Sorry folks, but it really did take L.A. to make me realize what I've taken for granted. For example, I don't have pictures of my grandfathers in the mines. Luckilly I've found these photos from that era to explain the situation.


Despite what some people would tell you, the term "redneck" does come from the moment when the men from the Paint Creek/Cabin Creek Revolution fought back. Those brave men marched from West Virginia to Washington D.C. with red handkerchiefs tied on their necks in protest of unfair labor structures.

They returned home to fight the United States Army Reserve and Pinkerton Guards equiped with rifles and chained Grizzly Bears. After shedding blood and fighting what the sitting president called the "second civil war" the miners won their rights!


Mother Jones herself set foot in Cabin Creek, refusing to move. Regular workers became soldiers, my grandparents found themselves fighting a two-front war... the Nazis and the Pinkertonss.

My Grandfathers refused to pee in a coffee can. They refused to die in a mine shaft. They saw blood for these requests, but in the end the won!

Cabin Creek, Paint Creek, and the rest of the WORLD found worker's benefits through the efforts of these men.


The picture above is that of Arnold Miller in front of the coal storage silos at the Bethlehem lines preparation plant at Kayford.

My Uncle worked for Bethlehem, he attends the Kayfork reunion each year... my family recalls Kayford, it meant something to my Grandmother Delphia Spencer, but I just don't know those people.

The most important thing that we have is each other.

Reunite when you can, they're trying to kill this part of American History.

Let me close with a few words from Steve Earle:

I was born on this mountain a long time ago
Before they knocked down the timber and strip-mined the coal
When you rose in the mornin' before it was light
To go down in that dark hole and come back up at night

I was born on this mountain, this mountain's my home
She holds me and keeps me from worry and woe
Well, they took everything that she gave, now they're gone
But I'll die on this mountain, this mountain's my home

I was young on this mountain but now I am old
And I knew every holler, every cool swimmin' hole
‘Til one night I lay down and woke up to find
That my childhood was over and I went down in the mine

There's a hole in this mountain and it's dark and it's deep
And God only knows all the secrets it keeps
There's a chill in the air only miners can feel
There're ghosts in the tunnels that the company sealed