This article shares the outcomes of a collaborative project between multimedia writing students and a local history center in which students created online exhibits about an important event in labor history: the Battle of Blair Mountain. The main outcome discussed is the enhancement of place-based literacy, including complication of simplistic narratives about place, illumination of less visible stakeholders, deeper understanding of hidden identity markers, and contextualization of relationships between artifacts and personal histories. Ultimately, this article demonstrates the value of archival research and the stories such research unveils as a means to re-imagine places and their people in more ethical, nuanced representations.