Topic: Part of a course on energy and the environment OR labor OR socioeconomics, etc.

Students: Advanced-intermediate college students

Linguistic objectives: Relevant vocabulary; build discourse from series of photographic images; past-tense constructions; critical thinking: articulating ideas based on prompts. Later component could consist of writing exercise and debate.

Introduction to Coal Mining

• What kinds of mining do you know about?

• [View of Dad’s farm, then…] What’s the other major type of coal mining?

Vocabulary

• Black water: wastewater contaminated by the byproducts of industry
• Gob pile = slag heap = dump of mine dust, shale, clay, low-quality coal, and other impurities
• Sludge: thick mud mixed with industrial waste
• Spontaneous combustion: fire (deep in the gob pile)
• Tailings

Buffalo Creek

• Find the vocab terms in the photos.
• Describe what you see in the pictures from before 1972: what is going on?
• Describe what you see in the pictures from after 1972: what happened?

Quicktime movie: Buffalo Creek.

Handout

ACT OF MAN

From the West Virginia Division of Culture and History…

“As part of its strip mining operations, the Buffalo Mining Company, a subsidiary of the Pittston Coal Company, began dumping gob — mine waste consisting of mine dust, shale, clay, low-quality coal, and other impurities— into the Middle Fork branch as early as 1957. Buffalo Mining constructed its first gob dam, or impoundment, near the mouth of Middle Fork in 1960. Six years later, it added a second dam, 600 feet upstream. By 1968, the company was dumping more gob another 600 feet upstream. By 1972, this third dam ranged from 45 to 60 feet in height. The dams and coal mine waste had turned Middle Fork into a series of black pools.”

From Appalshop…

“The evolution of the coal industry in Appalachia between 1870 and 1910 resembles the pattern of colonialization of undeveloped countries in other parts of the world. This pattern of industrial exploitation and control lingers: in l980 ten coal or coal-related corporations owned seventy-five percent of the privately held land in Logan County; two-thirds of the nonpublic land in West Virginia was owned or controlled by energy companies or out-of-state investors.”

“At the time of the Buffalo Creek disaster, the Pittston Company owned 374,969 acres in Appalachia, making it the fifth largest corporate landowner in the region. Headquartered in New York City, Pittston also owned an oil company, Brink’s armored car company, forty percent of the warehouses in New York City, and a large trucking firm.”

“It was from studying the Buffalo Creek disaster that psychologists conceptualized and diagnosed “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”(PTS), a diagnosis that was then utilized in treatment of Vietnam veterans and continues to be used with other military and civilian trauma victims.”

From the West Virginia Division of Culture and History…

“In the days preceding February 26, 1972, rain fell almost continuously, although experts later claimed this was typical for late winter weather in the area. Buffalo Mining officials, concerned about the condition of the highest dam, measured water levels every two hours the night of the twenty-fifth. Although a Pittston official in the area was alerted to the increasing danger, the residents of the hollow were not informed. The company sent away two deputy sheriffs, who had been dispatched to assist with potential evacuations…

“Just prior to 8:00 a.m. on February 26, heavy-equipment operator Denny Gibson discovered the water had risen to the crest of the impoundment and the dam was “real soggy.” At 8:05 a.m., the dam collapsed. The water obliterated the other two impoundments and approximately 132 million gallons of black waste water rushed through the narrow Buffalo Creek hollow… In a matter of minutes, 125 were dead, 1,100 injured, and over 4,000 left homeless.”

From Everything in Its Path by Kai T. Erikson…

“The 15- to 20-foot black wave of water gushed at an average of 7 feet per second and destroyed one town after another. A resident of Amherstdale commented that before the water reached her town, ‘There was such a cold stillness. There was no words, no dogs, no nothing. It felt like you could reach out and slice the stillness.’”

“My son will not go to bed at night without plenty of clothes on because he says that if the dam breaks again he doesn’t want to get cold. My daughter… liked to play with dolls before the flood, but now she punches out their eyes and pulls their arms off… They both seem to be carrying a burden too heavy for children their ages…”

Act of Man
by Ethel Brewster, Shelva Thompson, Shelby Steele, 1975

Down in the valley, where the poor people live,
There came a disaster I’ll never forget.
It came one morning around about eight,
They gave them a warning, but it came too late.

The waters came rushing like a big tidal wave.
They ran for the mountains, they ran for the caves.
But the water overtook them, their homes and their lives,
Killing little children, husbands and wives.

Now the coal company squabbled over who was to blame.
They blame it on God, and there damn his name.
For the people who lived there know who was at fault,
For on that sad morning murder was wrought.

Now standing on a hillside, left all alone
A father stood weeping while the coal rolls on.
For the company has no feeling for what they have done—
They killed his wife, his daughter and son.

Now they won’t be punished for what they have done—
Just poor people died there, not a rich man or his son.
For they live in fine mansions from the wealth they have stole,
But God will have vengeance, or so I am told.
But God will have vengeance, or so I am told.