Congress and WV Citizens Work to Save the Coal River

​By Jody Brumage

“The national attention being focused on the mounting need for public outdoor recreational facilities holds great promise for the development of parklands in West Virginia.” - Senator Robert C. Byrd, August 28, 1962
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West Virginia’s tourism industry, ignited by a number of major projects spearheaded by its congressional delegation in the 1960s and 70s, has become one of the largest components of the state’s economy today. In the past few months, we’ve highlighted a few of these projects, including Senator Byrd’s proposed Allegheny Parkway and Congressmen Harley O. Staggers, Sr. and Ken Hechler’s work for wilderness areas in the 1970s. Today, we are taking a look at another project initiated by West Virginia Congressman John Slack and Senator Byrd in the early 1960s: the proposed Coal River National Recreation Area.

Congressman John Slack represented West Virginia in the U.S. Congress from 1959-1980.

Coal River flows northward through Putnam, Logan, Boone, Raleigh, Lincoln, and Kanawha Counties and it empties into the Kanawha River just west of Charleston, the state capitol. A vital transportation route for the area’s timber and coal industries, the Coal River is also historically significant. Its name is derived from the 1742 discovery of coal seams along its banks by John Peter Salling. By the mid-twentieth century, the river was suffering the effects of pollution and industrial use, stemming from nearly two centuries of coal extraction and log cutting along its path.
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In the 1960s, with the coal industry throughout the state entering a period of decline, West Virginia’s congressional representatives began exploring new industries to support the ailing economy. In 1961, Congressman John Slack introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to establish a national park at the Coal River. At the urging of the Department of the Interior and its secretary, Stewart Udall, the idea of a national park was abandoned in favor of developing a recreation area. Several similar projects were being proposed around the same time, including Senator Byrd’s bill for the Spruce Knob/Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area, which was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on September 28, 1965.

Congressman Slack, Senator Byrd, and other members of Congress from West Virginia worked closely with Stewart Udall (left), Secretary of the Interior from 1961-1969.

The Coal River project languished in committee for the second session of the 87th Congress, but Congressman Slack continued to support the project, traveling to Boone County to speak to citizens in Madison, which lies along the river. Gubernatorial candidate Hulett C. Smith included the proposed recreation area in his platform, promising to work with Congress to get the legislation passed. As the 88th Congress began its work in early 1963, Congressman Slack reintroduced his bill and Senator Byrd offered similar legislation in the Senate. Despite the growing support for the Coal River project and a national focus on using tourism to build up economically-depressed regions in the country, neither Congressman Slack or Senator Byrd’s bills made it out of committee. Under the new Johnson Administration, West Virginia’s congressional delegation turned its attention to the passage of the Appalachian Redevelopment Act, which was passed in 1965.
However, the prospects for the Coal River did not fade with the abandonment of the recreation area bill in the 1960s. Local citizen groups, aided at times by their members in Congress have worked to address the environmental issues with the river and to advocate for its use for recreation. These efforts continue to the present day. Since 2004, a non-profit organization called the Coal River Group has taken up the mission of restoring the river and advocating for recreational use. The work of the Coal River Group was acknowledged by the state of West Virginia in 2009 and 2011 when it awarded the organization the “West Virginia Watershed of the Year.” It is the only such organization in the state to receive this award twice.
The Coal River represents an important collaboration between the people and their representatives in Congress. Though no formal recognition of the river as a recreation area has been approved, the efforts of Congressman Slack, Senator Byrd, and countless local citizens have resulted in a greatly-improved state for the Coal River.