Reflection from the Appalachian Solutions Retreat

By Mary Love

On August 20 and 21, KFTC members met in Harlan County to brainstorm around the subject of Appalachian Transition. We gathered Friday at the Benham Schoolhouse Inn to hear from KFTC and community leaders in Benham and Lynch about the tradition of coal mining and the history of community organizing at the foot of Black Mountain.

I was really impressed with the scope of the vision for their communities of Benham, Lynch and Cumberland, including what had already been created with the Benham Schoolhouse Inn (where we met and ate), the Coal Mining Museum and Portal 31 – Exhibition Underground Coal Mine. The community pride was evident not only in the people but in the neat, well-kept homes and streets, not to mention the beauty of the surrounding mountains.

I was even more impressed my fellow KFTC members. Despite being faced with numerous mine permits threatening their vision, they are more determined than ever to look for solutions that can build upon their history and traditions, and provide new jobs and new opportunities.

After our community welcome, we boarded a mantrip for the Portal 31 mine tour in Lynch. This tour is not to be missed! The mantrip takes you back into this high wall mine with a narrator and animatronic miners that speak and demonstrate mining techniques from 1917 to the 1980’s. It is a very professional tour! My friend Truman Hurt from Perry Co. and a retired miner said,â€ "I never intended to go back underground and was nervous heading in there, but they put a lot of work into that. I even found myself bowing my head on the way out so that the curtain wouldn’t knock my hardhat off!  I'm gonna bring my family over to see this and know what I did for those many years.â€

With each trip to Benham and Lynch I learn more about the tremendous courage and perseverance that these miners and their families have as they work, build homes and raise families. I can see how Carl Shoupe, Benny Massey, Elmer Lloyd and other retired miners and KFTC members, can keep fighting for what they believe despite the many challenges thrown at them – it’s in their blood and they won’t give up!

Coming out of Portal 31, we then drove up to the top of Black Mountain, highest point in the state. There on the border of Virginia and Kentucky we saw the heartbreaking contrast between the beauty of the mountain on the KY side and the devastation of radical strip mining on the VA side. To me, the top of Black Mountain represents the options for Kentucky’s future. We can continue on the path we are on and except for its protected peak, Black Mountain and adjoining ridges will be the same on both sides. Or, we can protect what we have and use it to build a better future. Growing up in East Tennessee, I know that beauty can also create jobs.

It was then back to the Inn for a delicious supper and more talk with community members from Benham and Lynch about a micro-hydro electric generating plant, restoring more of the historic coal camp buildings, a small water-bottling plant (the water from Looney Creek is the sweetest, most pure water I’ve ever tasted!), wind power on Black Mountain, and how we all can work to create a secure future and realize the awesome potential in the mountains.

After a good night’s sleep on the other side of Pine Mountain at the Pine Mountain Settlement School, it was time to innovate on how to create a transition to a new, green economy in Appalachia. 

I know that change is hard, and it doesn’t happen overnight, but the potential new jobs, especially for those young people just looking for ways to stay at home in the mountains, is just too great to ignore. And there are great things happening right now. I loved hearing about the home energy efficiency work that Pine Mountain Settlement School is doing – one family’s electric bill dropped over $300 in one month by closing over 8 sq. ft. of holes in outside walls! I’m sure that family can put that extra money to good use.

New gardens and fresh food seem to be springing up everywhere from Harlan Co. to Floyd Co. with some of those folks looking to form or sell at farmers’ markets. People are beginning to reclaim the tradition of self-sufficiency and independence that was a long-held tradition in the mountains.

The challenges facing an Appalachian transition are many. We have to create a grassroots momentum, highlight and create examples to show people it is possible and we have to find political leaders that will listen and lead us through this transition. Maybe most important, we have to find ways that people can talk without fear, express their dreams and act without reprisal. I think that Elmer Lloyd, retired miner and KFTC member from Benham said it best, "A lot of people work in the mines or have family that does. If they could come out and say what they wanted to, this room couldn't hold 'em.â€

I think that KFTC can really help with that. The people of Eastern Kentucky need to know that we are their neighbors, friends and often their family. The people of KFTC share the same hopes and dreams for good jobs, healthy communities and a safe place to raise our children. We are all in this together!