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BOTH PHOTOS: An original red bandana from the Battle of Blair Mountain has made its way to the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.
An original red bandana from the Battle of Blair Mountain has made its way to the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.
An original red bandana from the Battle of Blair Mountain has made its way to the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.
An original red bandana from the Battle of Blair Mountain has made its way to the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum.
MATEWAN, W.Va. Ƶ One of the most coveted pieces of Mine Wars history has found a new home and new life at the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum: an original red bandana from the 1920s.
The artifact made its way to the museum for the 2025 season. It is housed with the Battle of Blair Mountain section of the museum alongside other items that were utilized in the battlefield.
The bandana is on loan from the collection of Eddie Harless, and has been in his familyƵs possession since it was originally worn by his grandfather Hub Bane. Bane, born in 1899, was living at the coal camp at Burnwell during the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek Strikes in 1912-13 and experienced the evictions and other struggles there firsthand.
Bane was 21 in the summer of 1921 leading up to the Battle of Blair Mountain. He reportedly walked from his home in Burnwell to join the encampment of gathering union miners in Hernshaw Ƶ nearly 25 miles away. During that trek, Bane wore the bandana that is currently on display while carrying his rifle and its cartridges, as well as a two pound bag of flour.
Bane gave the bandana to his grandson in the early 1970s when Harless was just a teenager.
Red bandanas were a symbol of union solidarity during the Mine Wars era. During the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, which saw two irregular armies fighting without issued uniforms, the unionist miners identified themselves with red bandanas while the ƵdefensiveƵ forces positioned along the Spruce Fork ridge line (including Blair Mountain) wore white armbands. These bandanas gave rise to the slang term Ƶrednecks,Ƶ referring to the multiracial, multiethnic collective that rose up in solidarity with each other to fight for their right to unionize.
The team at the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum built a custom display to house the bandana. While mostly intact, the fabric is very worn and thin with significant tearing and fraying on all edges.
ƵWeƵre extremely excited about this new artifact loan from museum supporter Eddie Harless, a genuine red minerƵs bandana from the Mine Wars era,Ƶ said museum director Kenzie New Walker. ƵWe only know of one other such bandana on public display, at the West Virginia State Museum.Ƶ
The display was made possible in part by support from the West Virginia Humanities Council.
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