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Article: MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL: ; W.Va. family has always resisted 'skinners'
- Article from:
- Sunday Gazette-Mail
- Article date:
- September 13, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2009 Sunday Gazette-Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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One of our family stories is that a Mr. Skinner came up Coal
River from St. Albans buying mineral rights at rock bottom prices.
He made his "generous" offer to my ancestor who told him, "You are
Skinner by name and you are Skinner by trade, but you will not skin
old Isaac Barker."
Consequently my uncle owns 40 acres with the mineral rights
intact on Big Coal River in Boone County.
Mountaintop removal strip-mining is closing in from all
directions on our beautiful farm. The farm has 10 acres of fertile
bottom land and a barn built in 1917 by lumber washed ashore in the
1916 flood. The ridge running toward our farm and parallel to Big
Coal River from Ashford to Bull Creek is being destroyed. ...