Since the late 1800’s, coal has been the lifeblood of Southwest Virginia. Coupled with the railroad that transported the coal out to the rest of the world, they became the sustaining industrial backbone for this region. The two industries together created a thriving and prosperous population on which many lives and lifestyles were founded.
The various coal towns that sprang up around the mines were bustling centers for trade, community and religious and race diversity. At one time, the little coal town that I live in had a huge hotel, a theater, beer garden (bar), company store, and so much more. It was home to hard working families that depended on Coal for their livelihoods.
Today, all of the once thriving coal towns are nothing but pitiful, lonely shells of what they once were and represented. Many of the families moved away when the mines began shutting down in the late 60’s and early 70’s, which marked the beginning of the inevitable downfall and near abandonment of the towns.
There were a few die hard souls that stayed on, continuing to carve out a life in these mountains. A large number took jobs in nearby Tennessee working for Eastman Chemical. Others branched out into whatever work they could find. Still others were able to hold on to jobs working in the mines and for the railroad.
Now, almost all of the mines are gone and just very recently so are the railroad jobs. Due to Obama’s never ending war on coal, the rail line that runs through this area, one of the main lines that Clichfield (Now CSX) had, has been shut down and there are rumors that some of the line will be taken up, I guess to be used in other areas.
The all too familiar sound of the train horn blowing at regular intervals are gone. The rumbling of the mighty engines as they pulled a mile long line of coal cars out of the nearby rail yard is silenced forever. Hundreds, if not thousands of jobs are no more. Lives have been changed, and not for the better. In essence, those of us that still live in these little towns now have nothing as far as jobs go. To make a decent living, a person has to travel, in some cases, up to two or three hours, just to get to a job.
Thanks to our inept government and the millionaire, tree hugging lobbyist’s that are more concerned with something that could POSSIBLY happen in thousands of years, many areas of the south, particularly Southwest Virginia and West Virginia, have now been cut off from progression. We are basically left with nothing.
The only thing that could possibly pull us out of this hole is for tourism to take off and transform this area into another Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg, but that in and of itself would take years.
So, here we are, left holding the bag yet again. In my opinion, some rich coal related company should come in and reopen some of these mines, there is still a lot of coal left in these mountains.
However, as long as politicians like Obama and his cronies are around and running things, those of us left in these little towns and backwoods areas will do what we’ve always done. Hunker down and survive. The Appalachian Mountains have been good to us in the past, now it’s time for them to do it once again.
And that is my opinion.
This Hillbillys Opinion 