2011-07-16

March To Save Blair Mountain



The new CNN documentary "March on Blair Mountain" ends in song and celebration at the top of the mountain. Organizers erect a homemade monument to commemorate the original battle for Blair and congratulate the crowd for their long journey.

In a final act of protest, about 100 marchers break off from the larger group as part of a planned act of civil disobedience. They climb over a gate that blocks a dirt road running along the ridge line. They attempt to walk out to the edge of a mountaintop removal site that has already encroached on the historic battlefield. State police officers pursue the protesters but only arrest one person for trespassing and littering on coal company property.

March organizer Chuck Keeney sums up the march as a success for raising awareness, but wants to do more to make sure there is no mountaintop mining of Blair.

"If you can't save this mountain," he said, "you can't save any mountain."

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