Courage in the Hollers: Interpreting Coal Miners’ March and Battle on Blair Mountain

FAIN: BP-290766-23

West Virginia Mine Wars Museum (Matewan, WV 25678-0764)
Mackenzie New Walker (Project Director: August 2022 to May 2023)
Mackenzie New Walker (Project Director: May 2023 to present)

Planning a multi-format interpretive tour of the 1921 Coal Mine Wars in West Virginia.

The West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, a community-based interpretive center in southern West Virginia, will plan for the multi-format project Courage in the Hollers: Interpreting Coal Miners’ March and Battle on Blair Mountain. Consulting with humanities scholars, tourism professionals, designers, descendants, and local landowners, the museum will refine the content, format, and interpretive approach of a 50-mile trail. The Museum will plan for a complementary set of publicly available resources in four distinct formats, tailored for different audiences and levels of interest: 1) interpretive installations at key sites on the march route and battlefield; 2) a website presenting a virtual Tour and Discussion Guide; 3) printed materials that can be mailed to members of the public and distributed at events showcasing history and the humanities; and 4) a digital guide in partnership with Clio, a nationally-recognized, widely-used app for history tours, developed in WV, supported by NEH.