Mountaintop removal is coal mining's most efficient and destructive method. Instead of tunneling into mountains, companies blast the peaks off, removing 'overburden' - the forests, topsoil, and rock above the coal seams - and dumping it into adjacent valleys. The coal is extracted from the exposed seam; the landscape is permanently altered. Since the 1970s, over 500 Appalachian peaks have been demolished, 2,000 miles of streams buried, 1.4 million acres affected. The efficiency that makes mountaintop removal profitable makes it devastating: machines do in months what traditional mining took decades, and nothing restores a demolished mountain.

Larry Gibson inherited 50 acres on Kayford Mountain from his grandfather in 1972. When mining companies offered to buy the land, he refused. When they mined around him, he documented the destruction. When they threatened him - shots fired at his cabin, equipment vandalized - he went public, becoming Appalachian environmentalism's most visible voice. Gibson turned his property into Stanley Heirs Park (named for his ancestor Stanley Heirs), hosting visitors who wanted to witness mountaintop removal's effects. He led thousands of people to the overlook, showing them what the industry wanted to hide. He died in 2012, but the park continues.

The overlook at Stanley Heirs Park provides the context that mine permits omit. Standing on Gibson's preserved summit, visitors see the lunar landscape surrounding them: flattened ridges, artificial plateaus, massive impoundment ponds holding contaminated slurry, the ghostly geometry of reclamation. The scale is difficult to process. Mountains that took 300 million years to form are gone. The valleys below are buried under hundreds of feet of rubble. The exposed coal seams are visible as dark stripes in tan rock. The preserved forest on Gibson's land looks wildly out of place - a remnant of what everything looked like before extraction.

Coal demand is declining, but mountaintop removal continues. The destroyed mountains cannot be restored - 'reclamation' involves grading the rubble and planting grass, creating flat land that bears no resemblance to the original terrain. The buried streams don't reappear. The ecosystems don't recover. What's done is done forever. Gibson's park preserves memory, but the region's future is increasingly about what comes after coal: economic transition, environmental remediation, communities finding new purpose when the industry that defined them disappears. Kayford Mountain stands as witness to what extraction costs - and what can't be recovered.

Stanley Heirs Park is located near Kayford, West Virginia, roughly 50 miles southeast of Charleston. Access is limited - the roads cross active mining operations, and permission is required for visits. Contact the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation in advance to arrange access. The park includes the Gibson family cemetery, a cabin, and the overlook providing views of surrounding mining operations. The experience is sobering rather than recreational. The nearest services are in Charleston. The park operates as a nonprofit; donations support ongoing preservation and education. Visit to see what mountaintop removal looks like from inside the devastation.