Black Mountain Kentucky and Mountaintop Strip Mining

The Kentucky coal region is a tough area with its own culture, its own natural beauty, and its endless seams of coal, many of which lie underneath the ground on mountains, rather than below ground.  Many mining companies have taken to shaving off the top of the mountains, but the slag and the unsightliness and pollution caused by the work.  On the other hand, the mountains of Appalachia are both remote and impoverished, and this strip mining produces a lot of jobs.  In this story (which actually won a prize) examines the conflict in the abstract, but always lets the emotion and the human reality of the ongoing difficulties tell the tale.


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