A few weeks ago I wrote a post entitled Bolt Mountain, Under Attack!! That may have been a little dramatic at the time. Mainly because I wasn’t 100% sure if what I was seeing was a mountaintop removal site. It was too far in the distance. Friday, with my friend from Ohio, I went searching for the new site.
I kind of wish we hadn’t but at the same time I’m glad we did.
This photo shows the site from quite a distance. I’m actually standing just down from Rte 99 on a gas well road. The mountaintop removal site is about two miles away as the crow flies. Or in a straight line from me to it - for all of you non-hillbillies. 
If nothing else - one thing good came of myself being homeless in these hollows. I know my way around and I knew the names of the ridges and hollows between myself and the site - maybe it would be safer to say I had a pretty good idea.
From where we were standing the ridge directly in front of me was Peachtree ridge. If you drive up Peachtree road from route 3 you will go about 7 miles and Drews Creek hollow turns to the right. Which would make the mountain the site is on somewhere in Drews Creek. (I realize a lot of people who visit this site will have no clue where I am talking about but those that live locally will know exactly where I’m talking about.)
From the way the ridges line up I estimated the site to be somewhere in the vicinity of Spring Hollow in Drews Creek.
Sometimes I really do hate being right. In this case I was exactly right. This new mountaintop removal site is in the very head of Spring Hollow in Drews Creek on the mountain that separates Drews Creek from Hazy Hollow.
There are a few reasons this strikes close to home for me. The first being - it literally strikes close to home. I grew up in Peachtree Hollow just a couple of miles back down the road from here. I spent my entire childhood and a lot of my adult life roaming these very hollows.
Since this is my stomping grounds I felt pretty comfortable stopping and talking with people I have known forever concerning the new MTR site. The first house we stopped at, which was about a mile away from Spring Hollow had no idea what was going on. The only thing they knew was the explosions was knocking pictures off the walls. The second house we stopped at was even closer to the new site by maybe a half of a mile. They thought it was a logging company up there and had no idea where the explosions were coming from.
The last house was about 5 miles away from the site by road and about 2 miles as the crow flies. There we talked with Elbert and his wife Alvie. This family has always been my second family. I grew up close by and spent just as much of my childhood here playing with Elbert’s boys as I did at home.
I’ve always enjoyed stopping in and talking with Elbert even after I grew up. They are a family that is very close to my heart. For years people have been driving up and down this hollow and glanced up on the hill to see Elbert waving from his front porch. Any other visit to his house and you would be kept enthralled for hours of hunting tales, camping, area history you name it and if it happened in Peachtree, Elbert could tell you something about it. But now they are afraid. Elbert and Alvie’s house is falling down around them. This is the front corner and is supporting a large eave portion as well as the entire front porch.
Alvie sat and talked to me for the longest in years. Her pictures are falling off the wall. The foundation is coming apart all around the house. This is an old couple that have intentions of dying right there. Everything they know resides within a few miles. I think they damn well deserve to live the rest of their lives in peace. They made this house a home for a reason. And I can guarantee you that reason wasn’t to move late in life. Which is exactly what the coal industry would love to see.
The explosions in the head of Spring Hollow that rattle my windows - approximately ten miles away - are the same explosions that are tearing Elbert and Alvie’s house apart.
Massey Energy only thought I was a nuisance before.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
“Or in a straight line from me to it - for all of you non-hillbillies. ”
One question…. Do you wash your clothes or do you “worsh” them?
March 24th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I actually lost a lot of my mountain twang from years outside of WV. But in answer to your question - I actually just let them pile up and when I want to get all fancied up - I call in duke the old hound dog and let him lick the beer stains outta my bibs and then they are just as good as my Sunday go to meetin’ clothes. Thems my other bibs…
March 24th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Good answer Denny, I’ll have to try that with my dog. It sure will save alot of worshens.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:45 am
you should post this over on the Stop MTR blog….. the more personal stories, the better.
March 25th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
LOL, good 1 Denny… I didn’t mean to make light of the story either.. It always just bugged me when my parents said worsh…
I agree… [ost these on the stop MTR blog.. and don’t forget to remind all your fellow bloggers to update their links to the new URL
March 25th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Blue and Brian - I plan to do a more in depth post on the Stop MTR blog. I have to do some information gathering first.
Brian and Dennie - I never said it like that even before the outside influence.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:20 am
“It is also a shame when a coal giant can just move into an area and start blasting without telling a soul.”
This is what makes me the angriest. Coal companies have lobbyists. Residents of Spring Hollow do not.
This is going to continue until people get fed up and riot, I’m afraid. I say “riot” because I don’t think any amount of protesting or fines will stop Massey Coal. It’s going to take something so big that it makes doing the wrong thing a lot more expensive and problematic than doing the right thing.
It’s sad that that’s what it takes. Bullies will only respond to bullying. The people are going to have to bully them into doing the right thing, because nobody else is looking out for us.
March 31st, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I agree with you one hundred percent Rebecca. People are getting fed up just a little more every day. People tell me I’m running out of patience - Elbert and Alvie is one reason I’m running out of patience and opinions be damned - I’m going to continue to run out of patience.