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How and when did mountaintop mining get started? Doesn't that technique employ less miners than underground mining? It couldn't be a jobs issue.
Why didn't the citizens of Kentucky and West Virginia complain to their state governments at the outset?
It puzzles me.
It would not surprise me that someday they will give environmental disaster tours of areas of KY and WV as they currently do in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
Strip mining (and auger mining, in which rows of large holes were bored into mountainsides) came first, as far back as the late 1950s and early 1960s. New technology led to mountaintop removal, which certainly does require fewer workers than do deep mines.
Many Kentucky politicians and officials are in cahoots with the coal industry, which makes major contributions to political campaigns and other "causes" important to these officials. Meanwhile, our citizens DO complain - there have been "I Love Mountains" rallies at the state capitol in Frankfort on February 14 for many, many years, with thousands in attendance. Before that, back in the mid 1960s, people were lying down in the paths of the strip mining shovels. Check out the story of Ollie Combs, otherwise known as the "Widow Combs". There was strong, vocal opposition to strip mining and particularly to the broad form deed back in the 1960s, when as now, barren mountain streams ran red with acid and well-water was unusable. There are laws concerning reclaimation, but they are inadequate, and "orphan banks", long-abandoned strip mines or other surface mines, still abound, despite funding which is supposed to "restore" them. Too often, restoration consists of bulldozing rocks back into a semblance of the original grade, then tossing a handful of non-native grass seed and a lot of fertilizer onto the site.
And this was the richest, most diverse forest in the world...
The coal lobby's deep pockets and wide influence seem to count for more than the opinion and wishes of the informed public. The lack of diverse industry in the mountains makes some residents cling most desperately to the coal industry, whose jobs are the only ones available to them, despite the damage and the danger and destruction. There are many "friends of coal" license plates out there - what I'd like to see would be more coal executives become true friends to the mountains of Kentucky and to the Kentuckians who live there. Real friends don't destroy other friends' homes or poison their water or destroy their land or endanger their lives.
Some members of the public buy the "coal keeps the lights on" slogan, which certainly is not enlightend and doesn't begin to tell the whole story. Our electric bills are low - but the true cost of coal-powered electric plants is immeasurable.
Kentucky is my home state.I was born in Corbin.Moved away with my husband 20 years ago to Tennessee.From my neck of the woods money has always been tight.That is why we moved.
My family has struggled their with several business through the years.They get by,but they have to work like crazy just to do that.Reguardless of money being tight there we plan to move back a.s.a.p.The clean water and air in Corbin area is worth much more to us at this point in our lives than money.Besides we have a few business ideas of our own up our sleeves,and hopefully God willing enough strength and life let in us to do just fine.Its always eaiser to start over I think tho,if you still have roots in a place.
Eastern Kentucky residents have a long heritage of living in difficult times. The boom and bust economy has taken place for more than a century. But it's also what has made those folks, though sometimes living miserably, a tough and hardy folk who created a unique musical sound and turned the Irish j i g into what we know now as cloghopping. The traditional cloghopper wears an expressionless face and mostly the feet are what move. The Irish, too, were and are a people steeped in difficult living circumstances (the famous potato famine--"O Danny Boy"). The northern English miners of Northumbria and Durham also danced to similar tunes. Many eastern Kentucky residents are descendants of those groups.
Those tough decades and decades of hard life have also created a close knit community that is not always welcoming of "outsiders". No one can really understand their background without having lived it.
But for those few fortunate enough to have been able to travel through eastern Kentucky and get to know them and accept them without trying to insert a different lifestyle or view of life upon them---they can be open and accepting.
I have friends among them and salute their hardiness, their ability to deal with tough economic times year in and year out, their cohesiveness as a special brand of Kentuckians, and the wonderful bluegrass music and country music they play to both keep their spirits up and explain their lives to us outsiders. One of my favorites is "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive." It is an expression of the difficulties that have traditionally faced Eastern Kentuckians.
In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky
That's the place where I trace my bloodline.
And it's there that I read on a hillside tombstone
"You'll never leave Harlan alive."
and the chorus:
Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning
And the sun goes down about three in the day
And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinkin'
And you spend your life just thinkin' of how to get away.
Eastern Kentucky history:
Quote:
Widening Economic Inequality (1793-1850)
Though land in the new Commonwealth of Kentucky was quickly claimed, it wasn't fairly or equally distributed among its many new inhabitants. By 1810, eastern Kentucky had become known as a "poor man's country," where some 57 percent of households were landless (the number was as high as 74 percent in some of Kentucky's eastern counties). Statewide about 25 percent of landowners possessed more than three-fourths of all the land, and one quarter of the land was owned by only 21 individuals. The wealth of these "backcountry elite," as they were called, grew and grew, while the fortunes of their neighbors, mainly self-sufficient yeomen farmers, stagnated or dwindled.
These ever-widening gaps in wealth were exacerbated by the corrupt and undemocratic nature of Kentucky's early government. For the first half of the 19th century, most of the roles of government were administered by justices of the peace -- those county magistrates who were appointed for life by the governor and oversaw everything from property assessment to tax collection, as well as the settlement of civil and criminal disputes. All other county officials served at their discretion. According to two University of Kentucky historians, Dwight Billings and Kathleen Blee, remnants of this early system of patronage and political clientism persist in many communities to this day and is one of the region's major stumbling blocks to economic improvement.
IMO no one from outside the area will ever bring a solution to the myriad of problems plaguing the region. But the day will come when those proud people stand tall and take their future in their own hands--because they are a tough and resilient folk.
@ CraigCreek: Interesting post as always. I enjoy reading your contributions.
My state, Illinois, was and still is in some places a coal-mining state. It's also a state with a rich history of the labor movement. Mother Jones is buried in Illinois in a mining area northeast of St. Louis. It's not all corn and beans out here.
I'd send another Reputation ticky, but I've been informed I have to spread them around a bit. I'll send one bye-and-bye.
@ CraigCreek: Interesting post as always. I enjoy reading your contributions.
My state, Illinois, was and still is in some places a coal-mining state. It's also a state with a rich history of the labor movement. Mother Jones is buried in Illinois in a mining area northeast of St. Louis. It's not all corn and beans out here.
I'd send another Reputation ticky, but I've been informed I have to spread them around a bit. I'll send one bye-and-bye.
I used to live in Eastern Kentucky and I'd like to share some of the advantages to such an area (in the past my posts have been rather negative when it comes to EKY).
It's true that the area is poor with very few decent jobs. However, if you're in a profession that pays well, you'll live like royalty there. Many homes and apartments in the area are well under $500/month. Things such as used cars and auto repair work are dirt cheap too. The area has decent sized cities such as Lexington, Huntington, Cincinnati, and Columbus not too far away.
IMO, the biggest asset in EKY are the people (specifically the attractive women). A single guy (with a good job) could EASILY move to the area and find himself a beautiful down-to-Earth wife. Maybe the economy/lower QOL of the area has alot to do with the locals' bigger focus on quality of people. Some of the worst people I've ever met in life were the type of folks who felt they were too "good" or too "educated" for an area like EKY. In other words, quality of life and quality of people are NOT the same.
If I ever became single again, I know exactly where I'd go to make friends and find my other-half. NYC, Chicago, California, Georgia, North Carolina? Nope; I'd go back to Kentucky for those things in a heartbeat...
I used to live in Eastern Kentucky and I'd like to share some of the advantages to such an area (in the past my posts have been rather negative when it comes to EKY).
It's true that the area is poor with very few decent jobs. However, if you're in a profession that pays well, you'll live like royalty there. Many homes and apartments in the area are well under $500/month. Things such as used cars and auto repair work are dirt cheap too. The area has decent sized cities such as Lexington, Huntington, Cincinnati, and Columbus not too far away.
IMO, the biggest asset in EKY are the people (specifically the attractive women). A single guy (with a good job) could EASILY move to the area and find himself a beautiful down-to-Earth wife. Maybe the economy/lower QOL of the area has alot to do with the locals' bigger focus on quality of people. Some of the worst people I've ever met in life were the type of folks who felt they were too "good" or too "educated" for an area like EKY. In other words, quality of life and quality of people are NOT the same.
If I ever became single again, I know exactly where I'd go to make friends and find my other-half. NYC, Chicago, California, Georgia, North Carolina? Nope; I'd go back to Kentucky for those things in a heartbeat...
I've always said you can't beat the people of EKY, SWV, and SW Va. I love this area and the people. There are some rough areas as far as poor living conditions, but things have improved over the last 20-30 years from what it use to be. A semi-successful person could go there and live like a king, just make sure you don't end up in the wrong family clan.
Not born and raised in East Ky, but came here waaaay back in 75 with husband who is from the area. Coal was booming at the time and one of my husbands friends gave him a call one night and offered him almost twice what he was making as an Electrical engineer a well known factory in Dayton, Ohio.
Our children were young and I wanted to raise them in a rural setting and had always loved the mountains, the quiet life and friendly neighbors. Took me and husband about 10 minutes to say "We're coming"
I can't speak for the other cities and counties in East Ky., but can proudly speak about the progress of Pike County and Pikeville the past 40 some years. The roads were horrendous, windy and two lane all the way through. I did most of my shopping other than groceries and essentials with Sears and other catalogs.A storm could knock out power and phone lines for days at a time and a week or so was not unheard of. Best medical care was either Lexington, Huntington or anywhere else except here.
We have been blessed with good , intelligent, progressive leadership down through the years . We are proud of the accomplishments and regardless of what outsiders say we are not still in the last century. We have a hospital that has grown from a small two story structure into a large medical complex treating everything from diabetes, to cancer to open heart surgery..We are training our own Drs and Drs for any where else at the University of Pikeville that has grown over the years into one of the few Osteopath Schools in the country along with the Registered Nursing School.
We cut through a mountain, relocated the river and railroad tracks to stop the devastating floods that Pikeville suffered through the years. We finally have decent major routes completed from the Ohio line to the Virginia and West Virginia lines Hopefully in this year, our airport will have a few commuter flights in and out.
I am East Ky proud of the changes over the years. However even with the progress, the folks here are still friendly, and willing to help a stranger or sit on the porch with family and friends and watch the kids play .
Yes we have problems like everywhere else in this country with drugs and poverty, but we are making an effort through law enforcement, rehab programs, education, and for the jobless, job training.
I love the quaintness, solitude and friendliness here, raised our 4 children, grand children and now great grand children. I do have to take a trip to the "flatlands" now and then, because that is where I was raised and I miss the big sky where I can watch the storm approach from many miles away and to observe the big starry summer night from a lounge chair. A couple days fulfills me and brings a smile to my face and a song in my heart at first sight of the mountains on my way back home.
Excellent post Miss Blue. Also enjoyed reading others heartfelt thoughts for the area and loved ones. A lot to be said for living around good friendly people. As I read the papers from around the country its easy to see many places have their lots of difficult problems to deal with.
Masonsdaughter, Could you have friends or family living in an area with dsl help ya with getting a site together. You know a lot about how to create crafts, you might be able to put together a Blog, put up some how to tips for making certain things, answer questions and sell your stuff from there. People also use Facebook to promote things they are selling. I know dial up is frustrating, I live in rural Iowa and had to put up with it for a long time. I wish I could help ya.
Last edited by todd00; 03-20-2013 at 10:42 PM..
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But the Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music
