September 7, 2025 - A new documentary produced by WCHS-TV aims to explore the Coal Mine Wars, with a focus on the Battle of Blair Mountain.

The first part of the documentary aired Wednesday night on WCHS Channel 8 and Fox 11. The second part of the documentary airs Thursday at 5:30 p.m. on WCHS Channel 8 and then again at 10:30 p.m. on Fox 11

The Coal Mine Wars, also known as the West Virginia Mine Wars, took place between 1912 and 1921. The conflict was between coal miners and the coal companies they worked for, driven by efforts to unionize and improve working conditions.

The documentary begins with everything that led up to the Battle of Blair Mountain. One of those was the Matewan Massacre in 1920, when a group of Baldwin-felts came into town. They were hired by the coal companies to evict miners living in a nearby coal camp. Ultimately, a shoot-out ensured between the detectives and the miners and ten people died as a result.

This was the spark that led to the battle.

Early conflicts in the Mine Wars also took place along Paint Creek and Cabin Creek.

Executive producer of the documentary Cindi Adkins, during an appearance on MetroNews Talkline Wednesday, said they had to cut the documentary into two segments for air on television.

The first part focused more on the beginning.

“The second half goes into the march for Blair in 2011-ish when they were trying to stop it from Mountaintop removal, it goes into the NIOSH and the black lunch issue we’re dealing with right now and what they hope for the future,” Adkins said.

The Battle of Blair Mountain began in August 1921 and was led by Bill Blizzard, a union organizer with the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). He led an estimated 7,000 striking miners toward Logan County in an effort to unionize the southern coalfields. They arrived on August 31st, 1921 and were met by deputies and mine guards led by Sheriff Don Chafin. The five-day battle ended when U.S. Army and Air Corps arrived. Efforts to unionize the southern West Virginia coal mines were effectively halted until 1933, when New Deal legislation strengthened federal support for labor unions.

Adkins said her interest came from the book Rednecks, a historical-fiction retelling of the Battle of Blair Mountain, by Taylor Brown. She said she was reading the book in June of this year, just as the NIOSH issue was gaining attention and everyone was waiting to see how it would unfold.

She said that it was hard to believe that coal miners are still struggling today.

“It just kind of felt like that history is so cyclical and you know the miners fought so hard 100 years ago, and they’re still fighting so hard in present day, I just felt like there was a connection there and I went to knowing nothing about the Coal Mine Wars to almost knowing too much about the Coal Mine Wars,” Adkins said.

She said the one thing she learned during this whole process, is how little she knew about the battle and the lack of resources for this history.

“The more I learned, the more I was kind of shocked that we don’t have more spaces where we get into the history,” Adkins said. “I went the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum in Matewan and they’re doing a great job down there, but I just feel that there needs to be more, in terms of getting the history out there and having it easily more accessible.”

To learn more about the battle and watch the full documentary visit here.