Photo, Print, Drawing Aerial view of Catenary Coal's Samples Mine, a Mountaintop Removal project at the head of Cabin Creek

About this Item

About this Item

Title

  • Aerial view of Catenary Coal's Samples Mine, a Mountaintop Removal project at the head of Cabin Creek

Names

  • Eiler, Lyntha Scott (Photographer)

Created / Published

  • October 26, 1995

Headings

  • -  Fall
  • -  Mountaintop removal
  • -  October
  • -  Reclamation
  • -  "Big John," the dragline
  • -  Blasting sites
  • -  Samples Mine
  • -  Valley fills
  • -  Photographs
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  West Virginia -- Cabin Creek

Genre

  • Photographs
  • Ethnography

Notes

  • -  Event: Helicopter tour of Coal River and Mountaintop Removal Sites.
  • -  In the 1990s, mountaintop removal and reclamation became the mining method of choice for coal operators in central Appalachia. Mountaintop removal and reclamation entails blasting apart mountains in order to retrieve multiple seams of the low-sulphur bituminous coal, which came into greater demand following the passage of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. Excess rock and rubble are then dumped into adjacent streams and hollows, forming what is known as "Valley Fill." Much of the coal mined in southern West Virginia is "steam coal," used in producing electricity, but some is used to produce steel as well. This photo offers a view of Catenary Coal Company's Samples mine, named for Eugene Samples, a company executive. Various stages of the mountaintop removal method are visible here, including the holes drilled for blasting, the valley fills in progress, and "Big John," a dragline with a 53-cubic yard scoop which loads rocks and mine spoil dislodged by blasting into rock trucks and then dredges out the coal.

Medium

  • 35 mm Color Slide

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1999/008: CRF-LE-C050-11

Source Collection

  • Coal River Folklife Collection (AFC 1999/008)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • image

IIIF Presentation Manifest

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Credit line

Coal River Folklife Project collection (AFC 1999/008), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Eiler, Lyntha Scott. Aerial view of Catenary Coal's Samples Mine, a Mountaintop Removal project at the head of Cabin Creek. Cabin Creek West Virginia, 1995. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/cmns000145/.

APA citation style:

Eiler, L. S. (1995) Aerial view of Catenary Coal's Samples Mine, a Mountaintop Removal project at the head of Cabin Creek. Cabin Creek West Virginia, 1995. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/cmns000145/.

MLA citation style:

Eiler, Lyntha Scott. Aerial view of Catenary Coal's Samples Mine, a Mountaintop Removal project at the head of Cabin Creek. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/cmns000145/>.