[Kilsally]

A History Channel documentary on the Scots-Irish in Appalachia

Shooting the shootings
http://sundaygazette...rful/2006120919
# History Channel documentary to include Mine Wars segment


Photos
A History Channel documentary on the Scots-Irish in Appalachia will include a segment on the Southern West Virginia Mine Wars. In this photo taken during filming, gunmen come across the courtyard to kill Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers.


By Rick Steelhammer
Staff writer

Scenes from McDowell and Mingo counties and the cast of a Southern West Virginia historical drama will appear on The History Channel sometime next spring, as part of a two-hour documentary on Scots-Irish immigrants to Appalachia.

The West Virginia segment of the documentary will deal with the immigrants’ role in shaping the region’s coal mining and labor history.

Moore Huntley Productions of Sudbury, Mass., shot documentary footage in Welch and Matewan in late September to cover the 1921 assassination of Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers outside the McDowell County Courthouse and the 1920 Matewan Massacre. Filming also took place on Toms Mountain in McDowell County, where scenes depicting the Battle of Blair Mountain were shot.
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Actors from the long-running historical drama “Terror of the Tug,” dressed in costumes from the early 1920s, acted out several West Virginia Mine Wars events covered in the documentary. All are from McDowell County, with the exception of Princeton anesthesiologist John Cox, who portrays Sid Hatfield.

Among them was state Homeland Security Director Jimmy Gianato, who portrays a coal company hired gun. His wife, Markella, who portrays Mother Jones as a “Terror of the Tug” cast member, also appears in the History Channel documentary, as does his son, Adam, who also portrays a shooter for the coal operators.

“It was an enjoyable way to spend a weekend,” said Gianato, who appeared in all three scenes. “I’m not in ‘The Terror of the Tug,’ like my wife and son, but I happened to be home that weekend and got involved with the History Channel re-enactments.”

The History Channel segment will mark Gianato’s second appearance on national television. The former McDowell County 911 director appeared in a “Rescue 911” segment several years ago when the CBS series re-enacted the backwoods rescue of a school-skipping student who broke both legs while swinging from a grapevine.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the History Channel piece,” said Gianato. “I think it will bring attention to our county and our state. Like the [‘Terror of the Tug’] play, it will help people understand the impact those events had on shaping our history and politics.”

Actors in the History Channel documentary have no speaking roles, but McDowell County author/historian Jean Battlo, who wrote “Terror of the Tug,” was interviewed at length. Her comments will be a part of the narration that accompanies the re-enactments.

“We were initially going to include nine stories in the documentary, but the section on coal mining in Appalachia turned out to be so much larger than expected, we may end up with fewer segments,” said Moore Huntley producer Julie Pryor.

Other topics covered in the two-hour special will include the influence of Appalachian Scots-Irish settlers and their descendants on the nation’s religion and music, Pryor said.

Work is nearing completion in editing the History Channel-commissioned documentary, Pryor said, but a definite airing date has yet to be set.

“It will be sometime in the spring, but that’s all we know right now,” she said.

Moore Huntley Productions’ previous History Channel projects include the series “Home and Bunker” and “Alaska: Big America,” and the “Invent This” series for Tech TV (now G4).

“The Terror of the Tug,” produced by McArts, McDowell County’s nonprofit arts center, has been presented to regional audiences for the past eight years. The play tells the story of the Mine Wars in Southern West Virginia during the opening decades of the 20th century. It includes a dramatic treatment of the 1920 Matewan Massacre, a gunfight in which 12 men died when Matewan Police Chief Sid Hatfield and a small group of townspeople confronted a group of coal company-hired detectives attempting to evict coal miners from their homes.

Also covered in the play and in the History Channel documentary is the 1921 assassination of Hatfield and Matewan resident Ed Chambers outside the McDowell County Courthouse by coal company detectives. That shooting was the catalyst for another event covered in the documentary: the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, during which thousands of striking miners squared off against U.S. Army troops, police and coal company operatives on a Logan County mountain ridge.

Pryor said after the current History Channel project is complete she would like to return to Southern West Virginia to do a stand-alone historical documentary on the Mine Wars.
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