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Missing Mountains: We Went to the Mountaintop but It Wasn't There
This book deals with a subject of the gravest importance---the destruction of the Earth. Kentucky's mountains and the creatures who live there are being devastated by the coal-mining technique known as mountaintop removal.
220 pages, Paperback
First published October 20, 2005
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May 11, 2022
Missing Mountains
Missing Mountains: We went to the Mountaintop, and it Wasn’t There
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
Wind Publications
ISBN 1893239497
“This is a collection of writing that remembers the children who do not have good water to drink or bathe in, the people who travel unsafe roads or live beneath sites that have already sent boulders crashing through their homes. This book calls to account a government that prefers to produce coal for our energy-consuming nation in the quickest, cheapest way rather than to find a safe, more efficient, and respectful method, which would also create jobs for the region. These are writers who support private landowners, independent truckers, and working people, writers who are hopeful of finding a better, less wasteful, and more respectful way of creating a progressive and viable community.” - Silas House.
Silas House wrote these words after participating in the April 2005 Authors Tour of mountaintop removal sites, organized by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. They conclude his Introduction to the book Missing Mountains. House was one of thirty-five Kentucky authors who toured mining communities in eastern Kentucky to investigate and report on mountaintop removal mining. The tops of mountains are blasted away to allow access to the coal beneath them. The resulting book is a remarkable collection of prose and poetry. The commitment of these writers gives me hope.
Within the pages of Missing Mountains, the reader learns of the history and culture of the Appalachian highlands and the destruction of the landscape, the communities, the people, and the region’s economy. The impacts of mountaintop removal are multigenerational, and the writers traveling and working together should represent a wide range of ages.
The age diversity of this group is best represented by seventy-five-year-old Charles Bracelen Flood and his daughter, twenty-five-year-old Lucy Flood. They were, respectively, the oldest and youngest writers on the team. The stories they tell also illustrate the tragedy of mountaintop removal and the political manipulations of its proponents.
Charles Flood’s article, “Blasted Away,” includes this quotation from Mr. Bill Caylor of the Kentucky Coal Association: “These are the same people who would be outraged if they knew where their ground beef came from.” Flood states that this is a response to the writers’ invasion of the “coal company’s fiefdom,” but it is, in fact, much more than that. It is a typical example of how spokespeople of mining and industry attempt to marginalize their opponents by painting them as not connected to reality.
Flood quickly responded that he is part-owner of a farm where beef cattle are raised for market. He sums up his argument, “I know the difference between traditional agricultural practices and the one-time-and-move-right-on permanent destruction of some of the most beautiful scenery in the United States.”
For her part, Lucy Flood tells the story of “Appalachia Extinct.” Aside from the missing mountains and trees, one small life is missing in her story. That life belonged to a three-year-old boy, asleep in his bed when a boulder crashed through the house and killed him. The boulder was dislodged when a coal company illegally widened a service road above the house. She says, “The coal company appealed the $15,000 fine for the boy’s death.”
These stories are set in Appalachia, and the book would not be complete without the four-part essay by Loyal Jones, illustrating the culture of the mountain people that endure this tragedy. The initial part is titled “Appalachia Meets the Outside World.”
Jones questions the stereotypes of Appalachian people and illustrates the problems imposed on them by the outside world, including both government agencies and coal companies. After exploring “Mountain Humor” and “Mountain Music,” Jones addresses the religious aspects of the struggle in “God and Mountaintop Removal.” Jones provides the backdrop against which the stories and poems take place.
An equally illustrative, though more poignant picture of the mountain peoples’ struggle against the coal companies is provided by poet Gurney Norman in “The Ballad of Dan Gibson,” a true story of holding the land in the face of the strip mining companies. It ends with these stanzas:
“So, they took old Dan to the Hindman jail
But he got out on a sudden bail
Put up by his neighbors and all of his kin
So he could fight the strip-miners again
Dan’s fighting them now, with a thousand others,
Who in this war are all blood-brothers,
Bound to defend each other’s land
From the ruin of the greedy strip-mine band.”
Appropriately, this poem precedes Wendell Berry’s essay, “Compromise, Hell!” Berry, known as the dean of Kentucky writers, also contributed his essay “Contempt for Small Places” and the Afterword to the book. His final paragraph sums up the efforts of the thirty-five writers - many of whom are not cited in this review:
“And so, I return to my opening theme: it is not a vision of the future that we need. We need consciousness, judgment, presence of mind. If we truly know what we have, we will change what we do.”
Missing Mountains: We went to the Mountaintop, and it Wasn’t There
Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
Wind Publications
ISBN 1893239497
“This is a collection of writing that remembers the children who do not have good water to drink or bathe in, the people who travel unsafe roads or live beneath sites that have already sent boulders crashing through their homes. This book calls to account a government that prefers to produce coal for our energy-consuming nation in the quickest, cheapest way rather than to find a safe, more efficient, and respectful method, which would also create jobs for the region. These are writers who support private landowners, independent truckers, and working people, writers who are hopeful of finding a better, less wasteful, and more respectful way of creating a progressive and viable community.” - Silas House.
Silas House wrote these words after participating in the April 2005 Authors Tour of mountaintop removal sites, organized by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. They conclude his Introduction to the book Missing Mountains. House was one of thirty-five Kentucky authors who toured mining communities in eastern Kentucky to investigate and report on mountaintop removal mining. The tops of mountains are blasted away to allow access to the coal beneath them. The resulting book is a remarkable collection of prose and poetry. The commitment of these writers gives me hope.
Within the pages of Missing Mountains, the reader learns of the history and culture of the Appalachian highlands and the destruction of the landscape, the communities, the people, and the region’s economy. The impacts of mountaintop removal are multigenerational, and the writers traveling and working together should represent a wide range of ages.
The age diversity of this group is best represented by seventy-five-year-old Charles Bracelen Flood and his daughter, twenty-five-year-old Lucy Flood. They were, respectively, the oldest and youngest writers on the team. The stories they tell also illustrate the tragedy of mountaintop removal and the political manipulations of its proponents.
Charles Flood’s article, “Blasted Away,” includes this quotation from Mr. Bill Caylor of the Kentucky Coal Association: “These are the same people who would be outraged if they knew where their ground beef came from.” Flood states that this is a response to the writers’ invasion of the “coal company’s fiefdom,” but it is, in fact, much more than that. It is a typical example of how spokespeople of mining and industry attempt to marginalize their opponents by painting them as not connected to reality.
Flood quickly responded that he is part-owner of a farm where beef cattle are raised for market. He sums up his argument, “I know the difference between traditional agricultural practices and the one-time-and-move-right-on permanent destruction of some of the most beautiful scenery in the United States.”
For her part, Lucy Flood tells the story of “Appalachia Extinct.” Aside from the missing mountains and trees, one small life is missing in her story. That life belonged to a three-year-old boy, asleep in his bed when a boulder crashed through the house and killed him. The boulder was dislodged when a coal company illegally widened a service road above the house. She says, “The coal company appealed the $15,000 fine for the boy’s death.”
These stories are set in Appalachia, and the book would not be complete without the four-part essay by Loyal Jones, illustrating the culture of the mountain people that endure this tragedy. The initial part is titled “Appalachia Meets the Outside World.”
Jones questions the stereotypes of Appalachian people and illustrates the problems imposed on them by the outside world, including both government agencies and coal companies. After exploring “Mountain Humor” and “Mountain Music,” Jones addresses the religious aspects of the struggle in “God and Mountaintop Removal.” Jones provides the backdrop against which the stories and poems take place.
An equally illustrative, though more poignant picture of the mountain peoples’ struggle against the coal companies is provided by poet Gurney Norman in “The Ballad of Dan Gibson,” a true story of holding the land in the face of the strip mining companies. It ends with these stanzas:
“So, they took old Dan to the Hindman jail
But he got out on a sudden bail
Put up by his neighbors and all of his kin
So he could fight the strip-miners again
Dan’s fighting them now, with a thousand others,
Who in this war are all blood-brothers,
Bound to defend each other’s land
From the ruin of the greedy strip-mine band.”
Appropriately, this poem precedes Wendell Berry’s essay, “Compromise, Hell!” Berry, known as the dean of Kentucky writers, also contributed his essay “Contempt for Small Places” and the Afterword to the book. His final paragraph sums up the efforts of the thirty-five writers - many of whom are not cited in this review:
“And so, I return to my opening theme: it is not a vision of the future that we need. We need consciousness, judgment, presence of mind. If we truly know what we have, we will change what we do.”
February 14, 2021
Perhaps it’s because I’m a Kentucky gal or maybe it’s because one of my former teachers is a contributor that I love this book so much.
But I don’t think either of those are why I love it. I love it because I’ve been to the mountaintop and it WASN’T there.
I’ve seen firsthand the destruction of mountaintop removal.
We cannot continue to use up land and people for profits.
To use Vonnegut’s words: Not opposing industrial rape and rapine is morally equivalent to watching the Nazis take over Germany and doing nothing to stop them.
Mountaintop removal really is a rape of Mother Earth and we are the cronies sitting idly by watching the big show, or perhaps not & simply watching our televisions and other devices that suck on the teet of this evil industry.
“When we know what we have, we change what we do.”
Wendell Berry
But I don’t think either of those are why I love it. I love it because I’ve been to the mountaintop and it WASN’T there.
I’ve seen firsthand the destruction of mountaintop removal.
We cannot continue to use up land and people for profits.
To use Vonnegut’s words: Not opposing industrial rape and rapine is morally equivalent to watching the Nazis take over Germany and doing nothing to stop them.
Mountaintop removal really is a rape of Mother Earth and we are the cronies sitting idly by watching the big show, or perhaps not & simply watching our televisions and other devices that suck on the teet of this evil industry.
“When we know what we have, we change what we do.”
Wendell Berry
December 21, 2013
This book is the product of the Arthors Tour who witnessed firsthand the beast they call mountaintop removal. From an airplane, the people who make their living from writing books were speechless. It left me speechless at times. The book is a collection of essays,poems, and testimonials from the people of Kentucky. It is an emotional book. You feel anger,fear, compassion, but for me, it made me so sad. I love Kentucky. I am not a native but I consider it my second home as I have lived here longer than anywhere else. I recently went to a strip job in Knott County Ky. I literally went to the mountain and it wasn't there. As you look down on the land littered with beer bottles and pipelines you just want to scream. I did. As I look at my daughter looking out over the desecration, I wonder what she is thinking. Probably, "What will be left for MY daughter?" I could go on and on because it is a subject that struck a very sharp chord deep within my heart, but I won't. Most people just tell me, "It is what it is." Maybe, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or stand idle as we destroy our mountains. This book is a nice primer if you are interested in the raping of the Appalachian Mountains.
It would be no small advantage if every
college were...located at the base of a
mountain...It were as well to be educated
in the shadow of a mountain as in more
classical shades. Some will remember, no
doubt, not only that they went to the
college, but that they went to the mountain.
---Henry David Thoreau
It would be no small advantage if every
college were...located at the base of a
mountain...It were as well to be educated
in the shadow of a mountain as in more
classical shades. Some will remember, no
doubt, not only that they went to the
college, but that they went to the mountain.
---Henry David Thoreau
November 4, 2007
This was a bookclub read. It is a collection of essays by Kentucky authors including Bobby Ann Mason and Silas House about the effects of mountain top removal for coal mining.
The authors visit Kentucky towns where mtn top removal has devastated the natural habitat and made communities unlivable. Eye-opening and emotional, this book shows the devastation going on in our own backyards.
The authors visit Kentucky towns where mtn top removal has devastated the natural habitat and made communities unlivable. Eye-opening and emotional, this book shows the devastation going on in our own backyards.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews