Among American resources, those lying underground—oil and gas as well as minerals and water—have been critical elements in the economic and social transformation of the landscape. While mining may first evoke gold strikes that spurred settlement of California in 1849, longer-term development has also been associated with exploitation of lead, zinc, iron and coal. This exploitation, however, has gone beyond minerals themselves to include the men and women who worked them and the environment left behind. Hence, mining often has been a symbol of the promise and failure of organized labor in the US (as it has been worldwide).

Mines brought together immigrants from many races and backgrounds. Whites and blacks worked together in the South. Women, while not active in the mines as workers until the 1970s, sustained mining families and provided vital support for worker solidarity. Towns from Leadville, Colorado to Anthracite, Pennsylvania were organized around the mine, the company the church and school—and little else.

Coal mining was associated with the Appalachians, especially as trains and roads opened access to Southern coal fields. Here, communities lived and died by the mines— through both fluctuating prices and fatal disasters. These communities also suffered from mechanization in the 1940s, which laid off many workers, and from later drives towards cleaner fuels. At the same time, working conditions decimated miners with black lung and other medical conditions. Meanwhile, strip mining, which took off top layers in order to gouge out useful coal, despoiled the landscape and waterways of the region.

The United Mine Workers of America united coal miners in 1890; it later split from the AFL in the 1930s under John L. Lewis (rejoining in 1989). Labor organization faced continuing problems, nonetheless, of racial division and owner opposition erupting into violence. Moreover, the union itself has faced charges of corruption and mismanagement—most notably in the 1970s when president Tony Boyle was implicated in the murder of reformist opponent Joseph Yablonski.

Television generally has portrayed mining only in news items about unions or environmental degradation. Mines have provided rich movie themes, however, generally viewed from the Left. These include Barbara Koppel’s Harlan County, USA (1976), a documentary about a 1972 strike, and John Sayle’s Matewan (1987), which recreated issues of 1920s West Virginia unrest.