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Environmental Legacy

Stories of National Significance
Environmental Legacy: Early Restoration Initiatives
During the WPA Era

The story of the Little Cities of Black Diamonds gains further depth at the end of the boom era, where the environmental legacy of a half century of unregulated coal mining was becoming apparent.  Unlike the National Park movement that protected national scenic treasures, the creation of Ohio’s only national forest here in 1930’s is among the first ever government land projects that attempted to clean up environmental degradation in the eastern United States.  Abandoned by coal interests after the widespread closing of mines in the late 1920’s, the former eastern hardwood forest had long been stripped bare of timber for use in the construction of railroads, coal tipples and homes; and as industrial and residential fuel. The rocky, clay rich soil of the region had little value for serious farming, and soil erosion was pervasive on the region’s steep and rugged hills. To make matters worse, underground mine fires set during the strike of 1884-85 had broken through the surface creating a constant smoke filled air which gave contrast to orange colored streams laced with minerals we now refer to as Acid Mine Drainage (AMD). 
Thousands of acres of abandoned land were purchased by the federal government in the Hocking Valley Coal Fields for as low as $5 per acre during the 1930’s after the federal government and the State of Ohio adopted enabling legislation for the creation of a national forest. Massive WPA and Civilian Conservation Corp work programs were established in the Little Cities region during the 1930’s. The most massive work project aimed to stop the underground mine fires set during the 1884 strike that had already burned tens of thousands of acres of underground coal deposits.  The subterranean fire was threatening the community of New Straitsville and its 2,000 plus residents. It had broken through the surface in numerous locations, yards and basements were collapsing, the public school was threatened, and water was boiling in cisterns in and around the smoldering town.  The mine fires and the battle to stem them attracted national attention as live broadcasts from the mine fires by NBC Radio’s Ernie Pyle and Ripley’s Believe It or Not during the 1930’s created an environment of excitement. The government workers created deep barriers several miles long Ernie Pylein several locations by filling hand dug ravines with rocks. They also sealed vacant mine openings which created vents for the fire. The effort was successful in saving the town, though small remnant outbreaks of the fire are still surfacing in the surrounding Wayne Forest to this day.  The work programs also engaged in the planting of thousands of trees and the repair of countless ravines created by erosion along hillsides.  Idealistic pioneers of the Roosevelt era envisioned creating a forest where there no longer was one.   
Today, the federal government owns approximately 28% of the land in the purchase unit and the forest has returned in earnest, making it an asset for the remnant mining towns that stubbornly live on here, in a region also becoming known as “Little Cities of the Forest” by a growing number of eco and heritage tourists.  The seeds of an ambiguous recovery planted in the 1930’s have steadily grown into an inspiring example of the regeneration of land and water that lives on to this day with major watershed restoration projects in Sunday and Monday Creek Watershed. Today, the area is seen as a classroom for learning about long term environmental regeneration processes and the study of humans in relation to their natural environment.  This piece of American history, as an outcome of the industrial era is pertinent to a modern society that faces serious environmental challenges now and in the future.
Key sites associated with the Wayne Forest and environmental remediation include:

  • The Wayne Forest Headquarters Visitors Center
  • Monroe Outlook-A panoramic view of the returning forest from Irish Ridge which overlooks the now deeply forested Sunday Creek valley. 
  • Rutherford Wetland-A wetland formed by the trapping of water by the New Straitsville spur of the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad built here in the 1870’s. 
  • Essex Doser and Mine Site where water laden with aluminum pours out of an opening near the ground from the former Essex Mine, which was abandoned in 1921. Since 2006, the Essex Doser has peen helping to clean up Acid Mine Drainage in Snow Fork Creek, one of the three main tributaries of Monday Creek. This system works by dispensing doses of calcium oxide into the waters, which neutralizes the acidity and removes dissolved metals. The water quality downstream is much improved and aquatic organisms, including fish, are beginning to move back to this section of the stream.