On Saturday, June 20 – West Virginia Day – West Virginia University’s Royce J. and Caroline B. Watts Museum will present an interactive educational program for children ages 7-10.

“Digging Into History: West Virginia Day at the Watts Museum” will feature hands-on activity stations where participants can learn about the history, culture and economics of the state’s coal industry. Activities include a miner training session, coal camp crafts and shopping at the company store with replica coal scrip.

Additionally, visitors can simulate the work of an underground coal miner in the Watts Museum’s current exhibit, “Black Diamonds: The Early Coal Industry of West Virginia.”

“In the exhibit, you can practice digging a trench with a pick, drilling a hole with a chest auger, shoveling loosened coal and crawling in a ‘low coal’ mine,” said curator Danielle Petrak. “Children can see if they had what it took to mine coal a century ago.”

“Digging Into History” will be held in the atrium of the Mineral Resources Building on WVU’s Evansdale campus. The event will be open-house style, running from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Admission is free, and parking is available outside the Mineral Resources Building. For more information, contact the museum at 304-293-4609 or wattsmuseum@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

mcd/06/08/15

CONTACT: Mary C. Dillon, Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources
304.293.4086, Mary.Dillon@mail.wvu.edu

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