Day 4 Afternoon

After a Heavenly Ham picnic lunch, we headed to SHM which builds and repairs highwall miners. Highwall miners mine 20,000 - 200,000 tons in a month. The machine costs $8 million. An estimated $15 million is needed in total machinery. 200-300 dollars comes from each ton. The machine runs 1000 feet underground and can cut from 28 inches to 15 feet high. If the seam is 30 inches, you might do one or two 1000 foot holes in a day. A wonderful thing about highwall mining is that there are no people underground so there is much less danger than underground mining. Maintenance is constantly being done while the miner is running. The miner might run for 20 years. Underground continuous miners will have about 9 people on a machine to only 3 people needed for a highwall miner. Less people are needed and they must be very computer literate because so much of the opertion is computerized. Young people have no problem running the machines. 12 feet wide is the maximum width cut by a highwall miner, and it must be self supporting roof for the highwall miner to be used. A continuous miner will mine 20 feet wide so it needs beams to hold up the roof. It takes about 22 tractor trailers to move a highwall miner. This was a very interesting experience and I look forward to being sent more information which I can use for my math classes as I teach about functions. I plan to use information about how many tons are mined, to time taken per ton, to costs to run the machine. Together with information about other mining methods, we will eventually use the information for students to debate the pros and cons of different types of mining. There will definitely be issues to debate focused on everything from safety, to impact on the environment, to employment differences.

Day 4 Morning

Day 4 Morning began at the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine. We rode through the underground mine, and I made sure to sit on the side closest to the inside wall. Last year when I came, I sat on the other side and it was a challenge to see anything! Marvin was our guide, and he was a lot of fun. He worked in a mine for 24 years. He did a very nice job describing the tools used to make sure the miners' air was safe. Marvin explained that canaries would die after 5 minutes of methane exposure and miners would have 15 minutes to get out. Later methods advanced and lights were used to guard against methane and black damp, or lack of oxygen. We saw how bolts were put into the top to support the ceiling, too. Then we went through the coal town and saw how small the miners' homes were. A three room home was normal, including a kitchen, living room, and bedroom. When kids came into the picture, the living room became a bedroom. Here are some pictures of the mine and the town. The final picture is of a one room shanty for a single miner or man away from his family for the week.

Day 3 Afternoon

The second part of day 3 began with a search for a dry place for lunch. We had a picnic, then we headed to Nuttallburg Abandoned Coal Community. The first 2 pictures are of Nuttallburg. We trekked out toward the old coal tipple. A couple of groups did water samples and discovered high conductivity in the water. Both positions had conductivity readings over 125 so there is a lot of metal in the water. Then we discovered we could not go all the way to the tipple because work is being done to create trails in the area. After that we went to the New River Gorge Welcome Center to see the bridge. The third picture is of the bridge. We even traveled below the bridge to get a unique perspective. Unfortunately to see the bridge I got out of the van in poison ivy. I am praying I do not get it. My husband just got over having it for weeks. We were given about 30 minutes in the hotel before Bob Evans so I rushed to shower before dinner to fight the poison ivy. To end a good day, I am so pleased to be in my hotel room before 8! Thank you Dennis and Steve!

Day 3 Morning

Day 3 morning began with waking up in my favorite hotel from our adventure last year. We were in the Lewisburg Holiday Inn Express. One of my favorite things is the beds having 2 firm pillows and 2 soft pillows. They are even marked for you! Ok, on to today. We began with a drive up to Joe Knob - what an adventure! Van 2 piled into our van, and we started the bumpy trek up the mountain. The rain began pouring, and we saw a huge lightning bolt that flashed for such a long time. That was a really amazing sight. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to take a picture. Ok, since it was raining so much we did not get out of the vans, but we did have Dr. Mike Little in the van so he talked us through the trip up the hill. The area is a huge mountain top removal production. The company is reclaiming the land, but it is not nearly as biologically diverse as the Yellow Creek area. There is also an area called Buck Lilly Gob Piles which is full of the unused remains of the coal. He explained that there are people who work for the Department of Environmental Protection who monitor the water as their full time job. It is like a different world when you start bumping up the road and see the desolation from the removal of the mountain. Driving on the main road, people would have no idea of the changes taking place on the mountain just a few feet from the road. This was the only picture I got from this experience.

Day 2 Afternoon

Day 2 part 3 began at Coketon Douglas where we saw some very orange rocks and water due to the pyrite released during mining. It was hot and sunny and my team worked so well together to gather our data. We tested at an area where a very orange stream met a greenish stream. The orangish stream full of pyrite was more acidic by about 1.5 than the greenish stream which was treated with limestone. Then we traveled down to the amazing orange waterfall.

Day 2 part 2 began with a nice bathroom break at Blackwater Falls after 4 hours in the wilderness. We had a picnic lunch and then had a few minutes to walk the 214 steps down to the waterfall. It was beautiful. Now we are on the way to a very orange, very uninhibited waterfall.

Day 2 Morning

This morning we went to Yellow Creek which was our first opportunity to collect water samples. This area is one of the earliest coal mines. The mining was complete and the mine abandoned by 1906. The gray rocks in the area are sandstone. All the water is acidic, but it is not because of pyrite. We walked out to a unique environment that was like a self-contained little world. There were little sundew surrounding the bog water. The ground was covered with sphagnum moss which made it very soft, and the ground would pull in your shoes. The area was full of cotton grass, ferns, and low bush blueberries. I even picked my own blueberries! I am really acclimating to the environment because a huge spider climbed up my foot, and I just knocked it off without incident!