Activists Hold Coal Mining Protests

{Morgantown, West Virginia}...Activists trying to save the Blair Mountain battlefield from coal mining protested Friday at the Huntington offices of Natural Resource Partners in West Virginia and the suburban St. Louis, Missouri headquarters of Arch Coal. They're among several coal companies that either own or lease land on the Logan County mountain and control its coal reserves. Some have permits to mine. Arch spokeswoman Kim Link says the protesters were asking Arch to stop mining Blair Mountain, when in fact Arch has no immediate plans to mine on leased reserves in the area, and Arch owns less than 2 percent of the land in question. Activists have been fighting to protect the 1,600-acre battlefield and get it re-listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Chuck Keeney, chairman of Friends of Blair Mountain, says his group is not endorsing the protests.