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LOGAN, W.Va. (AP) - State officials are recommending the site of the country's largest labor insurrection for the National Register of Historic Places, despite protests from landowners and members of the coal industry.
The West Virginia Archives and History Commission on Friday unanimously approved the nomination of the 10-mile Spruce Fork Ridge, where the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain took place.
The battle was the culmination of a bloody struggle to unionize the state's southern coalfields. Thousands of union coal miners fought Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin's forces, who were trying to block the miners from entering nonunion territory. Federal troops eventually were called in to turn the miners back.
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