Americans Who Tell the Truth

Larry Gibson

Larry Gibson Biography
Environmental Activist against Mountaintop Removal, 1946–

"You could walk through the forest. You could hear the animals. The woods like to talk to you. You could feel a part of Mother Nature. In other words, everywhere you looked there was life. Now you put me on the same ground where I walked, and the only thing you can feel is the vibration of dynamite or heavy machinery. No life, just dust. They're doing the same thing to us they done to the Native Americans."

Appalachia is not a beautiful place simply for visitors, ecologists and those who wish to hike the famous Appalachian Trail. It is home to people who have lived, worked and raised families there for generations. It’s an area rich with forests, birds, fish-filled streams, and coal. Once, mining underground for coal provided many livelihoods for residents of these communities. However, as that traditional form of mining has given way to mountaintop removal, where fewer workers are needed, the economy and the environment of these towns have been permanently damaged. Mountaintop removal uses explosives to slice off the mountaintops. The seams of coal are then extracted and processed, with the waste and toxins dumped into the valleys and streams as “fill.” People like Larry Gibson, who may have never seen himself becoming an activist, are called to bring attention to the tragedy and fight to end it.

Larry Gibson has lived on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia all of his life. The property he owns, a few acres with several small buildings and the family cemetery, is the only green spot amidst a desolate landscape. He refuses to sell to any coal company and leave his home, though his land has rich beds of coal beneath it. This refusal comes at a cost. Miners, told that Gibson’s decision not to sell is an attempt to put them out of work, have shot at his very modest home (where bullet holes are visible as evidence), and set fire to another building. Two of his dogs were killed, and he was run off the road in his truck. The stress of living in these conditions has taken its toll on his marriage; still, he won’t give in, saying, “If I stopped fighting for the land maybe we’d have a chance. But this is my heritage. How can I walk away from that?”

And so he stays, allowing, for more than two decades, thousands of journalists and environmental activists to visit and see first-hand the mining process and the devastation. Seeing his swath of green set against the vast gray wasteland is something coal companies don’t wish outsiders to witness. Gibson also records the growing list of the threats and vandalism against him, and travels the country talking to people about the crisis in the mountains and his own story, working to increase awareness and create change.