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Fortunes made and lost

Started by Faron, January 01, 2007, 08:28:58 AM

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Faron

Last week I was approached by an outfit wanting to drill on my farm and my Dad's exploring for coal.  Locating the seam of coal they were looking for there would result in what to me is an awful lot of money, but would also mean strip mining parts of our farms.  :-\ A water well on one farm has begun pumping little chips of coal in recent years, so we knew some coal was there.   My daughter was a little concerned about the possibility of mining close to her house.  My six year old grandson  is normally crazy about big equipment.  Took him to watch the drilling, and he was obviously not at all happy with what was taking place.  My wife and I, and I am sure my parents also, wondered how to balance mining with the life and land we love.
The first hole showed 9" of coal 117 feet deep.  The hole on my place yielded nothing.  The third yielded 10' of black stuff. :o 8) 8)  Problem is, the black stuff which looked to me like coal is slate. Looks like coal, but they say it won't burn.
And so it ends.  Looks like we won't be moving to Beverly Hills any time soon. :D :D    Am I disappointed?  Not really.  We know that lots of people end up no better off, and often worse off after digging coal.  Now we don't have to decide if we want to tear up our land and change our way of life.  I think if we had, my grandson would have  stopped speaking to me. ;) We don't have to watch our land torn up, nor worry about damaging my daughter and SIL's new home. nor ours, nor our neighbors'.   And heck, why does someone as blessed as I am with family and friends need money anyway? ;D ;D  Have a wonderful new year, ya'll!  I sure intend to.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.  Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote. - Ben Franklin

Sprucegum

I am glad you missed the "brush with prosperity" . So much money may have kept you too busy to visit us here  :-*

Tom

I was told once that I wouldn't be happy if I hit the lotto.  I'd sure like to try it one time.

The problem with mining is that your whole life goes away.  The house and the land mean more to a man, who is getting ready to lose it, than those to whom it doesn't belong. 

Waking up everyday to the same trees, the same sounds, the comfort of family, the admiration of grandchildren all is difficult to put a price upon.

The coal will remain while you use the surface, so there's no big hurry.  The slate might be formation of more oil. We've never confirmed that it isn't an on-going process.

While it's a shame you will have to wait for your millions, I'm glad that you are still around to post. :)

Onthesauk

I know someone who hit the "Lucky for Life" lotto, gets a check for $25,000 + per year.  Her lament now is that "if she could just hit the lotto again she could get by."  It's not about luck but living with what you've got.
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DR_Buck

Wife's family live in the middle of VA coal country and most of them work in and around the mines.   It's a tough life and the coal companies are the only one that make money.    Also, whether they strip mine or deep mine you'll loose all of your drinkable water.  Almost everywhere down where the family lives is now on city water or carry bottle water in to where city water is not yet available.

I know we need the energy and coal provides it, but mining in any form destroys the land FOREVER.
Been there, done that.   Never got caught [/b]
Retired and not doing much anymore and still not getting caught

Faron

I figure the good Lord knew what he was doing when he put or didn't put coal down. 
Who am I to argue?  Could be these grandkids need this land as an anchor and refuge lots worse than I need money that I wouldn't know what to with anyway.  You know, that was kind of driven home to me after Christmas.  We have 6 nephews (brothers)who are young adults.  They had a real rough time growing up, and we weren't in a position to be very much help to them, or so we thought.  As kids they visited a few days or weeks at a time.  Five of them and their families came up for a evening after Christmas.  As we visited and looked around the farm, they talked about things they had seen and done here as kids.  One comented "You know, almost all our happy memories happened right here!"  I have to say that put a lump in my throat.  Really, they have bucked the odds, and I think they are going to be all right.  I don't know how to put a price on a place that means that much to someone who doesn't even own it.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.  Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote. - Ben Franklin

logwalker

There are no guarantees in life but sometimes they get what they need. Throw those coal-diggers into the next county! They might need that place more than you know. Joe
Let's all be careful out there tomorrow. Lt40hd, 22' Kenworth Flatbed rollback dump, MM45B Mitsubishi trackhoe, Clark5000lb Forklift, Kubota L2850 tractor

DanG

Faron, I like your attitude about this.  You sure seem to have a good sense of what is really important in this life. :) :)
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Gipper

Faron, be thankful you don't have the coal under you and have to make the decision to allow them to mine or not!  I live in the heart of the coal fields on eastern KY, and if you want to see the destruction of the land, take a drive through this area and on into the southwestern part of VA. and W. VA.  I have lived here all my life (nearly 60 years), and have seen it go from underground mining to uncontrolled surface mining, to stricter regulated surface mining, and now to "mountain top removal" and "thin seam contour" mining, which is another term for auger mining.

The mountain top removal method is one of the most destructive methods one could ever imagine.  It simply removes the top of the mountain, placing all the rock, soil, etc, in the valley, thus ending up with large tracks of "level" land, which is rare in this area.  Therefore, they justify their actions, and those in state government allowing it, by saying this level land can be used for economic development.  There are a few success stories of developement on reclaimed strip mine/mountain top removal sites, which led to increased numbers of permits being issued.  Now we have a lot more mountain tops removed than we can ever have developed economically.

Needless to say, with me having sawdust in my blood, I do not like to see trees destroyed.  To the large coal companies, a tree is just something in the way of them getting to the black gold underneath the soil.  Yeah, they usually have a logging company to get  the "marketable" timber out before the big equipment gets there.  They get the top dollar trees and the rest is pushed over and burned or burried under tons of rock and dirt.  (its against state regulations to cover the timber, but there's not enough inspectors to be on all the sites all the time.)  >:(  It's probably evident that I'm anti the methods of mining used today.  Not at all opposed to the deep mining method, although it, too, damages the water supplies.  A lot of our rural areas still do not have public water systems, and the private well water is no longer drinkable.  We have had to buy our drinking water for years and it has about become unusable for any purpose, even with a filtering system on it.  I realize that the coal industry has been the lifeline of this area and will until all is gone.  My father worked 39 years in and around the coal mines, so yes, we reaped some of the benefits of the coal industry.  It's the current methods I oppose.   I could go on and on, with some horror stories that have happened here relating to the coal industry - some to me personally,  >:( but for the sake of space, I will now get off my soap box and hush. 

Gipper

Faron

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone!   :) :)   :) Gipper, I understand what you are saying.  Pike and Warrick counties in Indiana are very heavily strip mined.  Thousands of acres here were strip mined in the past and no reclaimation done at all.  The soil was just left in piles, and pines sometimes planted on them.  In the mid 70's laws were passed forcing reclaimation.  At first, it just pretty much meant knocking the top off the spoil banks. I have to admit, as time goes on, they do a better job all the time.  There are now a few areas here that have been reclaimed and are now farmed that look like they raise a decent crop most years.  I wonder how much it cost to put this particular area in that condition.  Standing on my dad's grain bins, I can look south and see the edge of thousands of stripped acres less than a mile away.  This area has been leveled more or less, and planted in mostly black locust.  There are good fishing pits there, and beaver in abundance.  It is a pretty good wildlife area.  The farther south you go, the older the mine site, and the less that has been done.  This area runs for many miles south.  Several acres of reclaimed land 1/4 mile west of Dad's farm as well. 
In 1881 , Pike County had a population of over 20,000.  Now it is about 12,000.  Much of that stripped land was farmland of various productive capacity and those areas account for much of the drop in population in the 20th century. The land pays little property taxes, so those of us left have to make up the difference. Residents used to use the mined areas for recreation such as hunting, fishing, mushroom hunting, and ATV riding.  The coal mines are now leasing  those areas to big city hunting clubs, and they do not intend for locals to so much as hang a toe nail on their lease land.  They will try to run you off land they don't have leased, if you let them. >:(  Coal has been a big part of the economy here for years, but like you, I wonder if we wouldn't really have been better off without it.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.  Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote. - Ben Franklin

Part_Timer

Congrats on the lost fortune,  would have been sad not to speak to the grandson.
Peterson 8" ATS.
The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

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