Shootout in Matewan, West Virginia, May 19, 1920

It was the Stone Mountain Coal Corp. that evicted the coal miners from the coal camp houses at Matewan. Here are a few of those very homes that have survived. The film was made in West Virginia with the town of Thurmond standing in for Matewan. Other scenes were filmed along the New River Gorge National River. ,_West_Virginia (Movie quote) Sid Hatfield: I’ve met Mr. Felts [the owner of the Baldwin-Felts agency]. I wouldn’t pee on him if his heart was on fire. A contingent of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency arrived on the no. 29 morning train with orders to evict families that had been living at the Stone Mountain Coal Camp on the outskirts of town. The detectives carried out several evictions then dined at the Urias Hotel before walking to the depot to catch the five o’clock train back to Bluefield, West Virginia. Matewan Chief of Police Sid Hatfield had decided that enough was enough, and intervened on behalf