It is a testament to the human spirit, that even under the most wretched of conditons, we will lift our voices in song
Quote"In 1701, coal was found by Huguenot settlers on the James River in what is now Richmond, Virginia. By 1736, several "coal mines" were shown on a map of the upper Potomac River near what is now the border of Maryland and West Virginia. In 1748, the first commercial coal production began from mines around Richmond, Virginia."
http://www.netl.doe.gov/keyissues/historyofcoaluse.html (http://www.netl.doe.gov/keyissues/historyofcoaluse.html)
This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in coal mining history
We began to mine underground, in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. It was a miserable, dangerous way to make a living. The mining itself is hazardous, and the rewards few. With the mines owning all of the businesses in town and all of the housing, it was capitalist slavery at it's finest. Taking advantage of the poorest and least educated, the mine owners ground out the fuel for the industrial revolution. The cost being paid by the environment and the workers themselves.
A miner could expect extreme hard labor and likely an early grave from death in the mine due to unsafe conditions or because of the physical costs of back breaking work.
Quote"The political power of coal and its masters is both a blessing and a curse. Both England (the first nation to utilize coal as its primary energy source) and the United States rose to world dominance on the back of a coal-powered economy. King Coal, as it has been known at times in its history, was the provider of blessed industrial might to the many, and industrial woe to those who had to remove it from the ground for a living. However, contemporary environmental concerns have lent King Coal a new mantle: chief polluter and environmental bogeyman."
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2004/4/04.04.01.x.html (http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/2004/4/04.04.01.x.html)
This site gives an over view of coal and emphasizes the environment.
Quote"The feudal system (coal companies being the "Barons of the Manor" and coal miners being the serfs) made it possible for the miner to live in housing consisting of rough lumber with no indoor plumbing and to do his necessary shopping at the company store where he might purchase on credit. He was paid in a "play money" called "scrip" which was exchangeable only at the company store. He was required to furnish his own tools and blasting powder, which he purchased at the company store.
If he were married, the needs of a growing family usually outstripped his ability to provide for them on the wages he earned, thus most of them were perpetually in debt to the company store."
http://pages.swcp.com/~dhickman/wvcmf/wvcmf.html (http://pages.swcp.com/~dhickman/wvcmf/wvcmf.html)
I am not going to post videos, rather I will post links to save space and copyright issues. The music of the mines addressed all of the issues the miners and their families faced.
Environmental. "Black Water" - Jim Ringer . It is #16 on this page. It is not the Doobie Brother's song, which has the same title. The player is there in the center, it should be set to play this song.
http://www.musicofcoal.com/music.htm (http://www.musicofcoal.com/music.htm)
The mines themselves. "Dark As A Dugeon" - Merle Travis.
http://www.last.fm/music/Merle+Travis/_/Dark+as+a+dungeon (http://www.last.fm/music/Merle+Travis/_/Dark+as+a+dungeon)
I used this link because some on here say they cannot get youtube. There is a video, and also you can just listen on other links provided.
The system of company towns. "16 tons" - George Davis is generally credited with writing this song.
http://prostopleer.com/tracks/51285889qXo (http://prostopleer.com/tracks/51285889qXo)
Hazards of Explosions. "Explosion At Derby Mine" - Charlie Maggard Again on the same site as the first. Just scroll down, the player is alphabetical, then click on the title to play the song.
http://www.musicofcoal.com/music.htm (http://www.musicofcoal.com/music.htm)
I went to the trouble, and I am asking you all to go to the trouble, to hear these songs by the writer and in the original. Thank you for you patience.
The exploitation of humans and the environment for the purpose of progress as a society and wealth for a few is our past and still our present. Unless we experience the cost of such choices, we may continue to repeat them
Thank You for all the effort. I will, indeed be checking these out.
I may point out (again, for many) that money is just an accounting of meaningful energy expended in an energy-scarce society. If We had access to abundant free energy and robots to do all the necessary work no One WANTS to do, Humanity would be freed from wage/debt slavery, and the abundance of the planet would flow to ALL of Us, eliminating poverty, hunger, oppression, privilege, and war (to name a few of the problems that would be solved).
For more, see: http://bit.ly/I5TriH
Coal to replace Nuclear Plants
If hu-mons were smart...:P
They would increase coal use to boil water for electricity instead of nuclear fuel. It is a simple solution to put a SCRUBBER on the chimney to remove the harmful sulfur etc. In fact it pays for itself as the pure sulfur has a market
This HAS been done in Sudbury Canada where the environment is now once again green where before there was nothing growing within 50 miles of the smelters
As I sadi IF Hu-mons were smart
Unfortunately for us only a handful are smart..
In fact most are so dumb they cannot even put out the coal fires that are burning underground, eating up valuable resources and that smoke pouring unchecked into the environment
Now, z. You know it's not about smarts. It's about MONEY! And resistance by Those MAKING money in nuclear power. And plans to kill Us all eventually, no doubt.
Centralia, Pa., coal fire is one of hundreds that burn in the U.S.
The underground coal fire that has slowly consumed Centralia, Pa., isn't unusual. Many such fires burn around the world.
By Mark Clayton, Staff writer / February 5, 2010 (http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/2010/0205/20510-centralia-pa-coal-fires.jpg/7355948-1-eng-US/20510-centralia-pa-coal-fires.jpg_full_380.jpg)
Retired Centralia Postmaster Tom Dempsey was photographed in mid-January with in an empty Centralia, Pa., as steam rises from the ground behind him. The steam is caused by a fire that burns underground. After years of delay, state officials are trying to finish their demolition work in Centralia. Carolyn Kaster/APQuoteThe fire burning deep below Centralia, Pa., is just one of numerous coal fires burning in at least 20 states today, with thousands more worldwide. They gobble up resources, spew dangerous emissions, and scar the land. Yet little is known about their impact on climate change or human health due to carbon dioxide and mercury emissions, say experts.
Approximately 200 underground coal fires burn in about 20 states, according to Glenn Stracher, a researcher at East Georgia College in Swainsboro, Ga., A separate tally shows 112 fire sites in 21 states, according to Office of Surface Mining data analyzed by Dr. Stracher and fellow researcher Ann Kim.
Centralia, Pa., coal fire is one of hundreds that burn in the U.S. (http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0205/Centralia-Pa.-coal-fire-is-one-of-hundreds-that-burn-in-the-U.S)
Pollution from Underground Coal Fires TalliedThousands of underground coal fires are burning out of control, oozing greenhouse gases through cracks in the ground.By Michael Reilly Wed Nov 4, 2009(http://news.discovery.com/earth/2009/11/04/coal-fires-278x225.jpg)
QuoteRight now, thousands of coal fires are burning out of control around the world. The fires are heaving untold amounts of mercury, the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) and other pollutants into the air.
The fires are notoriously hard to monitor; they tend to start at the surface but quickly scurry underground, only to ooze gases through soil and cracks in the ground. But an ambitious new study is now taking the first steps toward tallying their contribution to air pollution around the world.
Pollution from Underground Coal Fires Tallied (http://news.discovery.com/earth/coal-fire-pollution-global.html)(http://technology.infomine.com/enviromine/case_hist/coal%20fires/figure1.jpg)
(http://www.earthmagazine.org/sites/earthmagazine.org/files/1324689413/i-3fd-7da-9-1.jpg)
Coal fires cause pollution and ground subsidence at the world's largest coal-fire complex near Jharia, India. Credit: Anupma Prakesh (http://www.earthmagazine.org/sites/earthmagazine.org/files/1324689413/i-3fe-7da-9-1.jpg)
Only a few homes remain in Centralia, Pa., where an underground coal fire has been burning since 1962.Credit: Janet L. Stracher
Quote from: Amaterasu on June 21, 2012, 08:57:31 PM
Now, z. You know it's not about smarts. It's about MONEY! And resistance by Those MAKING money in nuclear power. And plans to kill Us all eventually, no doubt.
So that means no one is interested in other stories than money? Of course its about money but if they planned to kill us all then they wouldn'y have us as salves to make money, now would they? Population is ever increasing, despite all the wars, Fukushima's earthquakes and tsunamis. I don't see anyone getting wiped out :P
Quote from: zorgon on June 21, 2012, 08:49:10 PM
Coal to replace Nuclear Plants
QuoteThey would increase coal use to boil water for electricity instead of nuclear fuel. It is a simple solution to put a SCRUBBER on the chimney to remove the harmful sulfur etc. In fact it pays for itself as the pure sulfur has a market
I dispise nuclear power and yes coal can be cleaned up, conditions of the mines have improved, but that could use some work as well.
Natural gas is a viable option, but not if it is obtained by fracking. imho
Quote from: zorgon on June 21, 2012, 09:00:54 PM
So that means no one is interested in other stories than money? Of course its about money but if they planned to kill us all then they wouldn'y have us as salves to make money, now would they? Population is ever increasing, despite all the wars, Fukushima's earthquakes and tsunamis. I don't see anyone getting wiped out :P
Never said stories having nothing to do with money are of no interest. Just pointing out that it's not about how stupid We are. And as for the killing... They are slowly making this planet uninhabitable with nuclear radiation, chemtrails, GMO, tainted water supplies, and so on. They don't need so many slaves, now that robotics is coming into its own. And eventually, They will try to eliminate the "useless eaters."
Just sayin'.
FREE ENERGY
For those of you smart people out there that have installed a WOOD BURNING STOVE to help reduce heating bills...
I have a source of free energy other than the wood :P
In Price Utah there are coal seams to small for the mines to mine them and they are exposed at the side of the road. In fact as the coal weathers out of the cliffs there are piles of FREE COAL lying all over the place.
I have made several trips there for specimens as there are fantastic fossil plants in that coal as some of it did not quite convert all the bog to coal
This coal bed is from Prehistory Peat Bogs and thus has lots of plants clearly visible
You can toss a few pieces into your wood stove (not TOO much or it will get jut enough to melt the stove)
Its also great for my period sword making forge :D
(http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/geology/CastlegateSeamA.jpg)
On the Road to Price, Utah No. 3 - Blackhawk Coal Seam at Castle Gate, Utah
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iUK6jmy8YyA/TnwMqfF53lI/AAAAAAAAEKI/tPHkJcnbC3g/s1600/1%2BAlaskan%2Bcoal%2Boutcrop.jpg)
(http://www.claymore-armoury.co.uk/images/swordsmith.jpg)
Coal outcrop Alaska (DNR)
Quote from: Amaterasu on June 21, 2012, 09:10:26 PM
Just pointing out that it's not about how stupid We are.
Oh but it IS because the smart ones learn that you can make MORE money by using environmentally friendly methods to mine and create energy
Piles of sulfur reclaimed from scrubbers...
(http://kencooper.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Sulfur_Pile.jpg)
QuoteThere are some ways in which the sulphur can be used: fertilizer, batteries, detergents, bleach, matches, gunpowder fireworks, laxatives, road paving asphalt, industrial acid, bath soap and shampoo. The cost for sulphur is about $50-$70 per tonne.
Alberta Oil Sand alone produces so much they hardly know what to do with it :D so that saves mining it and this stuff is already pure. Some are actually putting it in to old mines to store for the future
So yes SMART Hu-mons CAN make a difference while still making money
But if They're invested in nuclear... Also, as the scrubbers and such add more and more sulfur, the price will plummet and little money can be made. Just sayin'.
Coal Miner's Hands
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/Vault/Coal_001.png)
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/Vault/Coal_002.png)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv2uA5QEbNw
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/Vault/Coal_004.png)
(http://www.thelivingmoon.com/Vault/Coal_005.png)
Quote from: Amaterasu on June 21, 2012, 09:34:13 PM
But if They're invested in nuclear... Also, as the scrubbers and such add more and more sulfur, the price will plummet and little money can be made. Just sayin'.
Interim solutions are BETTER THAN NOTHING
Here it is in SONG from those Coal Miners... Very appropriate for this threadLOL :P
Taylor Made "West Virginia Underground" QuoteTaylor Made's single "West Virginia Underground"
Taylor Made performed at the free concert and Labor Day rally in Logan County to support American jobs.
Called the "Friends of America" rally, guests included nationally-syndicated radio host and Fox television host Sean Hannity and country star Hank Williams Jr., John Rich, Ted Nugent will emceed the event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g24tpXtJ540
For those without youtube... here are the lyrics :D
LyricsChorus
I don't remember askin' you to pat my back,
but damn, don't you ride it so hard.
You talk about new ways and better plans,
but you ain't showed me nothin' so far.
Until you got a solution, keep your damn mouth shut,
you're just another problem we found.
We put our heart and soul into diggin' coal,
we're the West Virginia Underground.
I work my shift at the bottom of a hole,
makin' sure that your lights come on.
And your interview, ain't by candlelight,
while you're bitchin' what I'm doins wrong
This ain't Hollywood, this is West by God,
its' Virginia and Kentucky coalfields.
It's a way of life that beats the kids of life,
and that's the only thing that matters down here.
Chorus
I don't remember askin' you to pat my back,
but damn, don't you ride it so hard.
You talk about new ways and better plans,
but you ain't showed me nothin' so far.
Until you got a solution, keep your damn mouth shut,
you're just another problem we found.
We put our heart and soul into diggin' coal,
we're the West Virginia Underground.
Whether up from the bottom, or down from the top,
that coal's comin' out of the ground.
And I'd rather restructure a mountain top,
than have another Chernobyl in my town.
This is coal minin' country, that's what we do,
And we don't like you nosin' around.
For years we've had your kind tryin' to undermine
the West Virginia Underground.
Chorus
I don't remember askin' you to pat my back,
but damn, don't you ride it so hard.
You talk about new ways and better plans,
but you ain't showed me nothin' so far.
Until you got a solution, keep your damn mouth shut,
you're just another problem we found.
We put our heart and soul into diggin' coal,
we're the West Virginia Underground.
Repeat Chorus
Until you're payin' my bills, get your ass off my hills,
we're the West Virginia Underground.
Fair enough, z. Still, the tech is there, hidden and suppressed, to make coal, gas, oil, and even solar, wind and other "green" energy unnecessary while eliminating the NEED for money.
Rather out it than to find more stop-gap measures.
Zorgon
QuoteThere are some ways in which the sulphur can be used: fertilizer, batteries, detergents, bleach, matches, gunpowder fireworks, laxatives, road paving asphalt, industrial acid, bath soap and shampoo. The cost for sulphur is about $50-$70 per tonne.
You forgot to mention antibiotics. Sulphur, if you are not allergic, is an excellent topical and internal antimicrobial. :)
Covered in Coal by Blackwater Outlaws
"Great with some pics of friends, and proud coal miners."
A lot of angry comments from miners. I would post a few but they don't talk 'polite' :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmSQZMuLdzo
Quote from: Iamschist on June 21, 2012, 10:02:50 PM
You forgot to mention antibiotics. Sulphur, if you are not allergic, is an excellent topical and internal antimicrobial. :)
Yeah but that was just a quick quote to make a point. I will add that info to the Mineral thread that I really need to get back to. So far I have only one covered :(
there was and is honor in the hard working miners
you want to see awfull make you cry stuff
check out the pictures at this link
they call it mountain top mining..
QuoteBelow the densely forested slopes of the Appalachian Mountains in southern West Virginia is a layer cake of thin coal seams. To uncover this coal profitably, mining companies engineer large—sometimes very large—surface mines. This time-series of images of a surface mine in Boone County, West Virginia, illustrates why this controversial mining method is also called "mountaintop removal."
Based on data from NASA's Landsat 5 satellite, these natural-color (photo-like) images document the growth of the Hobet mine as it moves from ridge to ridge between 1984 to 2010. The natural landscape of the area is dark green forested mountains, creased by streams and indented by hollows. The active mining areas appear off-white, while areas being reclaimed with vegetation appear light green. A pipeline roughly bisects the images from north to south. The town of Madison, lower right, lies along the banks of the Coal River.
In 1984, the mining operation is limited to a relatively small area west of the Coal River. The mine first expands along mountaintops to the southwest, tracing an oak-leaf-shaped outline around the hollows of Big Horse Creek and continuing in an unbroken line across the ridges to the southwest. Between 1991 and 1992, the mine moves north, and the impact of one of the most controversial aspects of mountaintop mining—rock and earth dams called valley fills—becomes evident.
The law requires coal operators to try to restore the land to its approximate original shape, but the rock debris generally can't be securely piled as high or graded as steeply as the original mountaintop. There is always too much rock left over, and coal companies dispose of it by building valley fills in hollows, gullies, and streams. Between 1991 and 1992, this leveling and filling in of the topography becomes noticeable as the mine expands northward across a stream valley called Stanley Fork (image center).
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/hobet.php
(http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/images/hobet/hobet_19840917.jpg)
Credit NASA
hubby's father, much like hubby, was a man out of time....
he was born on the 4th of july in '08
he joined the service and then came home to mine coal during the day
in 18 inch seams..they laid on their backs and picked it out
and then came home and dug coal for the family furnace
he cleared the porperty with a draft horse and his own hands
and when the mining moved he went to the steel mill and never stopped telling those guys how easy they had it
he never owned or drove a car and had a sense of humor that was awesome..
he knew the land and taugh me where the water tables were and the veins of quick sand
running under the boro where a ancient dried up river had been
he passed in 78 and i miss him still..
sorry too much information but the coal mining stuff got me going
;D
Midnight Oil 'Blue Sky Mine' says it all ::)
I have been down mines, it's bloody awful, dangerous work.
My body is full of carbon fibres from working in composite materials & it will probably kill me some day.
What price technology?
People will always die for that to take place, sometimes they do it willingly, aware of the risks (most don't) but they used up their lives to make it easier for the next generation. It may not be fair, but it's what we do.
OK these days we are much more aware of the risks, and as the song says, i'll take a mine over a nuke station every time.
But we can-eventually-move on to the next phase of our development, where no-one has to offer up their lives for such a thing as energy, and no-one has do do these crappy jobs.
One such stopgap measure is water, HHO.
'Stan Meyer Verified' was one of my first posts here, yet no-one has bothered to read it yet....
Another song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyK5MErw3r4
Here are the lyrics :)
QuoteBorn and raised in a minin' town
Where most folks thought that up was down
We all lived and gave our soul
Did it all for ol' king coal
Daddy rose at the crack of dawn
When I could I'd tag along
Capin' said what a fine young man
Put a pick in that boy's hand
I feel the dust upon my tongue
Feel the pain down in my lungs
The time to leave has come an' gone
There's nothin' left but to carry on
Way down here in this ol' coal mine
Where the sun it dare not shine
I sweat an' toil till day is done
But I'll be back when mornin' comes
Quote from: PLAYSWITHMACHINES on June 21, 2012, 10:58:47 PM
'Stan Meyer Verified' was one of my first posts here, yet no-one has bothered to read it yet....
That is likely because it is in the Pegasus Energy team forum and as yet we haven't gotten many members into that group yet. We originally ran that forum on a Yahoo site and it was reserved fro serious researchers to get to work on solutions instead of just a chat format
Unfortunately since Matyas, who was heading up that effort, vanished... there has been little activity. Perhaps I will open it to the regular membership until we get more serious people involved
I have pictures of some of the old mines in Wyoming. My paternal grandmother's first husband and her brother-in-law were killed in a mine explosion. My dad almost lost a leg in the mines. I can honestly claim to be a coal miner's daughter. When I lived in Oklahoma the Peabody Coal Company was devastating the land around Chelsea with their mining operations. Unfortunately, jobs in the area were scarce, so a lot of men worked for Peabody out of necessity.
Shasta
Shasta
QuoteMy paternal grandmother's first husband and her brother-in-law were killed in a mine explosion. My dad almost lost a leg in the mines. I can honestly claim to be a coal miner's daughter.
Thank you for posting. That is interesting and sad about your family. I wonder sometimes about families being drawn toward the same professions, not deviating to far from it. My family has a connection with medicine, nothing fancy but still there.
I think it is also interesting that you moved so far and yet still were close to coal. :)
sky otter
Mountain top removal is environmentally devastating to an area. The area cannot be properly rehabbed and aesthetically it is an abomination.
There are efforts to get rid of this practice. i found this article, here is an excerpt:
QuoteMore than 1,000 people are gathering in Frankfort, Ky. on Feb. 14 to celebrate I Love Mountains Day and call for an end to mountaintop removal coal mining—a destructive practice that has shortened lifespans and caused illnesses in Central Appalachia for decades.
The iLoveMountains.org team has just launched an innovative new web tool to illustrate the overwhelming amount of data that shows the high human cost of coal mining, and we invite you to check it out. See it live now by clicking here.
The Human Cost of Coal page maps national data including poverty rates from the 2010 U.S. Census, birth defect rates from the Center for Disease Control, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, and life expectancy and population numbers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The site also includes summaries for twenty-one peer-reviewed studies that show human health problems such as heart, respiratory and kidney diseases, cancer, low birth weight and serious birth defects are significantly higher in communities near mountaintop removal mine sites.
http://ecowatch.org/2012/mountaintop-removal-coal-mining-protest-draws-more-than-1200-in-kentucky/ (http://ecowatch.org/2012/mountaintop-removal-coal-mining-protest-draws-more-than-1200-in-kentucky/)
As for your other post. I understand the loss you are feeling. I lost my Father not that long ago and he too was "one of a kind". He was my best friend in his later years and I miss him too.
PLAYSWITHMACHINES
QuoteBut we can-eventually-move on to the next phase of our development, where no-one has to offer up their lives for such a thing as energy, and no-one has do do these crappy jobs.
This is the hope/prayer of many of us. :) Thank you for posting.
zorgon
Thank you so much for all your assistance with this thread. Helping me with the presentation, all the beautiful pictures, how did you find all those so fast and whip them right on up? You pushed this thread into another level!
Turned out to be quite a conversation :), Thanks to you.
I'm the second nurse in my family. My mom's cousin Teresa was a nurse too. I guess we decided we needed something other than coal dust in our veins. I also steered my daughter into healthcare and she's the narcotic auditor at a local hospital. I think about what my family went through with working conditions in the mines back then. Not that it's wonderful now, but it was worse back then. A monument stands outside Trinidad, Colorado, memorializing the victims of the Ludlow Massacre. The coal companies were allowed to call out the National Guard to force striking miners back to work. Most of those who died at Ludlow were women and children.
Shasta
Dang... never heard of this one :o
Ludlow Massacre(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Ludlow_teny_colony_group_shot.jpg)
Portrait of men, boys, and girls at the UMW camp for coal miners on strike against CF&I in Ludlow, Las Animas County, Colorado; sign on canvas tent behind the crowd reads: "Dispensary and office of Drs. Harvey and Davis Union Doctors." Credit: Western History/Genealogy Department, Denver Public Library.QuoteThe Ludlow Massacre was an attack by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914.
The massacre resulted in the violent deaths of between 19 and 25 people; sources vary but all sources include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent. The deaths occurred after a daylong fight between militia and camp guards against striking workers. Ludlow was the deadliest single incident in the southern Colorado Coal Strike, lasting from September 1913 through December 1914. The strike was organized by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) against coal mining companies in Colorado. The three largest companies involved were the Rockefeller family-owned Colorado Fuel & Iron Company (CF&I), the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company (RMF), and the Victor-American Fuel Company (VAF).
In retaliation for Ludlow, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines over the next ten days, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard along a 40-mile front from Trinidad to Walsenburg.[1] The entire strike would cost between 69 and 199 lives, described as the "deadliest strike in the history of the United States".
The Ludlow Massacre was a watershed moment in American labor relations. Historian Howard Zinn has described the Ludlow Massacre as "the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history". Congress responded to public outcry by directing the House Committee on Mines and Mining to investigate the incident. Its report, published in 1915, was influential in promoting child labor laws and an eight-hour work day.
The Ludlow site, 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Trinidad, Colorado, is now a ghost town. The massacre site is owned by the UMWA, which erected a granite monument in memory of the miners and their families who died that day. The Ludlow Tent Colony Site was designated a National Historic Landmark on January 16, 2009, and dedicated on June 28, 2009. Modern archeological investigation largely supports the strikers' reports of the event
Ludlow Massacre - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre)(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/70/General_john_chase_colo_nat_guard.jpg)
Rockefellers owned the Mine and a Chase was the homicidal General? Go figure... The National Guard... wow just like at Kent State...
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/26/Colorado_nat_guard_arrive_ludlow_strike.jpg/800px-Colorado_nat_guard_arrive_ludlow_strike.jpg)
MassacreQuoteOn the morning of April 20, the day after Easter was celebrated by the many Greek immigrants at Ludlow, three Guardsmen appeared at the camp ordering the release of a man they claimed was being held against his will. This request prompted the camp leader, Louis Tikas, to meet with a local militia commander at the train station in Ludlow village, a half mile (0.8 km) from the colony. While this meeting was progressing, two companies of militia installed a machine gun on a ridge near the camp and took a position along a rail route about half a mile south of Ludlow. Anticipating trouble, Tikas ran back to the camp. The miners, fearing for the safety of their families, set out to flank the militia positions. A firefight soon broke out.
The fighting raged for the entire day. The militia was reinforced by non-uniformed mine guards later in the afternoon. At dusk, a passing freight train stopped on the tracks in front of the Guards' machine gun placements, allowing many of the miners and their families to escape to an outcrop of hills to the east called the "Black Hills." By 7:00 p.m., the camp was in flames, and the militia descended on it and began to search and loot the camp. Louis Tikas had remained in the camp the entire day and was still there when the fire started. Tikas and two other men were captured by the militia. Tikas and Lt. Karl Linderfelt, commander of one of two Guard companies, had confronted each other several times in the previous months. While two militiamen held Tikas, Linderfelt broke a rifle butt over his head. Tikas and the other two captured miners were later found shot dead. Tikas had been shot in the back. Their bodies lay along the Colorado and Southern Railway tracks for three days in full view of passing trains. The militia officers refused to allow them to be moved until a local of a railway union demanded the bodies be taken away for burial.
During the battle, four women and eleven children had been hiding in a pit beneath one tent, where they were trapped when the tent above them was set on fire. Two of the women and all of the children suffocated. These deaths became a rallying cry for the UMWA, who called the incident the "Ludlow Massacre."
In addition to the fire victims, Louis Tikas and the other men who were shot to death, three company guards and one militiaman were killed in the day's fighting.
Ludlow Massacre - Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre)(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c9/Ruins_of_Ludlow_restored.jpg/800px-Ruins_of_Ludlow_restored.jpg)
Ruins of the Ludlow Colony near Trinidad, Colorado, following an attack by the Colorado National Guard. Forms part of the George Grantham Bain Collection at the Library of Congress.(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/Ludlow_Death_Car.jpg)
Armored car, known as the "Death Car", for harassing mining strikers in Ludlow, Colorado. From 1913AftermathQuoteIn response to the Ludlow massacre, the leaders of organized labor in Colorado issued a call to arms, urging union members to acquire "all the arms and ammunition legally available," and a large-scale guerrilla war ensued, lasting ten days. In Trinidad, Colorado, UMWA officials openly distributed arms and ammunition to strikers at union headquarters. 700 to 1,000 strikers "attacked mine after mine, driving off or killing the guards and setting fire to the buildings." At least fifty people, including those at Ludlow, were killed in ten days of fighting against mine guards and hundreds of militia reinforcements rushed back into the strike zone. The fighting ended only when US President Woodrow Wilson sent in Federal troops. The troops, who reported directly to Washington, DC, disarmed both sides, displacing and often arresting the militia in the process.
The conflict, called the Colorado Coalfield War, was the most violent labor conflict in US history; the reported death toll ranged from 69 in the Colorado government report to 199 in an investigation ordered by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
The UMWA finally ran out of money, and called off the strike on December 10, 1914.
In the end, the strikers failed to obtain their demands, the union did not obtain recognition, and many striking workers were replaced by new workers. Over 400 strikers were arrested, 332 of whom were indicted for murder. Only one man, John Lawson, leader of the strike, was convicted of murder, and that verdict was eventually overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. Twenty-two National Guardsmen, including 10 officers, were court martialed. All were acquitted, except Lt. Linderfelt, who was found guilty of assault for his attack on Louis Tikas. However, he was given only a light reprimand.
Rev. Cook pastored the local church in Trinidad, Colorado. He was one of the few pastors in Trinidad who tried to provide Christian burials to the deceased victims of the Ludlow Massacre. Cook died in 1938.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Ludlow_Monument_Cropped.jpg/383px-Ludlow_Monument_Cropped.jpg)
Ludlow Massacre Monument, prior to being vandalized and subsequently restored. Taken on April 28, 2005 by Mark Walker.
Since this is about the music...
Woody Guthrie Ludlow Massacre http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDd64suDz1A
Howard Zinn on the Ludlow Massacre http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6kuvBnNNUs
Ludlow MassacreQuoteThis is my National History Day video on the Colorado Ludlow Massacre, it took 5th at the school
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp2BK7pKJOI
Ludlow: A Massacre of Human Rights QuoteThis is a 10 minute documentary about the Ludlow Massacre that took place in Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914 and resulted in the deaths of 19 people. This doc was created in 2003 and entered in the National History Day Competition where it placed 1st at the state level and was a national finalist for the Junior Group Documentaries. (Written, Directed, and Edited by Sarah Goode and Lila Creighton)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD4yy6ABsV0
Quite a story... Never heard about it until today
Horrible tragedy!! Thanks Shasta and Zorgon! I will be checking out all the information you posted Zorgon as usual your pictures are worth thousands of words. Thanks For the music too. :)
New to Me until today - well, now yesterday - too, z. The things They DON'T teach in school, eh?
I was born and raised into a pro-union family. A lot of Rocky Flats workers were former coal miners. If memory serves me correctly, UMW was the first union at Rocky Flats. Later on it was USW Local 8031. Barron Bashear ( I think I have the name right) wrote Out of the Depths. I don't think the book is in print anymore, but it detailed the events of Ludlow.
Shasta
sounds a lot like the homestead strike from around here...it was the rich guys trying to push the little guys around..and it didn't work.. pgh while very diverse in the present is still strongly pro union
UnionThe Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) was an American labor union formed in 1876. It was a craft union representing skilled iron and steel workers.
The AA's membership was concentrated in ironworks west of the Allegheny Mountains. The union negotiated national uniform wage scales on an annual basis; helped regulate working hours, workload levels and work speeds; and helped improve working conditions. It also acted as a hiring hall, helping employers find scarce puddlers and rollers.[2]
The AA organized the independently-owned Pittsburgh Bessemer Steel Works in Homestead in 1881. The AA engaged in a bitter strike at the Homestead works on January 1, 1882 in an effort to prevent management from forcing yellow-dog contracts on all workers. Violence occurred on both sides, and the plant brought in numerous strikebreakers. The strike ended on March 20 in a complete victory for the union.[3]
The AA struck the plant again on July 1, 1889, when negotiations for a new three-year collective bargaining agreement failed. The strikers seized the town and once again made common cause with various immigrant groups. Backed by 2,000 townspeople, the strikers drove off a trainload of strikebreakers on July 10. When the sheriff returned with 125 newly deputized agents two days later, the strikers rallied 5,000 townspeople to their cause. Although victorious, the union agreed to significant wage cuts that left tonnage rates less than half those at the nearby Jones and Laughlin works, where technological improvements had not been made.[4]
Carnegie officials conceded that the AA essentially ran the Homestead plant after the 1889 strike. The union contract contained 58 pages of footnotes defining work-rules at the plant and strictly limited management's ability to maximize output.[5]
For its part, the AA saw substantial gains after the 1889 strike. Membership doubled, and the local union treasury had a balance of $146,000. The Homestead union grew belligerent, and relationships between workers and managers grew tense.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike