Goldenseal Book of the West Virginia Mine Wars
Goldenseal Book of the West Virginia Mine Wars
Edited by Ken Sullivan
Paperback, 108 pages
July, 2020
Quarrier Press
Goldenseal magazine published some of the best articles ever written about the tragedy of the West Virginia Mine Wars. This book is a compilation of 19 of those articles, published from 1977 to 1991, traveling from the governor's office in Charleston to the bloodstained steps of the McDowell County Courthouse. Well illustrated with historic photographs.
Authors Lon Savage, Lois McLean, Topper Sherwood and others write of the larger-than-life figures - Sid Hatfield, Mother Jones, Bill Blizzard, C.E. Lively, Don Chafin and more - who populated this colorful era. Their stories take us from the governor's office in Charleston to the barricades and machine gun nests of Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, the bullet-riddled tents of Holly Grove and Lick Creek, and the bloody steps of the McDowell County courthouse. Eyewitnesses from both sides recall the days when gunfire echoed along the New River and Tug Fork and when men fell dead by the railroad tracks at Matewan.