Clays Branch Revisited
Posted on April 15, 2008 | By Denny Tyler | No Comments
I consider myself to be a pretty perceptive guy – usually. Since taking the photos of the mountaintop removal site in Clays Branch it seems I just can’t quit looking at them.
Tonight while looking at them again I saw something in the photos that completely escaped my attention while looking at the site. In my defense though, there was a lot to take in. But anyway, this photo pretty much was the only angle I could get of the site simply because the operation was so big. While I was standing out on the point of the clear cut mountain I thought to myself the second mountain I could see was just prepped for mining but it had not yet been mined although I did find it peculiar. At the time I had so much else to see it never really registered as to what exactly it was I was looking at.
Turns out what I was looking at was what was left of a mountain that had already had its top removed. It used to be about the same height as the mountain shadowing it. The reason I realized this is because in the photo you can see how far they have progressed in taking off the top of that mountain. I don’t think you can have a better visual as the one pictured here. The furthest mountain has undergone the first stage of what will most likely be many stages in taking the coal from its interior. The mountain that – for the most part – still has it’s top is next in line, followed by the mountain I am standing on.
Now that I have come to realize the top of the first mountain is pretty much gone already, my curiosity about where they are depositing the overburden has ramped to new heights. Imagine the volume of debris just in the work they have completed so far. There is another hike in my near future. Only next time, I’m coming at it from a different angle.
Our remnants of wilderness will yield bigger values to the nation’s character and health than they will to its pocketbook, and to destroy them will be to admit that the latter are the only values that interest us. – Aldo Leopold
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