Kathy Mattea Tours Mountaintop Removal Sites

July 10, 2007
Photos by Vivian Stockman unless otherwise noted

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Two-time Grammy-winning singer calls MTR "devastating."

Kathy Mattea's day started with an emotional-draining flyover of mountaintop removal sites near Charleston, W.Va. in a SouthWings Cessna.

She then spent several hours on Kayford Mountain, viewing mountaintop removal up close with cameras from many news outlets and documentary film-maker Mari-Lyn Evans.

“I knew that mountaintop removal was bad,” Mattea said afterward. “But it’s going to take me a while to process what I saw ...  What I saw today shocked me.”

Next she held a press conference on the State Capitol steps. She noted that we are all part of the problem--excessive energy consumption. She pointed the finger right at herself, and noted she can do more to improve. She called upon all of us to remember to love another and work together for a solution...a solution which remembers the miners and protects our environment.

Kathy Mattea, center in dark sleeveless shirt, and film crew prepare to board a SouthWings plane for an overflight on mountaintop removal sites just minutes from the Charleston airport.

Reporters and filmmakers surround Kathy Mattea and Larry Gibson as they head out to view the destruction. Photo by Ronda Harper

Mattea and Gibson at a spot where the mountain is no more. Photo by Ronda Harper

Bill Price in red, Kathy Matte in black and Larry Gibson in day-glo yellow, on Kayford Mountain after returning from viewing mountaintop removal.

People working to stop mountaintop removal have more fun!

In the picnic shelter on Kayford Mountain, 80-year old Atherine Spurlin of Quarrier sings a song she wrote for Mattea. In the song, Spurlin, she sees her late husband, Ralph in heaven. He died of black lung disease.

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