America is so beauitful in all her splenor and greatness. The American Indians worshipped her and all her inhabitants. It is only right that we keep this land beuatiful so I chose this song for you to play in your minds as we go on our adventure through the countryside of the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. We aren't too far from the nation's Capital but far enough away nto reall understand it when they say "West By God". So keep this tune with you as you are taken on this visual journey into the countryside.

Sunday is finally here! You have been waiting the whole week in excitment for those leisurely drives into the country. Everyone, even our little dog, has fun riding along in the car with the windows down in late Spring. As you go down the road your hair is blown all over the place, but you don't mind. The wind is cool and invigorating. It feels like nature is combing all the city smog and pollution out of it.

Mom always cooks something good to eat in a picnic basket for when we find a good spot to eat. This week she packed some fried chicken, salad and a great home-made apple pie. You know Mrs. Smith makes the best!

Riding along us kids play "Car Bingo". The first to find everything that is on their board wins. When we get tired of that we play "I Spy" and we just have a good time until we really get into the country then we all just look out our windows and wonder at all the fresh new things we see out there.

Finally everything is all packed and we are ready to go on our new adventure. It feels new each time we go because dad takes us to all kinds of places and we are always back before dark and bedtime. This Sunday he has decided to take us out to West Virginia. He's funny because he always makes it into a lesson to learn all we can about the places we visit. It's exciting to pretend that we were the people who lived in that place way long ago. It makes it more special to go on those trips and that is why I anticipate the Sunday drives so much.

While riding along in the car this song comes on the radio and we all start to sing with it. It's a great song about a great place that only God can make. So that is where we are headed--to the beautiful countryside of West Virginia.

Crossing into West Virginia dad tells us some interesting things. He said that the Indians had used all of the state as their hunting grounds and that the first man to see what is now West Virginia was a german, white guy named John Lederer. He had a few men with him on that tripin 1669. Transportation routes were later sought out in 1671, by some guys whose names were Batts and Fallam.He also said tht as we went through Jefferson County where George Washinton's brother, Charles, founded Charles Town, that it was orfinially part of Berkely County. Finally the railrod reached Harpers Ferry where the underground rilroad was formed to free slaves in the Civil war. Dad told us that John Brown had some others with him and attacked the federal arsenal in 1869.

What a beautiful site to behold looking to the west! You can see the rolling hills of the moutains there. Breathtaking at how beautiful they are. The view is amazing. I don't see these things only in books and it is wonderful to experience this. Truly it is West By God and it is a pleasure to be able to go out of the city and really see and fill up our senses of what it really out there that man has not touched or destroyed.

All along the road we see lots of farmland and cornstalks. A pieces of land have low growing plants and houses are dotted throughout our ride. We come to a town named Inwood. Dad tells us that Inwood became at town In the late 1880s, The town got it's name because  of a park they had there and it was in the woods--Inwood.  He also told us that when the railiroad came in that some guy named Silver got some farmers together and made a co-op.  They were mostly Orchards and they grew mostly apples.  He even said that the Mussleman Applesauce is made there!. He said that they even had an Inwood Fair every year at the park.

He said that there was a Cumberland Valley Railroad station there that would pick up the apples and take them all over the place.  He said that railroad still runs to this day.He told us that the town was originally named Gerrard. 

We go thorugh that town and go over Interstate 81 and we really look like we are out in the country.  After we pass a big place that has mini-golf and water park things, and some trailer houses, we look like we are in the country.  Along side both sides of the road is grown over trees and a babbling brook that winds and twists and turns through the wooded area.

Gerrardstown is a quaint little town. We notice the historical sign and stop to take a look at it.

There are many things to see here so we stop for the rest of the day and have our picnic here. During our visit to this town dad and mom talk to lots of people and we get lots of good stories here. On our adventure we learn about the town and how it was all planed out in 1784 by some guy named David Gerrard who was also where the the first Babptist Church west of the Blueridge mountains.There is so much history here. I loved hearing all about it and can't wait to tell all my firend about it. We have show and tell, or something like that and we tell if or where we went on the weekend. They will be happy to hear aobut this place and wish they could come here too.

It was so beautiful here as you look up and see the mountain ridge and all the green here. It is truly a smog-free and pollution-free place. Something we don't have in our big city. I could stay here forever. All the little animals and the fresh air and look at the clear sky--truly amazing.

While walking around town we learned about the place that Lincoln's body guard was buried. We learned about Propect Hill and the house next to that Oban Hall and we got to see the old church being refurbished. They call it Apple Chapel. What a funny name for a church, but it is so that it will stick in your mind for a very long time.

We got to walk through the cemetary and it was full of civil war people and even as far back and the Revolutionary War. The place is just sl full of history and beauty.

Beyond this place and into the West of North Mountain you may travel to Berkeley Springs and the Town Of Bath.

Originally Gerrardstwn was named Middletown by german immigrant by the name of John Mills, Jr.

There are two main mountains here, North Moutain and Apple Pie Ridge that goes along side of North Mountain. Apple Pie Ridge is named such for the many orchards that adorn the mountain sides. The areas was very fertile and many animals roamed the area and still do today. Many orchards are here. Cows and Horses are shown in the Summer at the Youth Fair as are Apples which is the biggest crop in our area are shown at both the youth fair and the Berkeley County fair.

One of the earliest roads made was Pack Horse Road, and it is still partially there.

Eventually the Gerrards occupied the town and it eventually changed names to Gerrardstown in 1770

Prospect Hill is a great plantation home.  They operated a small store out of the house and they also raised the best beef cattle around. It is still a working farm too and is located at the bottom of North Mountain in the town of Gerrardstown. It is the last farm you see as you make your way up the side of the mountain. In the winter when the trees are bare you can see the road go up the side of it. This plantation house has four chimneys. It was owned by William Wilson who owned the 144 acres that included Gerrardstown and Back Creek Valley in 1792. On the land the remains of the Kelly Family log house is still there.

That is where during the French and Indian War those Indians masacred Kelly's family and burned the log house.

Next door you will see Oban Hall

Oban Hall was built by William Wilson for his children. He never lived there, but when he died he willed it to his wife.

There are numerous buildings still left standing on the properties including slave quarters.

Most slaves after the war went to the cities to do work but eventually they came back to the small towns like Gerrardstown. Many of the women would work as house workers doing things like laundry, ironing, and cleaning for only 50 cents a day! The last person to live here left in 1967.

Mills Gap was the gateway to the west and was the main reason why Gerrardstown was started. When Gerrardstown was all built up in it's day it had 2 tanneries, 2 taverns, 2 general stores and many housees and a couplw of blacksmiths plantations. It is very beautiful to ride through the town now and see the North Mountain ahead of you. We sat and ate our meal while looking out over the mountain into the valley. It was breathtaking and very beautiful I could see in my mind all the houses and farmland that were once there.

Among the churches that were built here the only one that is not standing is the Lutheran Church.

The Old Methodist Episcopal Church was rebuilt and now it is the United Methodist Church.

One must come out and just take a tour of the whole area to understand the beauty of it all. There are tours here, they say. One in the Springtime and one in the Fall. Oh and the colors of the leaves changing in the fall are so gorgeous.

All during the ride here and having our picnic at the top of that mountain and the view, I kept wondering what if this was all gone the next day. What a really great shame that would be. I thought about all the horses and the Apple Orchards and the wildlife and the water and air and how fresh it was---all gone! How horriible!

We went back down the mountain and stopped at the corner store to get some drinks for the ride home. I loved that store! Never enough of those left to enjoy anymore. Dad and Mom were talking to the owners and they were telling them what was happening there. We were shocked and appalled.

They said that some company wants to mine the area and tear up the scenery and pollute the water and the air and mess with nature. They talked about something called surfacei mining and it will make this beautiful lanscape and wonderful place to come to the country into something like barren land. No one will want to come out to take a leisurely Sinday drive or even learn about the rich heritage that is so imbedded in this land of ours.

While listening to the grown ups talk there was a song playing in my head. This Land Is Your Land. What a beeautiful song. It kind of sums up the whole meaning of how pristine and clean and the fresh air and the beauty that God has given us to live with.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 700 miles of healthy streams have been buried by mountaintop removal - some say the number is twice that - and hundreds more have been damaged. Blasting on the mine sites has cracked the foundations of nearby homes and polluted hundreds of family wells. Creeks run orange with sulfuric acid and heavy metals. Wildlife populations have been summarily dispersed. An entire ecosystem has been dismantled. Read More on This and find out just what our area will be like if they are successful in doing this at DEATH OF A MOUNTAIN A word of caution--you will get emotional when reading that site. If you don't then you're not human. The worst part is that if Continental Brick and the Shale Company succeed in this we will be that story too. It made me sick to read how the mountain was devastated and how he watched it all happen. West Virginia is also mentioned in those letters that is on the site.

As the Appalachian Voices campaign hosted by Democracy in Action explains:

"Since 1977, The Clean Water Act has barred industries from dumping waste into waterways. In 2002, the current Administration made a rule change which redefined "waste" in order to exclude mining waste. Since debris from mountaintop removal is no longer classified as "waste", coal companies are dumping millions of tons of mine waste into nearby streams. As its designers intended, this has greatly facilitated the practice of mountaintop removal. The Clean Water Protection Act reestablishes the original intent of the Clean Water Act: to protect our waterways, not give industry permission to pollute and bury them."

According to GO-GREEN, Pollution can become so severe that whole areas of land are abandoned. The U.S. calls these hazardous waste sites superfund sites. The top five worst contaminants on abandoned hazardous waste sites are: 1. Arsenic (mineral element) 2. Lead (metal element) 3. Mercury (metal element) 4. Vinyl chloride (a chemical compound) 5. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (a chemical compound)

Many polluted, abandoned lands were once mines. There are 80,000-250,000 abandoned mine lands in the U.S. The pollutants left behind include dozens of minerals and metals. Mining companies pile up waste with limited enclosement or leak prevention. Wastes come in the following forms:

-Slag (left over waste after refinement) -Dust -Brick -Sludge (fine mud from drilling) -Rock -Tailings (mining residue) -Wastewater -Leaching (left over waste after removing ore with water)

I could go on and on about the effects of mining on the humans, wildlife and ecosystems. Just remember that everything that happens (to the fish, animals and other things such as hay, food *apples, peaches and other agriculture products) pick up these toxins and are passed down to many other areas. Be careful what you ingest and breath if this operation is successful.

 I got this from a friend of mine who lives in New Mexico:

 Making molehills outta mountains -   The Appalachian area with its mountains, forests, valleys (or hollows) has long been a place of beauty with rivers and creeks nearby for fishing; deer, squirrels, coons and possums available for hunting, and coal to be mined for jobs.  Dangerous jobs, but the pay was better than anything else around.   Dirty black coal, the industry that gave these backwoodsy folks a paycheck...while destroying both their land and their culture!  Sadly, the industry partnered up with corrupt judges, legislatures and even union officials to rape the land, to blow up, cave in entire hillsides - making molehills out of mountains and polluting their streams.  They fouled both the towns and farms.   West Virginia was particularly hard hit and has seen thousands of acres destroyed in the last 20 years.   Folks like our own Lady G are fighting it, but do they have a chance of being successful?  Let's hope so. 

If someone from New Mexico is involved in this don't you think you could be too?  Please help us.

If you have read all this and liked the adventure into this quaint town, with the fresh air, beautiful lanscape and the journey that I took you on then you can do something about this all going away. Please, it doesn't matter if you live in this area or in another sate or even in another country, add you name to the list and write to the people who are involved in trying to save our mountain and the wonerful habitate that God has provided for us. All the Information is on NORTHMOUNTAIN.ORG

Go and help us out please! We want to keep pour mountain and the beauty that surrounds it. We want to breathe fresh air and drink clean water. If you think it doesn't affect you--ypu are dead wrong! Air and water pollution travels and it will eventually get to you. It starts here in the mountains and trickles down from the babbling brooks to the cool streams and into the river and watersheds that feed into the rivers and the bays and into the oceans. There is no stopping it once it starts. We all want a better future for our children and we certainly want them to have fresh air and clean water.

So please visit NORTHMOUNTAIN.ORG today. Time is going faster then you think!

To be involved and ask questions please join the Yahoo Group here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/northmountain/

(MUST INCLUDE YOUR NAME Address Telephone # DATE)

Randy Huffman, Cabinet Secretary 

Department of Environmental Protection    

601 57th Street SE 

Charleston, WV  25304-2345  

Dear Mr. Huffman:  

 RE: North Mountain Shale LLC -Continental Brick  Proposed Shale Quarry In Gerrardstown, West Virginia  

This letter is to inform you that over 2800 citizens have signed a petition against the location of the above referenced project. A shale quarry at this location will put the lives of thousands of citizens at risk. A permit allowing discharge of stormwater associated with industrial activities is highly objectionable. The proposed location of the shale quarry is located in the middle of the Mill Creek Watershed. The receiving stream runs through the middle of town. We are concerned about wells and the water table becoming contaminated by industrial waste runoff. We are concerned about flooding and landslides.   This quarry if allowed in the middle of the historical residential community will be a major environmental disaster. The wells of thousands of Berkeley County citizens will be at major risk. The cost to repair the water supply would be immeasurable. The water from this property runs into Opequon Creek, into the Potomac River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. Virginia and Maryland are concerned.   We are relying on the WV DEP to protect the safety and health of the residents and environment.  

{Add of few of your own thoughts or concerns… Each letter should be slightly different… the more the better } 

Sincerely, 

Your signature    

Gerrardstown Community Meeting

Saturday, Feb 7, 2009 at 10 AM

A community meeting will be held by CARE in the meeting room of the Gerrardstown United Methodist Church, located at Route 51 and Dominion Road at the corner in Gerrardstown.

Current status of the quarry permit will be discussed. A Power Point visual presentation will be shown to inform the community of issues and impacts to the area.

CARE continues to work at stopping the destruction of North Mountain

All members of the community and interested environmental groups are invited to attend.

Mark your calendar - Saturday, February 7th - 10 A.M.

Gerrardstown United Methodist Church

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Some links to articles in local newspapers.

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=206111&format=html

Since you are a writer....... will you Please write a letter for me to our Berkeley County Commissioners. This past Thursday a bunch of us went on record asking for a resolution against the quarry location. Below is the article in there Herald Mail newspaper.

The commissioners are considering it-, but we need to get as many people to write them and make sure they know this is important. It does not have to be fancy- just say something like commissioners- we are asking for your support in signing the resolution protecting Gerrardstown & North Mountain from the proposed quarry. You are our leaders and we want you to support & protect us.

Their address: County Commission of Berkeley County   400 West Stephen St Suite 201 Martinsbrug WV 25401

Quarry opponents ask for county’s support

By MATTHEW UMSTEAD
matthewu@herald-mail.com

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. — Opponents of a shale quarry proposed near Gerrardstown, W.Va., asked the Berkeley County Commission on Thursday to sign a resolution in support of their fight against an industrial mining project they say poses an environmental and health threat to the area.

"We are here today because we like Berkeley County as much as you do," said Wendy Hudock, who spoke on behalf of more than a dozen people who joined her at Thursday's commission meeting.

Hudock is part of Citizens Alliance for a Responsible Environment (CARE), a group formed last year to fight the mining proposal just outside the community west of Inwood, W.Va., in southern Berkeley County.

A mining application filed last year by North Mountain LLC with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) could be deemed technically complete by the DEP in the coming months, according to the Randy Moore, the department's permit supervisor.

North Mountain LLC was incorporated in January 2008 by C.L. Christian III, who also serves as president of Continental Brick Co. just outside of Martinsburg, according to West Virginia Secretary of State Betty Ireland's office.

After the current application was submitted last year to the DEP by North Mountain LLC, Moore said the DEP's Division of Mining and Reclamation reviewed it and asked for technical corrections. Those corrections included additional water monitoring, Moore said.

"They should be providing us their corrections in the next month or two," Moore said.

After the application is deemed to be technically complete, the DEP will give public notice and residents may comment and request a public hearing, Moore said.

Eight of 27 "milestones" still need to be completed in order for the application to be considered technically complete, according to the DEP's Web site.

Of those, Moore confirmed the DEP had yet to receive clearance from West Virginia Division of Culture and History's State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).

In November 2008, SHPO requested a computerized simulation to demonstrate the proposed visual impacts to the ridge line by the quarry project.

One of several historic properties in close proximity to the project site is Oban Hall, a farmhouse built in 1825 by a prominent merchant and now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Hudock told the commission Thursday the proposed quarry at a 422-acre site would ruin the scenic viewshed of North Mountain, a 1,300-foot ridge, and noted Pocahontas County, W.Va., recently denied a 76-acre quarry because of scenery and property value concerns.

She also noted a U.S. Supreme Court decision last month that said permits could not be issued for new discharges into impaired waterways unless there is a cleanup plan and compliance schedule showing when the waterway would be removed from the impaired list.

"It makes no sense to allow a massive new quarry to locate in one of the fastest growing residential areas in Berkeley County," Hudock said.

After Hudock finished speaking, Commission President Ronald K. Collins said he would have county legal counsel Norwood Bentley III review the resolution request and take her comments under advisement.

A public hearing about the mining project in May 2008 attracted about 150 people, and practically every person who commented voiced strong opposition to the plan.

More information about CARE and the status of the quarry mining application is available at http://northmountain.org/.

 A Letter I recieved in my e-mail this afternoon--May 28, 2009