of miners joined them along the way, culminating in what was to become known as the Battle of Blair Mountain. The headquarters of the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency was the Urias hotel and was destroyed in a fire in December 1992. The Matewan Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 27, 1993. Conspiracy theory Some people believe that Sid Hatfield fired that first shot that killed Mayor Testerman because he was in love with the mayor's wife Jessie. The belief was strengthened when Sid and Jessie were married twelve days after the May 19 shootout. Below is a 1989 conversation between historian John Hennen of the Matewan Development Center Oral History project and Dixie Accord, who grew up in Matewan, regarding the possibility that Sid Hatfield could have shot Mayor Testerman. Historic interpretations The Matewan massacre is related by the State of West Virginia through a Historic Highway marker produced by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History. It is located off Main Street in Matewan. The marker reads: MATEWAN MASSACRE. In 1920 area miners went on strike to gain recognition of UMWA. On May 19 of the same year, twelve Baldwin–Felts Agency guards came from Bluefield to evict the miners from company houses. As guards left town, they argued with town police chief Sid Hatfield and Mayor Testerman. Shooting of undetermined origins resulted in the deaths of two coal miners, seven agents, and the mayor. None of the 19 men indicted were convicted. In media The battle was the subject of the 1987 John Sayles film Matewan. Sid Hatfield was featured in Smilin' Sid which was a silent movie that portrayed Sid Hatfield as a hero and was shown in union mining camps. Terror of the Tug, a 2000 play by Jean Battlo, covers the violent events that occurred directly afterward. The battle features in Glenn Taylor's 2008 novel The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart. In the book, it is Trenchmouth Taggart that shoots Al Felts when Felts draws a gun to shoot Sid Hatfield. Felts then accidentally shoots Mayor Testerman. Trenchmouth also shoots and kills Lee Felts. The battle receives prominent mention in Eric Flint's science fiction novel "1632," the starting point of his Ring of Fire (series). See also Coal Wars Coal mining in Appalachia Union violence Labor spying in the United States List of incidents of civil unrest in the United