Labor Day already gives us plenty of reasons to celebrate the national labor movement, but if you were with us this year in Matewan, Clothier, or Marmet, you know it was extra special. Thanks to those of you who were with us in body and in spirit.  Our history and stories were on proud display.

We celebrated the public launch our project Courage in the Hollers: Mapping the Miners Struggle to Form a Union in two rural communities. It’s with great pride that we can say the Miners’ Marching Route has its first (and permanent!) commemorative markers and monuments in Marmet and Clothier. While the history has been carried in the hearts and minds of people in these communities for generations, we’re proud to work with them to put the history back into the landscape. 

It was only February when we held our first community conversation to begin to figure out what and how we’d build monuments and markers that would honor the people who fought so courageously with the odds stacked against them. But really, this project has been years in the making.  

The public launch of Courage in the Hollers officially takes us beyond our four walls in Matewan and into new places, with people and communities who are proudly embracing and sharing this history.