ghbowser Loc: Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

For the first 18 years of my working life I operated heavy equipment on coal surface mines in Somerset Co., PA. These are some of the machines I operated, 4500 and 4600 Manitowoc, and the locations. These are all scans from either slides or prints and range in date from 1974 to 1985. Used Topaz to remove noise and resize and PS Elements for other adjustments. Camera was probably a Contax RTS but don't remember what lens.

Salisbury PA 1974

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Salisbury PA 1974

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Salisbury PA 1974 Cold snowy scene looked better in B&W

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Salisbury PA 1976

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Salisbury PA 1976

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Confluence PA 1981

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Confluence PA 1981

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Frostburg MD 1985

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Frostburg MD 1985

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Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Very interesting.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Surface mining is a polite way of saying strip mining.
A nice and educational series. Thanks for sharing.

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

Strip mining helped to kill the coal industry

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

And helped kill a lot of things. Like ghbowser said an environmental disaster.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

And rightly so.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Impressive, beautifully shot behemoths 💰💰💰💰💰

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

Strip mining in the old days (pre 1974) was an environmental disaster. I’ve helped reclaim some of them. Shaft mining for coal hasn’t been practiced in my county for a century and there are still dead streams with 1.8 pH water. Strip mining after 1974 by law had to be reclaimed and many of those areas are more productive now than they were before being mined. Topsoil and subsoil is stripped and stockpiled, then replaced after mining is completed. In my county reclaimed land is used for crop land, pasture and hay land, hunting-wildlife-recreational land and even private homes built on it.

Modern strip mining is NOT an environmental disaster.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Interesting. Correct me if I’m mistaken. But is “mountaintop removal still not practiced? I have certainly seen it within the last 10 years in West Virginia. But the environmental damage doesn’t stop with mining - it continues with the environmental damage from burning coal for electrical power, diminishing in the US, but still a major source of energy and contribution to production of carbon in countries like China.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

Great set!!!!

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

Disregarding the environmental effects of burning coal, I wonder how many open coal mines are properly returned to a useful state? And if you look beyond coal, similar mining for other minerals (gold, copper, nickel, etc.) also end up leaving an environmental disaster. In most cases, the minerals are removed using an acid or mercury wash (to amalgamate the metal, separating it from the soil) causing the creation of a highly, highly toxic runoff in addition to mountains of lifeless, barren soil.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

Nalu Loc: Southern Arizona

Of coarse, surface mining, or any mining can be controversial. Reclamation obligations have come a long way since way back then and the costs of such reclamation are included in the price of the “product”. But obtaining those raw materials necessary for society to develop is critical. Remember, if it’s not grown, it has to be mined. Thanks for the post.

St.Mary's

The old cliché "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". In these photos I see air conditioning, refrigeration, lights to keep the dark out of a home, hospital intensive care units, a plethora, a veritable cornucopia if you will, of very good, nice things.

smilenangler Loc: The Flood City, Pa.

I know right where you were, Did ten years ups, in that area, bad winters up there. good set...