[Hoot Gibson]

I've never blamed Reagan for the demise of the UMWA, and you know I haven't said as much. More twisting? I don't deal with the UMWA and know nothing about them. My dad worked for Wolverine Coal, and I know nothing of them, other than my dad made a lot of money hauling their coal. As I have said many times, I work union construction, and that's all I address union wise. I don't what Reagan caused, but starvation years came about for us when he took office, and all the way through his years in office.

Was it somebody else who said that, "times were very tough for the union worker during Reagan's stay in the white house?" If you meant to restrict that statement to construction, then I misunderstood. Your statement that the coal industry grew weaker after 1982, which is not true, added to my confusion.

BTW, Wolverine was owned by Cleveland Cliffs back then and it was a sister company to Turner Elkhorn Mining, which operated in Floyd County. By the time I became familiar with Wolverine, most of their reserves had been depleted. That is why their production dropped during the period that you mentioned. The quality of most of the reserves that were left in Magoffin County by the end of Reagan's second term were not very good. Magoffin County Coal was probably the leading producer during that time. There were some reserves left on the property that Wolverine controlled after the mid-80s but they were too costly to mine for the most part. Coincidentally, a friend of mine recently went to work for the Cliffs.

The decline in mining in Magoffin County had nothing to do with Reagan - and I am not saying that you claimed otherwise - I just thought you might be interested in the history of coal production in Magoffin County during that time period since your father worked in that area and you were probably too young to remember some of the details.