Top Ten Rock Creek Stories of the year.
Will Wickham and Glen Collins use U-Locks around their necks to lock down to big yellow machinery on Kayford Mountain, May 23, 2009. photograph by antrim caskey 10. Climate Ground Zero staff increases from four people to over forty full time volunteers, then Ivan shows up and our food budget doubles. 9. We kicked Marcel’s horse out of dilapidated Number Four House and did a complete makeover. Then Guin moved in and now we miss the horse. 8. We get a goat to eat all of the poison ivy. Goat eats everything but the poison ivy. 7. We get a new sign for the Ford Addition Road on Route Three. Charleston newspaper publishes detailed directions to our houses. House and new sign get paintballed. 6. Seeds of Peace kitchen is replaced by Everybody’s Kitchen’s famous kitchen bus. Food stays just as good but there is no coffee in the morning. We miss Grumbles. 5. Of the forty people living here on Rock Creek, Dr. Bob is the only one who hasn’t been arrested yet. He is our cook, carpenter, accountant and dentist. We don’t have a dental plan, but we do have a dentist. 4. Sergeant Smith and Lt. Bowers crash big party on the Ford Addition and order us, then beg us to tell Nick and Laura, two tree sitters in their second day of shutting down blasting on the Edwhite mountain top removal mine, to come down. Support crew delivered the sitters warm squash soup in their trees, but forgot to mention it. They came down voluntarily on the seventh day, suffering from sleep deprivation due to constant harassment by Massey employees. 3. Ford Addition’s Rock Creek grill chosen to cook the half of pig donated by a neighbor to Larry Gibson’s annual Fourth of July Celebration of the Mountains. The other half was donated to the Massey coal miners who live just down the road. Their BBQ must not have been as good as ours because a different miner came over to Larry’s for a hot dog, and is now a You Tube celebrity. 2. Two young women bump into some strip miners as they make their way up and out onto the three hundred foot boom where they shut the dragline down for half a day. Lt. Bowers had to go up and arrest them. Then they get charged with battery. Isn’t this a crazy town?
1. Climate Ground Zero, against all odds, survived the last year of the first decade of the twenty First Century. Not only that, the campaign to end mountain top removal has grown into a full blown movement. Climate Ground Zero has been cited as one of the top news makers of the year by several media outlets. In West Virginia, Rock Creek has become the symbol of resistance, and Coal River Mountain is where we draw the line. We are looking forward to keeping up the struggle over the next year and want to thank everybody for their support over the last one. We hope to see you here on Rock Creek.
Have a good 2010, you all.