How Appalachia Mined America's Coal: 200 Years Under the Mountains

In 1908 the photographer Lewis Hine found a fifteen-year-old trapper boy sitting beside a door deep in a West Virginia coal mine. This documentary tells the whole story of how Appalachia mined America's coal: the anthracite of northeastern Pennsylvania and the Lehigh arks, the patch towns and the breaker boys, the strike of 1902, the railroads into the West Virginia mountains, the people who came to dig, the company town and its store, a miner's day underground, Monongah and the Bureau of Mines, John L. Lewis and the union, the machines, Farmington and the safety law of 1969, the strip mines, and the coal towns and exhibition mines of today. Clear narration over photographs, documents and film from open archives. The whole story of an American industry and the people who worked in it, told in order from start to finish. This is an independent history, not affiliated with or endorsed by any company. Chapters 00:00 The Trapper Boy 01:47 Stone That Burns 03:38 Down the Lehigh 04:58 The Patch Towns 06:07 The Breaker Boys 07:48 The Strike of 1902 09:33 Rails into the Mountains 11:28 Who Came to Dig 12:45 The Company Town 14:29 A Day Underground 16:09 Monongah 17:52 The Union Comes 19:34 John L. Lewis 21:23 Coal and the Machines 23:15 Leaving the Hollows 24:53 Farmington 26:44 Strip Mines 27:54 The Coal Towns Today Film from Wikimedia Commons, in order of appearance: "Bluefield, West Virginia - Aerial Footage-151106229" by Christopher D. Lusk (CC BY 3.0). Pictures from Wikimedia Commons, in order of appearance: "Ibbenbueren Anthracite" by Educerva (CC BY-SA 3.0); "ECKLEY HISTORIC DISTRICT" by JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD (CC BY-SA 3.0); "Coal Miner's Double Home" by Worldtraveller00 (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Whitesville-Big-Coal-River-wv" by Brian Stansberry (CC BY 4.0); "Nuttallburg Coal Tipple - 55416757869" by George Neat (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Pocahontas Historical District" by Coal town guy (CC BY-SA 3.0); "Peerless Coal Scrip" by Cdhicks (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Monongah Mine Disaster Memorial, Monongah, West Virginia - 20200510…" by Andre Carrotflower (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Monongah Mine Disaster Memorial, Monongah, West Virginia - 20200510…" by Andre Carrotflower (CC BY-SA 4.0); "View of Downtown Historic District Matewan West Virginia (2018)" by FloNight (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Matewan, West Virginia" by FloNight (CC BY-SA 4.0); "John E. Amos Power Plant" by Quintin Soloviev (CC BY 4.0); "2017-07-23 17 52 13 View north along West Virginia State Route 218…" by Famartin (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Marion County, West Virginia Courthouse" by WeaponizingArchitecture (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Mountaintop Removal (327697920)" by Chris M Morris (CC BY 2.0); "Nuttallburg Coal Tipple - 55242494473" by George Neat (CC BY-SA 4.0); "Pocahontas Exhibition Coal Mine - Portal" by Bitmapped (CC BY-SA 3.0); "EMV 8712 R3" by RJWillems (CC BY-SA 4.0). License texts: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0, creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0.