Interests Outside the Region

by Jan Rehmann

Central Appalachia was not “left behind” by the Industrial Revolution, explained Bruce Kuhre, sociology professor at the University of Athens, but rather made it possible. It was an “internal colony” providing it with the raw materials it needed. At the heels of the lumber barons came the mineral hunters mapping out the sites for coal mining, oil and gas. A colonial economy, characterized by absentee ownership, with 80% of the land and of the minerals belonging to “interests outside the region”. The hills gutted out, families living in trailers: People and nature devastated alike. The abandoned mines spill their poisonous acids into creeks, streams, and rivers. We can see and smell the foamy liquid exiting a mine cave, covering the stones with an artificially shiny white (like tooth paste ads), while the people still complain about their drinking water turning rusty or black.