'Mountain State' no more?

[Hubert Flottz]

'Mountain State' no more? Opponents of surface mining hold naming contest

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Foes of surface mining say calling West Virginia the Mountain State is practically false advertising these days, and they're putting their money where their mouths are.

Environmentalists are sponsoring a contest to devise a new nickname for the state and for the West Virginia University mascot, the Mountaineer.

They say that with surface mines blasting the tops off mountains in the state, the old nicknames no longer apply.

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200906290752

Mr. Peabody's coal train done hauled it away...

[Hannah Bell]

1. and still with us....the world's largest private-sector coal company.

http://www.peabodyenergy.com/

[Hubert Flottz]

3. And to think, that Mr. Peabody started out building mountains

[Hannah Bell]

6. what is that?

[Hubert Flottz]

9. Google 'Gob Pile'

[Democracyinkind]

4. Hey Hannah, I bet you can tell me this... Is this the Peabody family of Morgan fame?

Is the company still in family hands? I noticed on their website their history goes back to 1880... If my memory serves me right Peabody and Co. (London) was the firm that started the Morgan empire in the States... Any connection there? or is it just the same name?

[Hannah Bell]

5. funny you should ask, i was thinking about posting it.

The Morgan partner = cousin.



Francis Peabody (the immigrant, b 1612)
|                  |
john 1643         william 1646  
|                  |
david 1678        stephen 1685
|                  |
david 1724        william 1715
|                  |
tom 1765          will 1746
|                  |
george 1795       stephen 1782
                   |
                  francis b 1827
                   |
                  francis s 1857



george peabody (1795) was partner with: 

1) elisha riggs (riggs bank) & 
2) junius spencer morgan, founder of the morgan empire.  

george never married.


cousin francis bolles peabody (1827) was: 

a lawyer & banker in chicago.  

his brother was a banker in nyc. 

one sister married a banker, the other married a
"merchant".


francis b's son francis stuyvesant peabody was the founder of
peabody coal.


The two family lines lived in the same towns (mostly boxford,
mass) up to the generation of george peabody's father/francis
bolles peabody's grandfather.  

even then, the families lived only about 50 miles from each
other until francis b went to chicago.  


i think it's pretty likely francis b's banking career had
something to do with cousin george's connections (because
there were no bankers in francis's line before him); thus
peabody coal did too.


i don't know if peabody coal is still in the family.  i
haven't checked it out, but if it's been privately held for
over 100 years, my guess is yes.

[Hannah Bell]

14. also: Kidder, Peabody:

Francis Peabody (the immigrant, b 1612)
        |
        william 1646  
        |          |
  stephen 1685   john 1695
        |          |
 william 1715    oliver 1725
        |          |
  will 1746       oliver 1753
        |          |
  stephen 1782    will 1799
        |          |
 francis b 1827   francis &
        |         oliver 1831/34
 francis s 1857


http://www.scripophily.net/kidpeabcotra.html

[zbdent]

2. Almost Level ...

(play on "Almost Heaven" by John Denver)

[Lorien]

7. Good one!

I hate to think of what John Denver would think of today's West Virginia. :-(

[Homer Wells]

8. "Almost Level, West Virginia" n/t

[CrownPrinceBandar]

10. West Virginia, the Easy State..............

Easy to tear down our mountains for the coal that does not stay in the state. Easy to destroy folks homes and cherished places for unnecessary power lines that will not provide one watt of power for the state. Easy to pollute the skies and watersheds for said power and coal that will never, ever benefit those in the state, but will benefit the likes of Blankenship, Leer and Harvey (heads of Massey, Arch Coal and CONSOL).

[Hubert Flottz]

11. "Progress" is not a pretty sight...

[CrownPrinceBandar]

12. This is progress..........

Buffalo Creek, 1972. How soon they forget. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Creek_Flood

[Hubert Flottz]

13. That dam "Was In Great Shape" until the minute it gave way.

The very people who "Protect Us" are mainly funded by the very people who want to wipe us all out.

Almost Heathen, West Virginia...where the more things change, the more things stay the same.

[ThomWV]

15. What a load of horseshit - you'd think there wasn't a hill left in the state

When in fact you could spend one hell of a lot of time looking in this state before you ever found a 'mountain top removal' mine site.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

16. How about Boone County............

How about Sundial, WV? http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl (scroll S and W)

How about Bob White, WV? http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl (scroll S on map)

What do you think all those blasted sites are? Alien landing zones? To find these took me all of 2-3 minutes.

[ThomWV]

18. Do you think for a moment that those several thousand acres represent the state?

And yes, I have been to Boone County and in fact I made it a point last year to take two several-day trips to the southern end of this state just to see what it is really like. I rode a motorcycle all over that end of the state on every kind of road I could find with no other object than to see all of the state that I could see. Not one time did I come across a Mountain Top Removal site. There are strip mines of course, many more up here in the northern end than down there (and dam near none in the Eastern Panhandel just in case you didn't know) but none of the devistation that everyone seems to think is prevelent. It simply is not.

Now that is not to say that where it exists it is not horrible thing, but that is not for lack of laws and regulations, it is for lack of enforcement. Of course there is also the topography, but I have never seen one person who raves about MTR that has ever mentioned how that part of the state differs from most of the rest and why you find mining methods used there that are essentially non-existant in the rest of the state.

[NashVegas]

19. Check Out Google Maps / Google Earth

FWIW, Kentucky looks worse. For now.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

20. I'm not going to argue with your anecdotal evidence..........

Because ultimately they're just your experiences and may not represent the truth on the ground. I've given you links to photos of active sites, there have been news reports of folks getting arrested at Coal River, an active site. Hell, Sen. Byrd is even sending some of his staff to talk to folks who have been adversely affected by MTR. I guess they're just chasing ghosts.

You've never seen a MTR site? Fine. I've never seen a black hole either, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

You have a good night, Thom. I'm done here.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. Perhaps it should be now known as "The Bald Mountain" State.