Doug Estepp and Coal Country Tours invite the community to join in a six-week course on the West Virginia coal mine wars being offered by the Shepherd University Lifelong Learning Program Monday evenings from March 10 through April 14 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Subjects covered include the early development of the southern West Virginia coal fields, life in a coal camp, the UMWA, Mother Jones, the 1902 New River Strike, the Baldwin Felts Detective Agency, the 1912-13 Paint Creek Strike, the Matewan Massacre, the assassination of Sid Hatfield, the 1920-22 Mingo County strike, the Battle of Blair Mountain, and the 1922 Charles Town treason trials. The final class will take place in the Jefferson County Courthouse where those trials took place. The class will also cover contemporary issues in southern W. Va. including poverty, political corruption, drug abuse, environmental problems, mountaintop removal mining and depopulation.

For more information or to sign up contact Karen Rice at the Shepherd University Lifelong Learning Program at 304-876-5135.

The community is also invited to join in on May 16 to18 for a three-day West Virginia Mine War Tour departing Shepherdstown that will trace this history. Destinations include the Tamarack Cultural Center, the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine, the 1890 Whipple Company Store, Matewan (including a re-enactment of the famous 1920 shootout), Blair Mountain, Buffalo Creek, the WWI Black Soldiers Memorial in Kimball, the McDowell County Courthouse in Welch, and Bramwell, the little town known as “the home of millionaires.” Lodging is at Twin Falls Resort State Park Lodge. The cost is $395 per person, double occupancy ($445 single) which includes transportation, two nights lodging, all admissions and guides, two breakfasts and two lunches.

One can find out more about us at www.coalcountrytours.com or on Facebook.