Sunday became an enjoyable day of driving the hilly coal country of Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia. The focal point of this area is Hazard, Kentucky. The town is located in Perry County, and the town and county are named after Oliver Hazard Perry who tweeted during the War of 1812: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." Meaning, I guess, that he beat Romney in the umpteenth Republican debate.
The coal in this area is abundant, and derives from the Pennsylvanian Period, 318 million to 299 million years ago. During this period in this area swamps proliferated, resulting in oxygen-deprived decayed vegetation that formed into peat. The peat was compressed by overlying layers of sediment and formed coal. The reference books compare the terrain to the modern Okefenokee Swamp, which makes sense as Pogo, in a Perryesk moment, said, "We have met the enemy and they are us."
(Notice that I haven't made any reference to a connection between the 'Dukes of Hazzard' and Hazard, Kentucky, but check Wikipedia--its there).
Getting back to coal, it is quite evident as you drive through the area. Its this single horizontal band of black. There are road cuts that show what appears to be coal covered by several hundred feet of sandstone and mudstone rock. In many places in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky, the coal companies are removing the several hundred feet of rock, dumping it into adjacent valleys and then surface-mining the coal. The dumping is known as "holler fill." Precious. And its legal under the Clean Water Act.
I drove through Williamson, West Virginia, just over the border from Kentucky. On the side of a building were two signs. One sign read, 'Ron Paul for President'. The other sign read, 'Legalize Coal.' I didn't get the connection. But I don't get mountaintop mining either.
Mileage: 580. Cumulative mileage: 1,198.
