Top of page

Photo, Print, Drawing Aerial shot of the coal processing plant at Elk Run, West Virginia, an A.T. Massey operation.

About this Item

Title

  • Aerial shot of the coal processing plant at Elk Run, West Virginia, an A.T. Massey operation.

Names

  • Eiler, Lyntha Scott (Photographer)

Created / Published

  • October 26, 1995

Headings

  • -  Fall
  • -  Mountaintop removal
  • -  October
  • -  Reclamation
  • -  Coal processing facilities
  • -  Elk Run (W. Va.)
  • -  Photographs
  • -  Ethnography
  • -  West Virginia -- Boone County
  • -  West Virginia -- Boone County -- Sylvester

Genre

  • Photographs
  • Ethnography

Notes

  • -  Event: Helicopter tour of Mountaintop Removal and Reclamation on Big Coal River watershed.
  • -  Through mountaintop removal and reclamation, the coal industry is introducing several new landforms to the coal fields. One of the introduced landforms is the "wet refuse impoundment," a structure designed to store the waste from coal preparation plants. At the Elk Run Preparation Plant in Sylvester, an A.T. Massey subsidiary, coal from surrounding mines is cleaned through a process called "flocculation," which separates ash from coal, making the coal lighter to ship and cleaner to burn. Federal clean air and water legislation prohibits the release of waste water from the cleaning process into streams. Coal companies therefore must store the waste water somewhere for treatment (known as "dewatering.") The solution is to store the "fine refuse" in large hollows behind impoundments made of the coarse refuse. These structures, which are hundreds of feet deep, are known locally as "sludge ponds." Sludge ponds in the project study area are located at Shumate's Branch, Marfork, and Elk Run. Elk Run is noted as a pivotal site in union history. It was at Elk Run that the A.T. Massey Coal Company established the first non-union mine in (check date), as part of a campaign to establish what E. Morgan Massey termed a "union-free climate for running coal." As we approached Elk Run, Benny Campbell commented, "This is A.T. Massey country here."

Medium

  • 35 mm Color Slide

Call Number/Physical Location

  • AFC 1999/008: CRF-LE-C037-08

Source Collection

  • Coal River Folklife Collection (AFC 1999/008)

Repository

  • American Folklife Center

Digital Id

Online Format

  • image

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright protection (see Title 17, U.S.C.) or any other restrictions in the material in this collection, except as noted below. Users should keep in mind that the Library of Congress is providing access to these materials strictly for educational and research purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other holders of rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. See our Legal Notices and Privacy and Publicity Rights for additional information and restrictions.

The American Folklife Center and the professional fieldworkers who carry out these projects feel a strong ethical responsibility to the people they have visited and who have consented to have their lives documented for the historical record. The Center asks that researchers approach the materials in this collection with respect for the culture and sensibilities of the people whose lives, ideas, and creativity are documented here. Researchers are also reminded that privacy and publicity rights may pertain to certain uses of this material.

Copy photographs of numerous historical still photographs owned by Woody Boggs and Rick Bradford were made and are reproduced here with permission of the owners.

Researchers or others who would like to make further use of these collection materials should contact the Folklife Reading Room for assistance.

Credit line

Coal River Folklife Project collection (AFC 1999/008), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Eiler, Lyntha Scott. Aerial shot of the coal processing plant at Elk Run, West Virginia, an A.T. Massey operation. West Virginia Boone County Sylvester, 1995. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/cmns000116/.

APA citation style:

Eiler, L. S. (1995) Aerial shot of the coal processing plant at Elk Run, West Virginia, an A.T. Massey operation. West Virginia Boone County Sylvester, 1995. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/cmns000116/.

MLA citation style:

Eiler, Lyntha Scott. Aerial shot of the coal processing plant at Elk Run, West Virginia, an A.T. Massey operation. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/cmns000116/>.