west virginia.
the only state in america carved out of another by popular vote.
a land of misty appalachian peaks, small towns,
and a dramatic gorge created
by one of the oldest rivers in the world.
but it's also a state that's known great conflict.
it was in west virginia
that a famous raid in the name of freedom
brought the nation one step closer to civil war...
and where battles of that war
still fire up passions on its streets today.
here, ancient rainforests left behind
deep veins of buried treasure...
that men and machines have been ripping from the earth
for more than 150 years.
and are now causing entire mountaintops
to simply disappear.
and where one former miner
struggles to save his family's land from the same fate.
in west virginia,
three of america's great mountain ranges converge--
and almost every valley holds a different surprise.
from a legendary resort
that hid a top government secret for decades...
to a futuristic facility
where astronomers are discovering
how the universe may have been formed,
to a place known as america's taj mahal.
for the mountaineers that climb its famous peaks,
to the rafters that ride the "big five,"
this is almost heaven: west virginia.
in 1943 a group of officers from the u.s. army's
elite mountain training group in colorado
arrived here in west virginia.
they needed a place to train world war ii soldiers
for their upcoming deployment
to the rugged mountains of northern italy.
they chose one of west virginia's
most iconic landscapes:
a series of jagged peaks that tower 900 feet over the valley--
a place called seneca rocks.
they set about creating
a wilderness assault training school.
for more than a year
soldiers clambered over this impressive formation,
practicing how to muffle the sounds of their hammers,
and to work as a team to master the rock face,
while communicating only with hand signals.
some of the men would use skills learned here
to scale the cliffs at normandy on d-day.
many of the steel pitons the soldiers hammered
into the walls of seneca rocks
are still here today,
but to spot them can require climbing
some of the toughest routes in the east.
thousands flock here every year,
to slowly ratchet themselves up to the summit.
but at least 15 climbers have perished on these peaks
over the last 40 years.
those who make it to the top
embody one of west virginia's state mottos:
mountaineers are always free.
seneca rocks was named after the senecas,
a native american tribe that used this area
as their hunting ground
before european settlers started pushing them off their land.
west virginia's rugged landscape
makes it stand out from its neighbors.
it's here where the allegheny, blue ridge,
and appalachian mountains all converge
and give west virginia the highest average elevation
of any state east of the mississippi.
and that can make for some pretty unique communities.
at first, the tiny town of green bank, population 143,
may look like many west virginia towns:
one main road, a few houses, and lots of trees.
but there's something else going on here
that's impossible to see.
when these students
at green bank elementary-middle school
go home, they won't be allowed
to surf the internet on a wi-fi connection
or text their friends.
that's because this 21st century technology
is strictly limited here,
thanks to a futuristic facility that towers over the town:
the robert c. byrd green bank telescope.
it's as long as a football field,
and even though it weighs 17 million pounds,
can pivot on command--
which makes it the largest fully steerable telescope
in the world.
it's part of the national radio astronomy observatory,
a collection of giant telescopes
that help create images of outer space
by using faint radio waves from distant galaxies...
radio waves that are helping researchers
to unlock the mystery
of how stars and the universe were formed.
this site was chosen for the observatory
because the surrounding allegheny mountains
act like shields,
to keep earth-bound radio signals,
from television antennas and radio towers,
from interfering with the researchers' work.
but even west virginia's rugged mountains
can't stop all modern technological signals.
that's why the federal communications commission
has created a radio-free zone
for 13,000 square miles around green bank,
a zone the size of massachusetts and connecticut combined.
today, astronomers may come to these mountains
to explore outer space,
but in the 1700s it was european settlers
who flocked here to explore west virginia itself.
but as these white pioneers paddled their way
through this mountainous new land,
they came into conflict with the native american tribes
that had lived here for centuries...
conflicts that would soon end in war
and lead to one infamous murder
that spawned a famous west virginia legend.
it all started on what's now the state's border with ohio,
at a site called point pleasant,
where the ohio and kanawha rivers converge.
long before wagon trains
were crossing the great plains to the american west,
this was the wild frontier,
where white settlers clashed with tribes like the shawnee.
violence soon followed.
atrocities were carried out by both sides,
including kidnappings and killings.
by 1773 hostilities had reached a fever pitch.
the next year the governor of virginia, lord dunmore,
sent two armies, with a total of 2,500 soldiers,
to subdue the shawnee and other native tribes.
when one of those armies arrived here at point pleasant,
it was ambushed by 1,200 shawnee warriors,
led by their chief, named cornstalk.
but he and his men suffered heavy losses
and retreated across the river to what's now ohio.
soon after, the shawnee were forced to relinquish their claim
to all of their land south of the ohio river.
today an obelisk stands on the site
of the famous battle of point pleasant
and marks not only one army's victory,
but also how that battle cost the shawnee
hundreds of square miles of land
that were then opened up for settlement.
but despite his tribe's great loss,
the story of chief cornstalk wasn't over quite yet.
three years later the chief returned,
seeking to forge peaceful ties with the settlers.
in 1777, he arrived at nearby fort randolph,
to warn the american soldiers in the fort
that some members of the shawnee had taken sides with the british
and could pose a threat.
what happened next is re-enacted here in point pleasant each may,
in a reconstruction of the original fort.
as the re-enactment begins, the chief, dressed in red,
arrives to deliver his news.
but his reception isn't what he expects.
inside, he's taken hostage.
later, outside, a virginia soldier is killed while hunting.
an angry local mob seeking revenge rushes into the fort...
and enters the building where chief cornstalk is being held.
anyone nearby at the time
would have had no doubts about what happened next.
the shawnee chief's peaceful mission ends
with his own murder,
at the hands of the settlers he had come to protect.
one year later, in may 1778,
hundreds of shawnee and other native american warriors
seeking to avenge the chief's murder
lay siege to the fort...
starting with an all-out assault.
some of these re-enactors are descendants
of the original settlers and native americans
who fought in the siege.
the battle lasted less than a week,
and the american soldiers were able to repel the attack.
but in the end, many believe that chief cornstalk
had the last word-- from his grave.
the story goes that as the great shawnee chief lay dying,
he placed a curse on the area--
a curse that some believe led to a series of mysterious events.
beginning in the 1960s,
residents claimed they'd seen a winged monster,
an oversized humanoid with 10-foot-long wings
and fiery eyes,
that they named "the mothman."
and which went on to become the inspiration
for a 2002 film starring richard gere
called "the mothman prophecies."
the film is based on events in 1967
when, just days before christmas...
a bridge over the ohio river collapsed at rush hour,
sending 37 vehicles into the water below
and killing 46 people.
investigators concluded that a cracked eyebar
caused the bridge to fail.
but at the time, some locals believed
the curse of chief cornstalk was to blame.
[native american singing and drumming]
long before supposed sightings of the mysterious mothman,
native american tribes like the shawnee inhabited
what's now west virginia for hundreds of years.
but this state holds evidence of even earlier inhabitants, too.
like this giant mound of earth-- in a town called moundsville.
around 200 bc, a people known as the adena
were living here in the kanawha river valley.
to create a burial mound they piled up 60,000 tons of earth,
basket load by basket load, over a period of 100 years.
today this landmark is known as the grave creek mound.
it's the largest remaining burial mound of the adena.
inside, archeologists discovered burial chambers,
copper jewelry, shell beads, and even skeletons!
researchers still don't know why the adena
built a mound this big here in west virginia.
but there are some people right here in moundsville
who've had plenty of time to try and solve that mystery.
that's because many of the windows in the cellblocks
of west virginia's infamous state penitentiary
look right out on the grave creek mound,
and once offered convicts a perfect vantage point
to contemplate the lives of these ancient americans.
but doing time in west virginia hasn't always meant
being locked up in tiny cells with hardened criminals...
especially if you're america's homemaking queen.
in 2004, white-collar convict martha stewart
served five months here at the alderson federal prison camp.
first opened in 1927, alderson
was the first federal prison built exclusively for women.
after stewart started serving her time here,
the media nicknamed this minimum-security facility
"camp cupcake."
forbes magazine called it
one of america's ten "cushiest" prisons.
with brick buildings and green open space,
it looks more like a college than a prison.
stewart described her stay here as "horrifying,"
but said she coped by imagining herself at yale university.
those who come to stay at alderson federal prison camp
pretty much know what they're in for.
but not far away lies a west virginia landmark
that managed to hide a very deep u.s. government secret
from its guests for almost half a century.
here in white sulphur springs, the greenbrier resort
is one of west virginia's most historic buildings.
founded in 1778, its high profile guest list
has spanned the history of the nation--
from andrew jackson to jessica simpson.
but until the early '90s,
very few of those who checked in here
knew of the secret that lay below them.
it was only discovered by the washington post in 1992,
when it reported that the u.s. government
had built an enormous bunker under greenbrier,
starting in the 1950s,
to shelter the u.s. congress and the president
in the event of a nuclear attack on washington.
it was a top secret facility called "project greek island"--
a vast 112,000-square-foot facility
protected behind 20-ton steel blast doors.
entrances to the bunker can still be spotted today
from the air.
inside, visitors can now get a tour of the facility
that once held decontamination chambers,
a television studio, dormitories, and meeting rooms
where the house, senate and president
could continue to run the country in the event of war.
the resort was originally built here
because of the area's healing sulfur springs
that fed the nearby greenbrier river...
just part of the nearly 40,000 miles of rivers and streams
that flow that flow through this appalachian state.
it was one of these waterways
that inspired a famous american song,
made its singer a star,
and became a much-loved west virginia anthem.
singer john denver may be best known
for his rocky mountain high,
but it was a song about west virginia
that first brought him fame:
the 1971 hit single "take me home, country roads,"
a song that celebrates the beauty of this appalachian state
in its opening lines:
"almost heaven, west virginia,
blue ridge mountains, shenandoah river."
"take me home" reached number 2 on the billboard charts
and has been practically a state anthem ever since.
but while "take me home" caused many to think
of the shenandoah as a west virginia river,
only a small piece of this waterway
actually flows through the state.
and it's not the first river that comes to mind
for most west virginians.
that honor likely belongs to the new river,
which cuts a path right through the appalachian mountains.
today it's the heart of the new river gorge national river,
part of the national park service,
and one of west virginia's natural treasures:
70,000 acres of protected wilderness
that hug this winding waterway
as it flows north through the center of the state.
the new river may have been new to the pioneers who named it,
but geologically it's believed to be
among the oldest rivers on earth.
today the rocky cliffs
that the new river sliced through millions of years ago
tower over this waterway,
offering views that draw more than a million people each year.
in the 18th century, the waters of the new river
and its northern neighbor the gauley
were considered too treacherous to navigate,
which is why early settlers walked along the river's banks.
today, thrill seekers ride their rapids just for fun.
this section of the gauley is considered a rafter's paradise.
it's home to the "big five"--
five class v rapids that offer terrifying but thrilling rides.
the deep canyons and swift-flowing waters
of the gauley and new rivers
have always made it hard going for travelers heading west.
first, for those crossing the area on foot,
and later for others in horse-drawn carriages...
and even cars.
but that all changed in 1977,
thanks to this west virginia landmark:
the new river gorge bridge.
when construction began, its designers promised
they would deliver an engineering marvel.
they knew that stretching a 1,700-foot-long arch
high over this gorge
was going to be anything but easy.
engineers first had to string cables between towers
on each side of the river.
then trolleys running on the cables
ferried in sections of the bridge piece by piece.
holding it all up was a single giant steel arch--
an arch that relied on the walls of the gorge itself
for its strength.
it took three years to build,
and when it was finally finished,
west virginia got the engineering marvel
it had been promised,
and a record that it holds to this day.
the new river gorge bridge
remains the longest single-arch steel bridge in north america.
this is thurmond, west virginia.
population: 5.
but it wasn't always like this.
thanks to rich deposits of coal in the area's mines,
thurmond's banks were once full of cash,
coal barons walked its streets,
and hotels here were booked solid
as scrappy miners and businessmen arrived
to cash in on the new boom in coal.
and that made also made thurmond
as rough a town as any in the wild west.
at the time, it was said
that the only difference between thurmond and hell
is that a river runs through thurmond.
in those days the only way to get here was by train,
and it was a town without streets.
its buildings downtown
faced right out on to the train tracks--
just as they still do today.
freight trains still ride these rails
and provide images of what thurmond might have looked like
more than a century ago,
in an age when railway lines
were the engineering marvels of the day...
especially here in the mountains of west virginia.
[train horn blows]
building paths for train tracks through these hills
required tough machines and even tougher men--
one of whom has become a west virginia legend.
when the chesapeake and ohio railroad
started laying down a new rail line through west virginia
in the 1870s to carry out appalachian coal,
the new tracks ran right into big bend mountain.
800 men were soon deep inside, chiseling their way
through more than a mile of rock
and inhaling tiny particles from clouds of dust
that would end up killing many of them.
to speed up the work,
the c&o reportedly brought a new machine
called a steam-powered drill into the tunnel...
a machine that's tied
to one of west virginia's great folktales--
the legend of the steel-driving man, john henry.
the story goes that henry, an african american hammer man,
claimed that he alone could break rock
faster than the c&o's new drill.
pitting himself against this then-new technology,
henry hammered his way through the mountain
and succeeded in beating the drill--
but collapsed and died almost as soon as he was finished.
no one even knows if john henry actually existed,
but he lives on as a west virginia folk hero...
and one that country singer johnny cash famously sang about
in his much loved version
of "the legend of john henry's hammer."
"john henry said to his captain, a man ain't nothin' but a man,'
cash sang.
"but if you bring that steam drill round,
i'll beat it fair and honest,
i'll die with my hammer in my hand."
today the railroad is still the heart
of west virginia's economy.
trains still crisscross this state,
hauling coal just as they have for more than a century.
but these days another source of energy is transforming the land,
just like the railways once did.
but this time, it's crossing over,
not through, the mountains.
building a new natural gas pipeline
across a mountainous state like west virginia
is a giant logistical challenge.
pipeline companies have to negotiate deals
with land owners,
cut down trees, dig trench, lay in miles of pipe--
piece by piece--
and then cover it all up again,
and make it look as if nothing is there.
laying new pipeline can cost hundreds of millions of dollars,
but it's an investment that pays off.
that's because west virginia sits atop
one of the largest natural gas deposits in the world--
the marcellus shale formation,
that runs for nearly 600 miles under new york,
pennsylvania, ohio, and nearly all of west virginia.
after energy companies dig test wells
and locate concentrations of gas...
they build drilling pads like this one.
and then pump water, sand, and chemicals into the earth
with enough force to crack open the shale deep below
and release the natural gas,
which is then sucked out into the pipeline.
it's a controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing,
or "fracking."
environmentalists claim
that fracking chemicals pollute the ground water
and are harming nearby rivers and streams.
but energy companies refute the claims,
and meanwhile the drilling continues.
over the last 10 years, hundreds of these shale wells
have sprung up across west virginia.
and natural gas drilling
has made many landowners here rich...
even ones that already have a palace of gold.
this is not your typical west virginia mountaintop.
it's a place that's been called america's taj mahal,
a permanent home for a group of spiritual devotees
that many of us think of as wanderers.
this is new vrindaban, named after a holy city in india,
and the home of the largest hare krishna community
in america.
when they're not standing on street corners,
singing in saffron robes,
some followers of this religious group
come here to new vrindaban.
it was completed in 1979 as a shrine
to the late founder of the hare krishna movement,
a man called srila prabhupada.
unpaid devotees built this palace
on top of an old garbage dump
and claimed they developed their building skills
by using their krishna consciousness.
its dome is covered with 22-karat gold leaf.
inside, its floors and walls
are made of dozens of different kinds of marble
from 17 countries.
but controversy plagued new vrindaban from the start.
in the 1990s, its leader, a new york state native
who went by the name of swami bhaktipada,
was sentenced to 12 years in jail for racketeering--
charges that centered around his selling of fake souvenirs
of snoopy and other cartoon characters...
and accusations that he engaged his followers
to murder two other hare krishna devotees.
but these days this hare krishna community is striking it rich
from a boom that lies right under their dancing feet.
new vrindaban sold the natural gas rights
to its 4,000 acres for $10 million--
money it says will go to refurbishing its palace of gold.
west virginia may not be well known
for this hilltop palace...
but it is often remembered
for the cascading waters of its blackwater falls,
the jagged peaks of its seneca rocks,
and for the hundreds of hills and hollows
that are home to most west virginians today.
but 150 years ago, these iconic landmarks,
and the people that lived here,
were still part of the commonwealth of virginia.
west virginia was not yet a separate state.
when it comes to the story
of why and how the people of this mountainous region
broke away to create their own independent state,
there's no greater catalyst than the civil war--
a war that many say almost got its start
right here in west virginia,
on the state's northeast border with maryland.
in 1794, president george washington
chose harpers ferry as the site for a new armory
that would also manufacture arms and munitions for the u.s. army.
he knew that the shenandoah river's currents
could power the mills necessary to make weapons.
the remains of those mills
still line the river just below this historic town.
but as the civil war edged closer in the mid 1800s,
harpers ferry proved that it might not be
the safest place for a u.s. armory.
and the first threat didn't come from confederate troops.
it came as a surprise ambush
from a now legendary abolitionist--
a man some say was america's very first terrorist.
on the night of october 16, 1859,
a white man named john brown
and 18 of his anti-slavery supporters
approached harpers ferry from maryland to the northeast
and captured the town's bridges.
their mission was to launch an assault on the u.s. armory,
steal a cache of weapons, and use them to arm runaway slaves--
so they could launch their own attacks on slave owners
and foment a rebellion.
when brown and his men arrived in harpers ferry,
they were all armed and ready to die
for their abolitionist cause.
they quickly stormed the armory and started taking hostages,
but almost immediately the plan started to go terribly wrong.
a passenger train happened to pull in to harpers ferry,
and brown's men stopped it,
but then decided to allow it to continue on.
when the train later arrived in baltimore,
passengers alerted authorities
that harpers ferry was under attack.
by then, brown had moved his hostages here
to this brick building: the armory's fire engine house.
the next morning, as the sun rose over harpers ferry,
townspeople and local militia began firing on brown's men.
four of them tried to escape by swimming across the rivers,
but they were shot dead in the water.
and the worst was yet to come.
about 24 hours after the siege began,
90 u.s. marines arrived from washington by train.
under the command of colonel robert e. lee,
the marines stormed the engine house,
freed the hostages, and captured brown and his men.
when it was over,
john brown's raid on harpers ferry cost 17 lives,
including 10 of brown's men, several townspeople
and the mayor of harpers ferry.
john brown was convicted of treason and sentenced to death.
but his anti-slavery speeches during the trial
inspired many across the country
to sympathize with the abolitionist cause,
which helped spur the nation closer to civil war.
after the war broke out,
battles were fought right here in west virginia's streets--
and the town of lewisburg soon became a flashpoint.
today, re-enactors depict a battle that happened here
150 years ago, on may 23, 1862.
at the time, lewisburg was under northern control--
when confederate forces arrived, armed with artillery
and began firing on a nearby union camp.
the battle that followed pitted 2,200 confederate troops
against a much smaller union force of 1,600.
but despite the odds, the union soldiers succeeded
in capturing the confederate artillery.
historians estimate that up to 80 confederate soldiers
died in the battle, which lasted just an hour.
the victorious union side lost 13 men.
but while many in northwest virginia
remained divided over the war,
by 1861 it was clear
that most preferred independence from the rest of virginia.
and if west virginia has a birthplace, it's here,
in the northern city of wheeling,
right on the ohio border.
the building in which political leaders
drafted west virginia's new constitution
still stands downtown.
at the time it was called the wheeling custom house,
but today it's known as independence hall.
over the next two years,
delegates from counties across northwest virginia
met here to hammer out the boundaries for a new state--
and a constitution that would include
the gradual emancipation of slaves.
by march 1863, residents overwhelmingly voted
in favor of the state's new constitution.
in april, president abraham lincoln declared
that west virginia statehood had been approved.
and finally, on june 20, 1863,
a newly elected governor named arthur i. boreman
proudly stood before the county delegates
and announced the birth of america's 35th state.
the new state's border was determined
by the counties that had voted to be free.
years in the making, west virginia had become
the only state in the nation
to be carved out of another by popular vote.
wheeling, the west virginia state capital,
thrived after the war.
iron and steel mills sprang up along its riverbanks,
turning out a product that was much needed
by those rebuilding after the war: nails.
in fact, wheeling's factories turned out so many nails,
it was called the nail capital of the world.
by the turn of the century
wheeling had become the richest city per capita in america.
chances are many here celebrated their good fortunes
by lighting up cigars.
that's because the city was home
to america's oldest cigar manufacturer,
the marsh wheeling company, which dates back to 1840...
when it began making special cigars called stogies,
which are longer and thinner than regular cigars.
stogies were the preferred cigars
of covered wagon drivers in the 19th century,
wagons called conestogas,
which is where stogies got their name.
in 1870 wheeling lost its title as the state capital
when legislators voted to relocate
to a much smaller town in the south called charleston,
whose population at the time was just 3,000.
today it's the state's biggest city,
home to 50,000 people
and west virginia's beautiful state house.
but charleston hasn't always had an easy ride.
between 1807 and 1885
the capital was moved back and forth
between wheeling and charleston three times
thanks to political tensions
that continued to simmer after the civil war.
as the sun sets, the new capitol's gold dome
sparkles on charleston's skyline,
thanks to its 23-and-a-half karat gold leaf.
but west virginia's story has little to do with gold...
and a lot to do with an ancient black rock
that powers not just west virginia,
but much of america...
and has caused hundreds of mountains to disappear.
when the lights come on in charleston, west virginia,
it's a good bet that their bulbs are powered
by west virginia coal.
just as houses, factories, airports and state capitols are
all across the country.
americans still get almost 50% of their energy from coal.
and a lot of that coal comes from west virginia,
which has the second biggest coal reserves in the u.s.,
thanks to some pretty fascinating
ancient geological history.
hundreds of millions of years ago,
the land that's now west virginia
was actually located near the equator
and covered by tropical rainforests--
plants that decayed and became bogs of carbon-rich peat.
over time, that plant material was compressed by sand and clay
and transformed into coal.
by the time the north american continent had been formed,
the land that would become west virginia
was lined with deep veins of this carbon-rich fossil fuel--
fuel that people have been digging out of the ground here
for hundreds of years.
in fact, west virginia has so much coal
that there's now active mining in 43 of its 55 counties.
the coal industry is also the state's biggest employer,
providing more than 22,000 jobs...
that offer salaries of about $70,000 a year,
more than three times the average income in the state.
thousands of miners across west virginia
have been mining these hills for generations.
but many argue that the story of west virginia coal
isn't as clean as many coal companies
would like them to believe.
most big mining companies
ship the coal dug by west virginia miners--
and the profits-- out of the state.
miners have been fighting for a fair shake
ever since they first descended into the mines.
that's because it can be a deadly job.
since 1883, 21,000 miners have died while working in the mines.
and even more from black lung, a slow disease brought on
by tiny coal particles that lodge in their lungs.
others from disasters that struck without warning,
sometimes on an unimaginable scale.
that's what happened in one west virginia town
just over a century ago.
this is the town of monongah.
it lies in a coal-rich valley
just south of the pennsylvania border,
on the west fork river.
it's also the site of the worst mining disaster in u.s. history.
today there's just one active coal mine outside monongah.
but just over a century ago, mines surrounded this town,
worked by more than a thousand men,
many who'd come from europe
with the promise of steady work and good pay.
but that promise was shattered mid-morning on december 6, 1907,
when an explosion tore through two mines at the base of town.
the blast was so powerful
that streetcars were knocked off their rails
and houses were blown right across the west fork river.
by the time the smoke cleared on that cold december day,
362 miners had lost their lives...
leaving more than a thousand mothers, wives and children
without husbands, fathers, and sons.
and by the following summer,
monongah was still grieving for its loss.
during a church service in nearby fairmont,
the idea of holding an annual day
to remember monongah's lost fathers was born.
this black and white marker
commemorates america's very first father's day...
64 years before president richard nixon
made it an officially recognized holiday in 1972.
for much of the 20th century, most coal in west virginia
was mined by men working deep underground.
but by the 1970s, a new kind of mining
was starting to transform west virginia...
on a scale that can still be hard to comprehend--
unless you see it from the air.
at first, coal-rich mingo county
looks like many other forested areas of the appalachians.
but when the fog clears, you'll soon discover
that many of the mountains themselves are gone.
this is the land of mountaintop removal--
a mining technique so powerful and efficient
that companies can simply carve off the tops of entire mountains
to get to the coal buried below.
this mine is one of the biggest mountaintop mines in the state.
it's called hobet 21.
not long ago this area was blanketed with trees and hills.
now it's a 12,000-acre dig site.
it can take just a few men-- and a few monster machines--
to destroy an entire appalachian mountain.
once the trees are clear-cut,
geologists locate the seams of coal below.
then the company drills holes,
stuffs them with powerful explosives,
and blows them up to loosen earth and rock.
next, excavators move in to rip the mountain apart,
scoop by scoop.
hobet 21 is home to one
of the most famous mining machines in america,
an infamous dragline excavator called big john.
it's as tall as a 20-story building
and can claw out 100 tons of earth in a single pass--
all with just one worker at the controls.
big john has been ripping apart west virginia's hills
since 1983,
and it's still going strong.
but even big john isn't big enough to do the job alone.
all across this mine, men and machines are busy at work.
for every ton of coal produced in a mine like this one,
the company has to remove 16 tons of earth.
the best way to grasp the scale of this operation
is to watch it from the air.
it looks like a giant sandbox with enormous motorized toys.
the state of west virginia
has issued hundreds of permits for mountaintop removal mining,
but there are some restrictions.
here, mine operators
could remove all the earth around this mountain,
but they were required to leave the mountaintop intact.
that's because a civil war cemetery stands on its peak.
it's one of the oddest sites in the state:
an historic landmark,
left standing high in a tuft of trees,
while everything around it below has been completely destroyed.
all this activity has one singular purpose--
to uncover valuable seams of coal like this one,
and then dig it out and ship it to market.
surface mining is much safer for west virginia's miners,
since they don't have to work underground
in potentially dangerous tunnels.
but it comes with a huge environmental cost.
500 mountains have already disappeared,
along with the habitats for hundreds of species.
and lives are impacted, too.
when a mining company carves off a mountaintop,
it has to put that earth somewhere,
and so it dumps it into nearby valleys.
3,200 local streams have been destroyed...
and entire communities have been forced to relocate
when the mining companies buy up the land.
but not everyone in west virginia
has been willing to sell.
and it took just one man
to bring one of west virginia's biggest mountaintop mines
to a grinding halt.
it happened here in pigeon roost hollow,
and is why this house is still standing.
it's the home of jimmy weekley, a retired miner,
who battled the coal companies here for years,
refusing to sell his piece of the valley
so a company could turn it into a dump site--
land that's been in weekley's family since the 1700s.
almost all of weekley's neighbors
here in this hollow sold out,
and the mining company finally raised weekley's offer
to $2 million.
but he still turned them down--
a refusal that triggered a series of lawsuits
and brought the company's operations to a halt.
weekley once claimed he'd stay in this house until he dies,
which is why he was once called "the last man on the mountain."
jimmy weekley's story is evidence
of the complicated relationships that west virginians have
with the coal that lies beneath their feet,
around their houses, and all across their communities.
it's provided jobs for generations,
but has also forced many to suffer,
from black lung, pollution, and operations
that have destroyed entire mountains and valleys.
but whatever damage coal mining has done,
it hasn't put an end
to west virginians' love of their state,
and the communities they're proud to call home--
communities like fairmont.
it was here that olympic gymnast mary lou retton
was born in 1968,
the granddaughter of a coal miner.
retton left west virginia in 1982 to train in texas
and chose not to return
after vaulting her way to gold in the 1984 olympic games,
settling down in houston instead.
but in 2009, mary lou decided it was time to come back home
and moved her family back to fairmont.
"i just love the simplicity of west virginia life,"
retton said.
and mary lou retton isn't the first
to feel that way about west virginia.
a place where towering peaks beckon hardy mountaineers.
and a fiercely independent spirit,
forged during a time of war,
is still alive on its streets today.
and all across the state,
from the tops of its hills to the bottoms of its hollows,
and on every river in between.