DRAFT Testimony before the U. S. House of Representatives William M. Drennen, Jr. West Virginia State Historic Preservation Officer Mr. Chairman, distinguished members of the Committee, my name is Bill Drennen. I am the Commissioner of Culture and History for the State of West Virginia and the State Historic Preservation Officer. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you in support of legislation and funding for the development of a National Coal Heritage Area in south western West Virginia. Something is happening in America. As we approach the 220TH year of our Independence from Great Britain, those sparks struck twenty years ago at our Bi-Centennial Celebration, have begun a fire that is being nurtured and fed by the patient citizens and their supporters in Congress who are concerned about the preservation of America's Proud Heritage. As that fire grows, more and more of our citizens come to see it, sit around the hearthside and feel the warmth of our collective past as it illuminates the ways we have come. As the speed and direction of our future whine ever more frantically along our interstates and telecommunications highways, more and more of an aging population turn to the past for solace and rebirth. We need our past, for from it we can learn and find ways to avoid costly mistakes. With time and distance the white heat of antipathy and passion cools to a mellow glow of recognition of the humanity in each of us. Each of us just doing what we can to make our way through life and to leave the world a little better than we found it. Contrary to often publicized stereotypes, there exist no prouder nor more family oriented people on earth than the natives of Southern West Virginia. They, whose fathers and grandfathers came from many varied geographic and ethnic backgrounds, worked and struggled along side of the visionary industrial entrepreneurs to overcome the incredible obstacles presented by our rugged mountain terrain. Now with the mechanization of huge mountain movers gouging out the landscape, they are left without employment and their past crumbles around them. This is not just West Virginia's shame, this is a national shame, that these men and women who fed the fires of the American Industrial Miracle, are now left without hope or appreciation. Where is the applause for these heros, where is the recognition of what they accomplished? "The West Virginia Coal Heritage Act of 1994" begins to address America's need to preserve and interpret its coal mining heritage. It is a ray of hope for the people whose labors provided so much of what we enjoy today as a world power and economic leader. And we must act wisely and act now to prevent the further loss of those historic resources that grow from those labors. But rather than tell you horror stories from the depths of the coal regions, I would rather tell you stories that show what a spirited people can do with limited resources, and assure you that an investment in their efforts will provide lasting rewards for America's future. Carl Rutherford was born and raised in the hollows of McDowell County, WV. Like so many of his neighbors, when the boom and bust cycle of coal mining became too much, Carl's family moved out. Carl, who had learned to play guitar and sing mountain ballads as a youngster, moved even further, to California, working in the daytime and playing music at night for twenty some years. Finally tired of the rip-off of big city life and insincere people, Carl moved back to McDowell County. He and his wife Frankie have become involved in finding resources to prevent their community from laying down and dying. They organized a group called "Big Creek People in Action" and have been effective in getting grants from the West Virginia Housing Development Fund to fix up the company houses, the Commission on the Arts for festivals and cultural activities in their isolated community. They have worked with a land company to get access to an abandoned Coal Company Club House, and are working with a rejuvenated Civilian Conservation Corps to rehab the building for offices, events, and artists in residence. Billy Wayne Bailey grew up in Wyoming County, West Virginia. During the early part of his life, there was always something going on at the huge company store in Itmann: pool games, barber shop conversation, movies, furniture sales, and just hanging out. When Consolidation Coal Company closed down the last of its operations in Wyoming County in 1988, the store was vacant and deteriorating. Billy Wayne bought the store, and then started figuring out how to preserve it. He tried several enterprises and in the face of community opposition, has made the store a soup kitchen and homeless shelter. Earnest Hale oversees the 10-12 clients in the shelter and begs and borrows the necessities to provide food and shelter for them. Billy Wayne believes these people can be trained to serve the tourism industry and returned to a useful life, with the proper supervision and support. The people of Itmann, at first wary, have become supporters of Mr. Bailey's efforts and use the shelter as a community volunteer center. Bramwell High School in western Mercer County is home of the Millionaires. The Bramwell Garden Club gives walking tours of the forgotten little town nestled in a horseshoe curve of the picturesque Bluestone River. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, Bramwell has preserved many of the homes of the intrepid pioneers of the Pocahontas Coal Fields that brought the Norfolk and Southern Railroad and immense wealth and population to this area from 1890 through 1930. Bramwell's preservation conscious citizens and the proximity of the Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine just over the mountain in Pocahontas Virginia, make Bramwell and ideal location for an interpretation of the lifestyles of coal miners and coal barons from the turn of the century. In 1921, 10,000 armed miners wearing red neckerchiefs marched over the mountain from Paint Creek and Cabin Creek in Kanawha County to "Free Mingo County and hang Sheriff Don Chafin from a sour apple tree." The Battle of Blair Mountain was precipitated by the Matewan Massacre on the Tug Fork River in Mingo County and the subsequent assassination of Sheriff "Smilin" Sid Hatfield on the MacDowell County Court House steps in Welch. Over a million rounds of ammunition were fired in the three day pitched battles, and the miners withdrew only when faced with the prospect of fighting against their own US Army and Air Corps. This high-water mark of United Mine Workers organizing activity is a watershed in the labor history of this country. If current mining activity continues unabated, the only remains of Blair Mountain will be a hole in the ground. What is needed? How can the United States Government assist groups like Big Creek People in Action or the Bramwell Garden Club preserve and interpret this vital part of America's Industrial heritage? By providing Federal Recognition of the Area, by strategic planning assistance to local communities, and most importantly, by providing funding for a central coordinating office in the coal fields to help pull together the resources to accomplish the necessary steps to prepare this area for tourism. Numerous Federal Programs can help: DOT, HUD, HHR, etc. But how do unsophisticated local people access these state and federal programs. This What we have done in state government is form a task force that includes representatives from the Division of Tourism and Parks, the Division of Natural Resources, The Division of Environmental Protection, the Development Office, Highways, and Culture and History. The next step is to work with the county commissioners, local business people, historic societies, and preservationists to show some real on-the-ground progress. map of the Coal Heritage Trail was a first step in getting people off the Interstate and venturing into these historic regions. For the Trail to become a truly scenic byway, we must follow up with signed interpretations to educate our visitors to what they are seeing as they drive through the back roads of southern West Virginia. We must also develop the attractions and amenities that will make their drive memorable, pleasurable, and recommendable. The West Virginia National Coal Heritage Area has been studied intensively for the last six years. The people in the region are now ready for action. They are talking with the active coal companies about museums and exhibits and visitors to their operations. They are ready to build new motels, upgrade their restaurants, and put in accessible toilets. They know they need infrastructure (and West Virginia just passed an infrastructure bond in the last session of the legislature). They know they need training. They know they have a product, they have a heritage of which they are justifiably proud. They have the resources that should be preserved as the last vestiges of a unique way of life, a memorial to the close-knit communities and family values so endangered in the onslaught of violence and degradation illuminating communications screens across the country. They are ready to help America get back to the principles and values and work ethic that made us great. They will appreciate all you can do for them, and the West Virginia National Coal Heritage Area Act of 1994 is a bold step. For them and for the state of West Virginia and for the American people, I thank you. Mr. VENTO. Thank you for your testimony, and for Congressman Rahall sitting in for me for a moment while I was attending to other business. We are pleased to welcome the next witness, Mr. C. Stuart McGehee. Mr. McGehee. STATEMENT OF C. STUART MCGEHEE Mr. McGEHEE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman. I appreciate very much this opportunity address the committee in support of this very important legislative initiative. I am a historian. I teach history at southern West Virginia. I serve on the State archives and history commission, and I run the eastern regional coal archives, the State's only archival repository dedicated to preserving and commemorating the State's coal field history. We have some 50,000 photographs, letters and diaries, coal company records, company historic account ledger books, oral history tapes, all of which help to recreate the culture of the working class coal mining region of southern West Virginia. It is long overdue that Appalachian coal heritage be recognized and commemorated for its crucial role in the creation of modern America. The arrival of steel rail and coal mine transformed southern West Virginia from America's last isolated rural frontier into a mighty industrial civilization unlike any on Earth. European immigrants fleeing religious persecution and political revolution crowded down the Norfolk & Western and Chesapeake & Ohio railroads. African-Americans fled the endemic poverty and segregation of the cotton fields and came to the bustling coal fields to find jobs and homes for their families. I might interject that Middle Easterners also came to the southern West Virginia coal fields, as Lebanese pack peddlers, and that is why Congressman Nick Rahall's family, came as part of the remarkable ethnic composition of the southern West Virginia coal fields. The industry built the first schools, roads, and hospitals in my part of Appalachia, producing an urban network and a rich working class society amidst some of the most rugged terrain in the country. Fierce disputes between coal operators and union organizers resulted in this Nation's largest domestic armed confrontation since the Civil War. Legislation arising from these infamous mine wars confirmed working Americans the right to bargain collectively with their employers, shaping the history of labor relations in these United States. Now, although the transformation of the mountains is a significant enough era of our Nation's history to warrant congressional and Department of the Interior attention, West Virginia's coal heritage has enormous national impact as well. Appalachian bituminous coal provided the abundant and economical energy which powered this Nation from a rural republic into an industrial democracy, capable of defending itself and the free world in two cataclysmic global conflicts. A century ago, Mr. Chairman, coal had two important roles which it has subsequently relinquished to other fuel sources, nota |