As one web surfer indicated by email, we have not added any reclaimed mine lands on this web site. I have hundreds of photos including photos of reclaimed mountain top removal sites and will post them here as I can get them uploaded. 

 

   Once again I would like to point out that WVCOALHISTORY.COM web site is not a site designed to bash any particular method of coal mining. We simply want to provide a little bit of information about all types of mining being done in West Virginia.I fully understand the controversy that currently faces mountain top removal. I think that some people really do not see the whole picture when attempting to stop the method completely. The economy being what it is now, what would all of those currently employed by this method of mining do if they had no job tomorrow? And it really doesn't stop with just equipment operators on the site. There are literally thousands of people all across our country who depend on coal mining to support their families. Being called harsh names by web surfers and accused of being ignorant doesn't hurt my feelings or belittle me in any way. I have personally spent 25 years as an underground miner starting at my first job in a 27 inch Red Ash coal seam, and I have survived those 25 years so I promise you dear web surfer, I am not ignorant.

 

   Is mountian top removal bad for the environment?  Sure it is, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that. But so does underground mining. As stated on a previous page of this web site, so does anything else man does. But we don't seem to complain about it. When a mountain is blown away to make room for an interstate highway to make our traveling easier.. we are fine with that. Or when acres are removed and leveled, clear cut to the bone to make room for a new High School or Wal-Mart, again, no complaints. If we stopped everything that we are currently doing that actually harms our fragile ecosystem, we would all end up walking every place we go and live in caves. But once again, coal mining is a vital part of the economy of West Virginia, it has been since the birth of the state and will be until a need for coal is no more.

 

   If any of you have photos that you would like posted on this site, please feel free to drop me an email and I will consider them for posting. Giving you full credit for the photos if you so desire.

   

   In speaking to one coal miner who works a strip mine site in Logan County, he said something that made good sense to me. He said that, "We really need to reclaim our sites better than we do, planting hardwoods and plant species that are native to the state and location that was mined. Many people hate the strip mining method but we do take a mountain top and convert it to beautiful level acreage." 

   Reclaimed mine lands are really beautiful places. In past years as the valleys are hit hard by massive flooding, why would it not be feasible to open these lands to housing development. Even the Yaeger Airport in Charleston was constructed on reclaimed strip mining lands.

   The Arch Mineral and Wyco sites in Logan County are two sites that are nice to look at and explore on ATV. One area of the land was indeed planted in oak and blue spruce.Please click on the thumbnail of the photos below to view the picture fully.