Coal Towns, from The Mine Wars
Clip: Season 28 Episode 2 | 2m 37s | Video has closed captioning.
West Virginia coal operators built small, company-owned towns for their miners to live in. The coal towns were almost always unincorporated; there were no elected officials, no independent police forces. Owners hired private detective agencies to watch over their workforce. Company towns were also untethered from the free market competition owners usually championed.
Aired: 01/26/16
