Rape of the Mountains - A Personal Perspective

by Anita Miller

They are beginning to rape another hillside. The cutters have come in and clear cut everything that stands.

This is very distressing. I grew up in those hills, climbed those trees that now lay on the ground ready to be burned up. It was just a few years ago that my Dad and I went ginseng-ing up those hills. When I was just a kid, PawPaw Caudill and I would walk up on the old strip mine road and look for chunks of coal. He was blind so I would find the coal and he could feel it and tell if it was good or not. We then would roll the chunks down the hill to be picked up later.

Every October my family gets together for a camping trip. This has been going on since I was born. For years we camped in the same spot, then the mines moved in and took over. Then we moved to Berrys Branch; the mines have taken that area. Then, three years ago we moved up behind the home place at Mud River. The mines have now cut all the trees above the camp site and plan on putting in a sludge pond.

My grandchildren love to camp, but this tradition of camping may end soon, because the mines are taking all the mountains.

Strip mining is a horrible thing. When we drive in that area my granddaughter can't even look at the destruction. At 11-years-old, she can understand how much we need the mountains. She asked me one day, "MawMaw, don't they know we need the trees?" I hate the fact she won't experience the same enjoyment out of the mountains that I did.

(Ed. Note: The Miller/Caudill homes on Mud River were featured in the March 2006 National Geographic article, When Mountains Move.)