The environmental transformation of an Appalachian Valley, 1850-1906

The physical environment of the George's Creek Valley in western Maryland was altered dramatically during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as coal mining and associated activities expanded and intensified. Although mineral extraction was the chief agent of change, forest and water resources were also affected by other industrial and commercial activities, as well as by the region's growing population. Examining the environmental alteration that took place in the valley, this work also considers attitudes and motivations that contributed to the transformation. Keywords: Appalachia, coal mining, deforestation, landownership, water pollution.
In 1906 State Geologist William Bullock Clark and his staff at the Maryland Geological Survey produced a Report on the Physical Features of Maryland (Clark and Mathews 1906). Like other [...]