On Sunday, July 26, about 500 people gathered in Orgas, West Virginia, along Coal River Road for a Mountaintop Removal Rally. The rally was organized by the Coal River Mountain Watch, and primarily sponsored by Appalachian Voices, an environmental group from Boone, NC. Cosponsors were the Citizens’ Coal Council, Heartwood, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Trees for the Planet, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, and the West Virginia Organizing Project. The rally was promoted throughout West Virginia and neighboring states as an opportunity for citizens to share their experiences and concerns, and learn how to protect their homes and communities.

Pilot Hume Davenport of SouthWings, an environmental air service, provided flyovers of mountaintop removal sites for residents and the media from Saturday through Monday.

Attendees enjoyed free chicken dinners, children had their faces painted, and toes tapped to the music of the popular Bluegrass band, Everett Lilly & Clear Creek Crossin’.

The program opened with a welcome by Randy Sprouse, Coal River Mountain Watch organizer, who with the assistance of his wife, Debbie, and a small handful of helpers, made the event happen. Then, Harvard Ayers, chairman of Appalachian Voices introduced the speakers: 17 local community members, visitors from other states, and politicians, and 3 little girls took the mike.

West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler and his pal, lawyer/entertainer George Daugherty, "the Earl of Elkview," took to the stage and sang song parodies together: "Almost level, West Virginia...." and "Ne’er again will our rivers run free."

Hechler said, "Take West Virginia back from the coal companies and politicians!" Daugherty said, "Don’t let ‘em do it to you -- tell ‘em to go to hell!" The crowd clapped and hollered their approval.

Freda Simpkins, of Beech Creek in Mingo County, told how her community’s wells were drying up because of blasting. "With deep mining, if you lost your water, the coal company would furnish water, but, with strip mining they don’t have to." She said the residents bear the cost of drilling new wells.

James Weekly, of Blair in Logan County, asked, "What gives the coal companies the right to take our home from us?" "We’re the ones that have to protect our home," he said, "the politicians aren’t gonna do it."

Frank Young, Vice President of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and resident of Ripley in Jackson County, said, "We don’t have mountaintop removal in Jackson County, and our economy is just great -- and we want to keep it that way." "Folks," he said, "it’s time for a revolution," and the crowd cheered. He urged the crowd to throw "the Cecil Underwoods, who represent only the coal companies and their thugs" out of government forever. And the crowd cheered again.

Carlos Gore, of Blair, said, "When we stick together and fight together, we’ll win a small battle, and that’s a step closer to a bigger battle."

"Don’t let nobody push you away from where you were born and raised," he urged.

Patricia Bragg, of Mingo County (which is looking forward to 8,000 acres of mountaintop removal) said the coal companies’ "Field of Dreams" is a "Field of Nightmares" for the community.

They told their stories -- their problems, their anger, their fears, their hopes, and their intent -- and the message was loud and clear: "Take the power back from the coal companies and the politicians, and stop mountaintop removal now and forever."

For Randy Sprouse of Sundial -- former coal miner and son and grandson of coal miners, now grassroots organizer -- this maiden effort of the Coal River Mountain Watch was a success. And a most promising beginning.

Appalachian Voices is a non-profit, grassroots group dedicated to protecting and restoring the fragile and threatened native ecosystems of the Appalachian Mountains from Alabama to Maine.

Appalachian Voices is currently waging four campaigns: to stop the proliferation of wood chipmills which encourage clearcutting on private lands, to halt the air pollution that is killing trees at higher elevations throughout the mountains, to end the Forest Service’s commercial timber program on public lands which lose millions of tax dollars each year, and to end mountain top removal in West Virginia and neighboring states. _