On August 1, 1864, Nevada miners engaged in the first strike in western hardrock metal mining. This action would be successful, albeit for just a short time. It also laid the groundwork for a half-cen
On May 16, 1910, the federal government created the U.S. Bureau of Mines to investigate the terrible conditions that killed thousands of miners a year and to attempt to regulate those conditions. It w
As actual Infrastructure Week is happening since we have a serious president who cares about doing things, we are having a real conversation about our infrastructure for once. As Justine Calma knows a
I was so excited yesterday. I always wanted a post that so few LGM readers cared about that it would get 0 comments and the podcast on the public lands was the winner. It’s striking to me how fe
On January 2, 2006, a coal mine near Sago, West Virginia exploded. Thirteen miners were trapped inside and only one of those survived the two days it took to get the miners out. Yet another example of
On September 30, 1899, Mary “Mother” Jones organized the wives and daughters of striking coal miners in Arnot, Pennsylvania to descend on the mine and intimidate the scabs working there. T
This is such a weird story. Mountaintop removal is a horrible, nasty, awful thing, one that reshapes an entire region’s geology, some of the oldest mountains in the world, and dumps toxins in th
On July 4, 1857, Australian miners drove 2,500 Chinese miners out of a camp in Victoria and killed at least three of them. The Buckland Riot was indicative of the hostility whites around the world fel