A Coal Mining Heritage Study: Southern West Virginia (DRAFT)

National Park Service, Mid-Atlantic Regional Office

In response to residents' concerns, Congressman Nick Joe Rahall, II, of West Virginia introduced authorizing legislation of the "Omnibus Public Lands and National Forests Adjustments Act of 1988" (Public Law 100-699)] directing the National Park Service to conduct a study of resources in southern West Virginia. This study directs the National Park Service to ... determine the feasibility of protecting and preserving certain significant cultural, historic, and natural resources associated with the coal mining heritage of southern West Virginia. The legislation also directs the National Park Service to identify: • specific sites associated with coal mining heritage; • the historic and cultural values of such sites; • the relationship of such sites to the natural, scenic, recreational, cultural and historic resources in the region; and • a vehicular tour route along existing public roads linking such sites and other resources managed by state or federal agencies. While the term evokes images from earlier times, the concept of "heritage" also suggests a changing present, challenging citizens to create a vision for the future. Thus, the study process offered opportunities to explore fundamental factors which contribute to social well-being. A broad spectrum of citizens in the study area, state officials, and National Park Service planners have identified many potential relationships among land, history, culture, and existing community development needs, activities and opportunities. In a regional context, local actions are central to the conservation of heritage, since it is within various community groups that local knowledge is passed from generation to generation and that concrete steps are taken to forge new directions. Except for isolated instances, very little information had been collected on historic sites in the area prior to this study-especially in the core coal mining region--and site preservation has not been integrated with knowledge about the culture. Assisted by knowledgeable and enthusiastic residents, the National Park Service study team conducted meetings to note related resources--special places, events and traditions--and to identify issues affecting heritage conservation and interpretation. The team spoke with over two hundred people; distributed newsletters; visited numerous communities, historic sites, and recreation areas; and made many presentations about the study to staff of agencies and organizations in the eleven-county study area. To identify specific sites and their potential significance, the National Park Service contracted with the West Virginia Division of Culture and History to: survey five counties where coal was mined and about which information was most lacking (Boone, Mingo, McDowell, Logan, and Wyoming); assess levels of significance for historic sites; and develop a treatment of the area's coal mining history. A large and varied number of agencies and organizations played a part in this study (see Appendix B); they include historians, teachers, tourism promoters, historic preservation groups, elected and agency officials, community and economic development professionals, business leaders, and representatives of many civic organizations. The community based heritage conservation concept detailed later in this document represents the needs and ideas of this broad crosssection of citizens with whom the study team worked.