BY GARY WAYNE COX
I believe all Kentuckians have heard that song and like it. It is the most recognized state song in America. Just about everyone who has been to a Kentucky basketball or football game feels a certain amount of pride standing for our state anthem just before the national anthem.
Most people associate the song with the bluegrass region of Kentucky, but as we like to say here in the hills of Eastern Kentucky, “The times they are a-changin’!”
Recently, I took a flight over the new solar farm being built on Wolf Creek. I have flown over it several times, checking on the progress and trying to envision what it is going to look like when completed. I knew it was going to be big, just over 2,000 acres, but I really did not know just how big 2,000 acres would look. I do not know if this is going to be the biggest solar farm in Kentucky, but it has to be one of the biggest.
My flight was late evening. When I got home, I took a shower and went to bed, but I could not get that solar farm off my mind.
When you live in Eastern Kentucky these hills are more than just there. They are literally a part of who we are. No matter where you look, in any direction, you see them. Eastern Kentuckians are attached to these mountains as if they are part of their bodies. Our ancestors are firmly “planted” in these hills. Just go on a side-by-side ride in any area of Martin County, and you will find little cemeteries in places you never dreamed you would. If you are just visiting Eastern Kentucky, you probably do not get this, but those born and raised here know.
Our mountains have been both a blessing and a curse. It is not easy to develop an area that has practically no level land and most of the level land that we have is prone to flooding during heavy rainfall.
When the federal government was building the interstate highway system, we were bypassed. Why? It is much cheaper to build roads on mostly flat land than to build bridges and do hollow fills. When the federal government was building all those military training areas during WWII, and afterwards, we were bypassed. Why? Same reason. Many cities in this country have sprung up around military bases and federally funded projects like dams (Lake Cumberland, Norris, Douglas etc.).
It is not that we have not been given federal money; we have been given billions of dollars. Most of it has been money handed to us but not to help us help ourselves.
In the fifth grade, I witnessed President Lyndon B. Johnson visit Inez by helicopter, part of his War on Poverty. Although I was too young to grasp the full significance, I understood it was an important event. He visited to highlight that poverty in America was not confined to African Americans; there were pockets all over, including our county, labeled the poorest all-white county in America in 1965. Martin County was ground zero.
As I look back over the years I realize that my family was not poor by Martin County standards. He always worked. I never remember a time in my life when he did not have a job and provide for us. He worked in the mines in West Virginia during my grade school years, caught a ride every morning long before daylight with some other Martin Countians and rode past Delbarton, West Virginia, to Island Creek #25 mine. They dropped him off every evening at the corner of our street (I can still see him carrying his dinner bucket to the house). He would eat supper, read the Williamson Daily News from cover to cover (about eight pages) and listen to the Reds on the radio on the front porch. It was too hot to go inside in the summer. I did not know anyone who had air conditioning in Warfield. Dad would get up the next morning and do it all again.
In 1969 the railroad started up Wolf Creek and the major mining operations started hiring men. My dad was one of Martin County Coal’s first employees. It was also the first time he had a management position. In 1973 I would become one of those employees too.
Those soon-to-follow 2,000 coal mining jobs in Martin County did not wipe out poverty, but if you wanted a job in the 70s and 80s you had one. Classmates of mine who never had as much growing up were soon driving new pickup trucks and buying boats to pull behind them.
From 1965 to 1972 government programs tried to change things in our county with modest to no success, but the mining industry made a huge change in just a few short years. Jobs did that. The opportunity to help ourselves is what did that.
These mountains have always provided us with opportunities. In the early 1900s the hardwood trees were logged and exported all over the country. Natural gas has also been exported all over the country. In the 70s, the railroad exported coal to power plants all over the eastern parts of our country and overseas.
The mountains have done their job in providing us with the means to help ourselves. We, however, have not “seized the moment” as we should have.
In “Night Comes to the Cumberlands” by Harry Caudill, he describes the resilient nature of mountain people, shaped by their ancestors who settled in a challenging environment, focusing on immediate survival over future planning. During the prosperous coal industry era, instead of strategizing for long-term benefits, the community used the fleeting wealth from coal taxes for minor improvements, such as free garbage collection and a little black top here and there.
The opportunity was there to work with these large corporations. Some of them invited us to work with them.
In a 1981 article in the Courier-Journal, Tom Owens, manager of communications for Martiki Coal Corporation, said: “We do not like being portrayed as land rapists. We really do want to be good citizens here. We are building a dam that will impound a 40-acre lake on one of our operations that will give people a place to fish and swim. We are doing extensive work with experimental farming on our reclaimed lands, not to see if anything will grow, but how this land could be used by these people for local benefit. We have ideas. We would like to work with the local people to make this a better place to live. But we need leadership to work with us!”
Mr. Owens was talking about Peter Cave Lake, a beautiful, clean lake less than a quarter mile from the Martin County Solar Project. It has been sitting there for nearly 50 years, and no one has tried to make it something for the citizens of this county or tourists to enjoy. It is a gem that no one wants to polish. That is the leadership that Mr. Owens was talking about.
Everyone knows that I am a big proponent of a trail system not only in Martin County but all of Eastern Kentucky. A well-planned trail system that connects all counties would substantially improve the economy of our area. It is not the answer to all our problems. We need other things to bring jobs, but it would be a good start and a less risky venture. We have seen what the Hatfield McCoy system has been doing for the last 10 years across the river. It looks like the Hatfields are outdoing the McCoys again.
I appreciate what some of our local leaders are doing now toward the trail system. They are showing leadership and embracing change. Some people do not want change. Even though I see things about this county that I do not want to change, I know that improvements do not happen without change. I, too, have mixed feelings about this solar farm. I have ridden on that property, enjoyed seeing that beautiful land and have taken people on tours in that very area. The story that I always tell them is about how those mountains were literally picked up by a dragline, turned over, and smoothed out into what now looks like places in Montana.
The solar farm is here to stay for as long as solar power is a profitable way to make electricity. Martin Countians are entering a new era. Our county leaders are entering a new era. We are learning how to live without coal mining jobs. Although the price of coal has been trending upward lately, it is not likely to be a major player in our economy like it was before. Thus, we need to work with our new industry, solar power, but we need them and the people who support them to work with our leadership, too. The perfect place to start is the beautiful Peter Cave Lake next door.
With our county trying to start a trail system, Peter Cave Lake would be the perfect place to develop a campground and a trailhead. A first-class campground will need water, sewage and electricity. I know where electricity is going to be made soon.
That lake that was offered nearly 50 years ago needs to be developed.
“The times they are a-changin’ with or without our local leaders. Now, with solar, “the sun shines bright on our old Kentucky home,” and before long we may have to add another line or two to Stephen Foster’s famous song.
