appalachia in the mid 19^th century to today and on towards the future. In this paper I will give a brief overview of the history of coal in Appalachia until 1920 and then will focus in more detail on the time span to the present day. When writing about the post 1920’s era of coal in Appalachia, I will include discussions on unionization, mechanization, boom and bust periods, and strip mining with all of its various forms and accompanying laws.

This history of coal in Appalachia begins with industrialization in America. During the Civil War and a few years prior, many people noticed the vast richness of mineral wealth contained in the Appalachian Mountains. Coal was first mined in the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania where it was easier to ship it to industries in the east. As land speculators began buying up and leasing more land in the western Appalachians, railroads began building tracks into these areas to ship lumber, coal, coke and iron ore to the east. Sometimes corporations used illegal and shady methods to acquire land, but one of the main ways in which they acquired minerals was the infamous broad-form deed. The broad-form deed separated mineral and surface rights and gave mineral rights precedence over those of the surface. Many times mineral rights were acquired for as little as $.25 to $.50 an acre. These broad-form deeds would have long lasting consequences on the future generations of Appalachians.

Before the coming of industry to Appalachia, the area was very remote; people were isolated and most were subsistence farmers. When the lumber industry came to Appalachia in the late 19^th century, some men worked in the camps seasonally and had their first experience with town and camp life. Yet it was the coming of the coal industry a few years later that changed their entire way of life. Many people were forced off of their land or could not make a living on farming alone. For many, coal mining was the only option left. People were herded into to coal towns. It was a quick and drastic change of life. Many aspects of mountain culture were lost or changed, but over time the people adapted.

However, life in a coal town was not easy. Conditions were often poor. Coal dust lay coated on everything and outhouses emptied into drinking water causing severed health problems. Men worked long hours in very hazardous conditions, as well as their children. Coal companies usually did not seem to have much regard for their workers. Sometimes men were paid only in scrip which could only be used at the company store. The company store was usually overpriced, but since the companies owned the land for miles around, competition was often scarce and usually not tolerated. The economy was weak and mining coal was the only option in most areas. With the onset of WWI, the coal industry witnessed a big boom. But after the war, the Depression hit the coal fields early. There would be no work for weeks sometimes. Although unionization had been tried for in some areas, there was a major push for it in the early 20^th century around the coalfields of Appalachia. Companies had always been opposed to unions as a way to keep labor costs low and profits high. Non-union labor allowed companies to undercut prices of unionized coalfields to the north. The right to unionize would set the companies and miners at war with one another in many areas throughout Appalachia.

The drive for unionization in the coal fields began in the early 20^th century, but would last throughout the century. The main union was the UMWA, headed by John L. Lewis and the first big battle for unionization in Appalachia was held in the tiny town of Matewan in West Virginia. The men went on strike and were evicted, along with their families, from their houses. They lived in tents and ate meager food supplied by the UMWA. Coal companies tried to get strike-breakers, also known as scabs, to work in the mines while the strike was on. Companies also brought in private guards and gun thugs from the Baldwin-Felts agency. Sometimes they shot at the miners; sometimes the miners shot back. The strike lasted for a year and culminated in the Battle of Matewan. Many people were killed in the Matewan Massacre and the fight for unionization failed. The same thing happened a year later in West Virginia and culminated in the battle of Blair Mountain, the first time that the US government fought its own people. Miners were bombed by planes and that strike failed too. This same process occurred all throughout the Appalachian coalfields until miners were granted the right to unionize by the government in the 1930s under President Roosevelt’s New Deal program. Still, the struggle to unionize continued throughout the century. In the early 1970s, miners went on strike in Brookside, KY. It would take the death of a miner by gun thugs to ratify their contract also.

The union had its own problems too. John L. Lewis supported mechanization in the mines, which replaced the jobs of thousands of miners. Most mines were fully mechanized by the 1950s. Mechanization caused the loss of jobs and unionized miners as well as corruption within the ruling ranks of the UMWA. Tony Boyle took over leadership of the UMWA from Lewis in the 1960s. Corruption was prevalent throughout the union at this time which hurt miners and the union’s efforts. Boyle’s rule culminated in the assassination of rival Jock Yablonski. Boyle was indicted for murder and rank and file miner Arthur Miller took over the presidency of the UMWA. Miller would face new challenges with the growing industry of strip mining.

Strip mining started in the first half of the 20^th century, but really gained momentum in the later years of the century. Strip mining consists of using machines to remove coal from the surface as opposed to going underground and mining. Strip mining consists of various types including area, contour, auger and the more recent mountaintop removal methods. Strip mining was cheaper and safer than underground mining methods. However, most strip miners were not unionized and UMWA efforts to support and unionize strip miners alienated many underground miners who were losing jobs to strippers. Miner’s membership in the UMWA would steadily fall to the present day.

The advent of strip mining brought greater attention to mining in Appalachia because it was more visible and effected many people besides miners. Farmers were among the first people to protest strip mining, followed by underground miners, sportsmen, landowners and environmentalists. The broad-form deed again became a major focus of attention as people were forced off their land or had their land destroyed due to sometimes 100 year old broad-form deeds. Arguments against this injustice included that the sellers of mineral rights had no knowledge of strip mining since it was a recent invention. Usually though, broad-form deeds were upheld as legal, in many places until the 1980s.

Strip mining also had more serious and noticeable impacts on land and health than did underground mining. As mentioned above, various different groups formed grassroots organizations and protested strip mining at a state level. States were the first to implement laws trying to control the industry. Ohio and Pennsylvania were the first states to enact laws to curtail some of the environmental damages of strip mining during the 1940s. Other states followed, but these laws were generally weak and not well enforced. Grassroots groups formed coalitions such as Save Our Kentucky and Save Our Cumberland Mountains. Some people began standing up to companies like Dave Gibson and Ollie Combs. Others dynamited machinery or shot at miners. Groups, realizing that state laws were not working, decided to push for a federal abolition or federal controls.

Many abolition bills stayed stuck in committees in the House of Representatives and Congress. Senator Ken Hechler from West Virginia proposed bills year after year that never passed. After years of fighting for abolition of strip mining, many groups gave up and supported some sort of federal controls. This finally resulted in the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) signed into law by President Jimmy Carter. Even Carter called the bill weak.

SMCRA set up offices under the title of OSM (Office of Surface Mining). OSM was under the Department of the Interior and OSM leaders were nominated by the president. However, the office is directly dependent on its stance from the president, not the EPA like many groups wanted, since he nominates the head of OSM. Many decisions still reside with states. Coal lobbyists spend millions of dollars a year in both state and federal elections. Also controlling strip mining is the Clean Water Act, which was recently reduced by President George W. Bush to allow dumping of overburden into streams. Overburden is the land taken off an area to get to the coal underneath. Along with weakening and already weak bill, SMCRA does not provide adequate funds for enforcement of the law.

Reclamation was and is a primary concern of opponents to strip mining. Reclaiming land is supposed be returning land to its approximate original contour (AOC) after mining is completed. However, this has never been defined or strictly enforced. Arguments against strip mining consist of unstable valley fields, polluted water and mudslides onto private property from supposed reclaimed land. Bonds are required before mining begins and not released until reclamation is done by the mining company. Many times companies forfeit the bond because it is a negligible amount or obtain permits to circumvent laws through developing land for further economic use. Again, this is not well defined, policed or accurate.

Around the late 1970s and early 80s to the present day, a new radical form of surface mining has grown popular. This form of mining is known as mountaintop removal (MTR). Again, grassroots organizations have come to the forefront to fight against this devastating form of mining. Mountaintop removal consists of removing the top 500-1000 feet of elevation from a mountain, dumping this “overburden” into valleys and extracting thin seams of coal. This type of mining has caused dramatic and harmful changes to ecosystems, watersheds, wildlife, people and culture. Lax enforcement of SMCRA and changes to the Clean Water Act has further exacerbated the problem. Fighting against MTR continues and has gained strength to this day. Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN) have sponsored a bill entitled the Appalachian Restoration Act which would effectively eliminate mountaintop removal. It is now in committee.

Coal is an ever changing industry. From its roots in seasonal work by farmers, industrialization and coal towns, it has changed to strip mining and altering natural structures such as the Appalachian Mountains itself. Once employing hundreds of thousands or workers, new mining methods now produce more tonnage through fewer jobs, now numbering only in the tens of thousands. Unionization is now no longer the force it used to be and the UMWA has lots thousands of members and shut down many of their miner hospitals. Laws have been enacted affecting the safety and working conditions of deep mines and attempts have been made, although many are weak, to regulate surface mining. Grassroots organizations worked for stronger laws in the 60s and 70s and still do today. The history of coal in Appalachia is always in motion.