If you could ever lay out one piece of ground and call it the front line in the battle against mountaintop removal, Kayford Mountain would be it. Larry Gibson and a host of friends on one side, Massey Energy on the other. For Larry, the front lines have been moving closer for nearly twenty years.
I’m going to tell you what I think. If a landowner does not want to sell to the coal industry then that should be the end of story. Also, there should be a buffer zone around the property owners boundary to prevent the industry from destroying private property.
There has been a lot of talk about trespassing lately. One example of trespassing is when the coal industry’s destruction reaches fifty feet or more inside the boundaries of a private landowner.
![](http://endmtr.com/wp-content/images2/2008/07/7-16-014.jpg "\\"Mine Break\\"")
![](http://endmtr.com/wp-content/images2/2008/07/7-16-015.jpg "\\"Mine Break\\"")
![](http://endmtr.com/wp-content/images2/2008/07/7-16-017.jpg "\\"Mine Break\\"")
These cracks in the ground, found anywhere else in the coalfield mountains, would be called mine breaks. Mine breaks occur usually right on top of a mountain. They are caused by either the collapsing ceiling in an abandoned mine or the coal industry backing out of a mine and taking the roof supporting coal with them. In either case it causes the mountain to settle. When the mountain settles it sometimes opens these cracks and we call them mine breaks.
Anyway, that is not what those pictures are. I’m standing on Larry’s property with the MTR site about 30 feet behind me. It was a nearby explosion that first broke this piece of ground and it has been numerous subsequent explosions causing the broken pieces to separate. That is what you call trespassing.
And this…
The tree covered hill in the distance still has all of it’s trees because of Larry’s family cemetery which is also located there. The coal industry mined right up to the boundary. Larry has to have permission from the coal industry to visit his family cemetery. There is just so much wrong with that, it is difficult to even contemplate.
When I go to Kayford Mountain I can’t help but think of it as the front line.
——
Expect more examples of trespassing in the near future.
larry’s property is indeed the frontlines. he is a personal hero of mine… i see him as david against goliath(the coal industry). and we all know the outcome of that story. hopefully it will be the case here, too.
larry is a hero and a crusader for sure.
how come he has not been able to get the authorities to do anything about this? i’m well aware of the reasons that they may be unwilling, but people are accountable for breaks in the law. how much muck has to be raked before larry can receive justice for this?
Public service in West Virginia is best served hot to the coal industry and cold to everyone else. They simply don’t care if Larry’s property gets destroyed but just imagine how fast I would get arrested for being thirty feet on the other side of the line without destroying anything.
Short story here - Before Larry had his mountain celebration a few weeks ago he tried everywhere he could think of to get some kind of law enforcement presence on the mountain during the festival. Even offering $500 a day to off duty police officers. Nobody would do it. He was just trying to make sure trouble didn’t arise because the friends of coal also schedule events on the mountain to counteract the Mountain Festival. Larry is not about violence and intimidation but those are the corner stones of the friends of coal. Public service officials didn’t care that it was a highly volatile situation.
Larry would tell me later with relief in his voice, it was the first time in the five years the festival has been occurring that no violence took place between the opposing sides.
Basically he has no one to turn to over the destruction to his property.
Larry’s a warrior, and an inspiration to all. I’d lay my life on the front line with Larry, as I know many more would also.