Mining for Stories
Project Documerica, an environmental photojournalism project from the 1970s, is a rich source for story ideas. Several photographers captured the people and environments of America's mining culture.
Photo courtesy of Leroy Woodson/National Archives |
Writers' tip: Discover whether this mine is still in operation today. Talk with today's generation of miners there to see how much has changed and if the same families still work there. Photo courtesy of Jack Corn/National Archives |
Writers' tip: Investigate how many modern miners still suffer from this disease and how mining companies compensate them and their families. Photo courtesy of Leroy Woodson/National Archives |
Writers' tip: Investigate whether this disease affects the poor disproportionately. Photo courtesy of Leroy Woodson/National Archives |
Writers' tip: Find Jack Smith or his surviving family. Ask him if he is still active in union activities and why he waited 18 years for compensation. Investigate whether injured miners still encounter delays in workman's compensation today. Photo courtesy of Jack Corn/National Archives |
Writers' tip: Discover if this plant is still active and how much it has reduced its emissions. Investigate whether there are higher cancer rates in the surrounding area. Photo courtesy of Leroy Woodson/National Archives |
Writers' tip: Find these ranchers or their land. See if the area was mined or if they and their neighbors successfully fended off the coal company. Photo courtesy of Boyde E. Norton/National Archives |
Writers' tip: Go to this intersection and take a similar picture. See what has changed since 1974, when this photo was taken. Discover who owned the house in the foreground and try to find them. Investigate the mine's current status. Photo courtesy of Erik Calonius/National Archives |
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“I’m in no pain, but don’t know how long the air will last,” wrote George Hamner, while trapped in West Virginia’s Sago Mine. He and 11 other coal miners died in the mine on Jan. 2.
Nineteen miners were killed in the United States in the first five weeks of 2006 alone.
These accidents raise questions about mine safety and regulation, the consequences of a coal-powered economy and the history of mining and mine safety. Is the federal government doing enough to protect miners? Are mining accidents par for the course?
Whenever environmental stories like the Sago Mine disaster or Hurricane Katrina hit the front pages, it is journalists’ job to look to history for perspective, to hold government accountable for its failures or successes.
To that end, hidden deep in the National Archives waits a little-known treasure of environmental history called Project Documerica.
Created by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1971 — when the mass environmental movement coalesced — Documerica hired dozens of photographers to comb the country recording the state of the environment and efforts to improve it.
Among the more than 81,000 photographs are images of coal mining culture in West Virginia and Mississippi River flooding in Louisiana, profound images that remind the world that “those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”
The strongest 22,000-plus images were catalogued and made available to publications nationwide. They began showing up in textbooks, newspapers, magazines and filmstrips. The exhibit “Our Only World,” a Smithsonian Institution display of 113 Documerica images, toured the country to record audiences and rave reviews. But by 1977, funding for the project was cut, and its unique record of cultural and environmental history disappeared into the National Archives.
Now, 30 years later, Project Documerica is fulfilling its original mission as an historical archive of environmental history. Environmental journalists can use the photography archive to give their readers perspective on just how far we’ve progressed in the 40 years since the start of the environmental movement.
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