Coalfield Rest Area

Public history seeks to engage and inform “the public”, from a local community all the way to the nation. Rather than academic history, which is produced by and consumed by scholars, public history has a far broader audience. This is not to say that public history lacks veracity, only that public historians deploy their rigorous training in a more inclusive manner. Some public history projects are designed for a small public from the beginning. Other public history may reach thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of people. Some museums chave that reach. And some of the great outdoor historic sites of our country, such as the Gettysburg Battlefield with its interpretation program, also have immense numbers of visitors.

A tremendously innovative public history program is found at a highway rest stop, 25 miles south of Springfield on I-55. It is the culmination, in 2018, of the initiative of many cooperating agencies: Mother Jones Heritage Project, motherjonesmuseum.org (not to be confused with the bricks-and-mortar Mother Jones Museum in Mt. Olive), the Government of Ireland, United Mine Workers of America, Mother Jones Foundation, United Council Staff Union of Illinois, Springfield & Central Illinois Trades and Labor Council, Southwestern Illinois Building Trades Council, Illinois Labor History Society, Illinois State Historical Society, Illinois Humanities, and Northern Illinois University.

The rest area is named “Coalfield Rest Area” after the natural resource and history of this region. In both directions the rest stop offers interpretation outside and inside the building. The potential of the outdoor signs, in particular, to be read by extraordinary numbers of travelers (in-state, out-of=state, foreign) is incalculable. Inside each building there are didactic panels that expand on the information outside. This is public history at its best!

Southbound, the rest area features an explanatory historical marker about the Illinois coalfields (below). 

We consider these two rest areas to be mini museums.

Here we transcribe the information on the “The Coafields of Illinois” sign (above): “Beneath us lies one of the nation’s richest coal seams, formed 300 million years ago and covering two-thirds of Illinois. Coal made this state an industrial and economic powerhouse by the 1880’s – it drove the machines, heated the homes, smelted the steel, powered the railroads. / Coal companies recruited workers from many countries, placing them in dangerous jobs with low pay. These miners and their families forged a union movement to demand their rights and reclaim their dignity. / In 1897, miners launched a march for a living wage from Mt. Olive, Illinois, a small immigrant town 20 miles south of here. The uprising spread through the mining areas of the country, resulting in a major union mining contract. Illinois miners became a leading force in the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), which grew into the largest and most influential union in the nation. Miners’ efforts to bring democracy to the coalfields led to bloody battles with coal companies and their armed guards, costing hundreds of lives. Through these struggles, miners won safer working conditions, the eight-hour day and abolished child labor in the mines. / Mary Harris ‘Mother’ Jones (1837-1930), Irish immigrant and socialist, emerged as the UMWA’s most successful organizer. Beloved and legendary among workers throughout the United States, she organized not only miners but women and children in the coalfields. She chose to be buried in Mt. Olive in memory of the ordinary people who built the labor movement.”

Note the union bug at the bottom left of the sign, indicating that it was produced by a union shop.

Northbound, there is a similarly laid-out sign. It features Mother Jones. Inside the building, there is a panel about the Women’s Auxiliary of the Progressive Miners of America.