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All the United States West Virginia Dorothy Stanley Heirs Park

Stanley Heirs Park

This small West Virginia park is a land trust holdout against mountaintop removal mining.

Dorothy, West Virginia

Added By
kyle hayden
The stage at the campgrounds.   casualmonolith (Atlas Obscura User)
A small range of mountains southwest of Kayford.   casualmonolith (Atlas Obscura User)
A mountaintop removal mining site in Kayford, WV, seen from the northern tip of the Stanley Heirs Park.   casualmonolith (Atlas Obscura User)
A reclamation site seen from Stanley Heirs Park.   casualmonolith (Atlas Obscura User)
Not everyone in Kayford is interested in stopping surface mining: local activist Junior Walk points out some bullet holes in a camper on the site.   casualmonolith (Atlas Obscura User)
A mural showing the message of Keepers of the Mountains.   casualmonolith (Atlas Obscura User)
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About

Sitting near Kayford Mountain, the Stanley Heirs Park used to be the lowest point (a saddle pass) in a range of West Virginia mountains. Now, it's the highest.

This is because the large mountains near Kayford have been blown off by mountaintop removal mining. A man named Larry Gibson turned the site into a land trust held by family members so that it could be saved from surface mining. From the campsite, you can see huge mountaintop removal sites and reclamation zones.

Local guide Junior Walk, an activist and environmental writer who works through Friends of Mountains and Coal River Mountain Watch, used to work as a security guard for an energy company that practiced "surface mining" but one day found he couldn't take it any more. Some locals didn't take kindly to his exposure of the harmful effects of mining, and their pushback can be seen in the bullet holes that dot campers around the campsite.

Related Tags

Mountains Mining Preservation Parks

Know Before You Go

Call or get in touch with Friends of Mountains (304-542-1134) or Coal River Mountain Watch (304-854-2182) before going. The site is remote and difficult to get to. It may be untravelled for several months out of the year (December through February).

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Added By

casualmonolith

Published

February 26, 2019

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