LOST MOUNTAIN (1-85)

In the first section of the book Lost Mountain we are introduced to the author Erik Reece and his pursuit to research and discover the true effects that strip mining has caused to Appalachia forest. His journey so far in this book has been very eye opening to me.
The first chapter of his book focuses on the iconic canary and how its meaning can be related to the current strip mining situation. The way that he has described the act of “tracking and observing” the bird can also be related to the “tracking and observing that going along with the Appalachian mountains that have remained untouched by the strip mining. He describes the disappearance of these birds when he says “Their silence like the Canary’s is also an indication of a much larger problem”. I believe that he is comparing the beauty of the bird to the beauty of the disappearing mountain tops.
The direct consequence to the human population is explained in grave detail when Reece visits with Teri Blanton. Reece takes a tour with Teri in her hometown of Dayhoit. Blanton’s first description of the negative effects of the coal begins with the slurry puddle that was right outside her trailer where he children waited for the bus stop. She called the highway department and they called the coal company and asked them to go clean it up. The coal company responded by driving a large coal truck around the street where she had lived in an effort to intimidate her. She later described how the coal company has poisoned all the wells that her town relied on for their water supply. She listed several people who had died as a result to this polluted water. This conversation was held at the White Star Cemetery where Blanton recalls burying many of her friends and family members. This was a grim realization of the magnitude of negative effects that this mine has on the people of this town.
Reece also described the shell game that the large mining companies play to get out of having to pay for restoring the land after they have completed the mining process. The opposition to this is displayed when Reece talks about Uncle Dan Gibson and how he was defending his step son’s land from being dug up to mine coal. Gibson met the bulldozer operators with a rifle and told them to stop or he would shoot. Gibson was taking to jail by the sheriff. He along with other became icons of the Citizens Coal Council that formed to combat the coal mining industry and try to stop the continuation of this destructive mining.
After reading this first section of the book I believe that the author does a fairly good job giving the readers a detailed description of what he has seen during his time on Lost Mountain. He seems to just tell the story without putting on a biased twist that is often seen in the media. This first section of the book has been a very informative description of the mining process and its negative effects.