BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — A group of Martin County residents pressed the Fiscal Court on Thursday to intervene in what they say is an unlawful closure of the only road to multiple family cemeteries on a reclaimed strip mine in Pilgrim.
Minnie Maynard of Pilgrim told magistrates that she had spent months talking to officials without relief.
“For eight or nine months I have talked to every gentleman on the fiscal court,” she said. “The only one that I’ve not talked to is the lady that says she’s the ‘horse lady’ that’s got the gates. And nobody is helping us.”
Maynard said her 78-year-old mother has been unable to visit her mother’s grave since Easter because of the gates.
“And then she had to drive over the roughest road,” she said. “I thought we were going to have to take her to the hospital. I need help now about the gates; I need somebody to take them down.”
Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty told residents that “no one has a right to put a gate on a county road” and promised an investigation to determine whether Maynard and Jude forks are, in fact, county roads.
Jessica Preece recounted a July 4 medical emergency regarding her mother on the cemetery.
“We couldn’t get to the top of the hill without going through her gates, trespassing, to get service to call an ambulance,” Preece said. “We had to load her on a side-by-side and take her home to get an ambulance to get to her.”
She explained how she got her mother to the cemetery that day.
“I took Bear’s truck through the creek,” said Preece. “Water even got in the floorboard. There’s no way an ambulance is going to get up through that creek to get up there to that cemetery.”
The road “has been open to the public for years,” according to Preece. She handed the court a formal complaint letter signed by families affected by the gates.
Bill Howard, another resident, accused the nonprofit Appalachian Legacy of not only erecting the gates but also failing to control the horses kept on the property.
“Horses go where they want to,” Howard said. “I’ve got pictures of where they’ve been on my property, destroying even the trees. She was supposed to have taken the money from the solar company and had something fixed for these horses. She goes and hauls more out of other counties and brings them to us. She’s got 40 head back there now.”
Howard also raised concerns about access to natural gas wells located on the land.
“I can’t even get to the gas wells,” he said. “You’re not allowed to do that,” he said.
Howard explained that the property Appalachian Legacy has leased is under a coal mining bond “because it’s in bankruptcy.” He told magistrates that reclamation bonds require the road to be maintained for 10 years.
Assistant County Attorney Lynette Muncy said if the road is public, the county can act. But if it is private, the residents would need to take action against Appalachian Legacy.
Preece questioned what gives Appalachian Legacy authority over the horses. She stated that she has found “five or six GoFundMe accounts” set up by the organization.
“She’s collecting a lot of money,” said Preece.
She added that the owner of Appalachian Legacy is flooding social media with derogatory comments about people from Martin County.
“Everybody has just been nice to the lady,” Preece assured.
For now, the Fiscal Court will investigate, leaving the families to wait for a determination on whether their road to the cemetery belongs to the county.
Editor’s note: This story was updated Sept. 2, 2025, to correctly identify Minnie Maynard.