Bye Bye, Old Barn

Eric in IL · Jan 17, 2013

I took this picture today of an old barn. I think it is waiting to be demolished by the excavator. It is in the path of the first panel of a new longwall mine. The ground will subside approximately six feet after the longwall miner passes underneath the surface.

Many homes and farmsteads in my area are awaiting the same fate.

Here is a video with more info for those interested.

Longwall mining
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Dan in Ohio · Jan 17, 2013

Never heard of it, but sure hate to see those old barns taken down. Very few are built like that anymore. Even the Amish are putting up hoop structures now.

M Nut · Jan 17, 2013

hhmmmm.... sad to see them go. I was home with a sick daughter today and spent most of the day contacting contractors to try and get bids on restoring mine this summer. It is over 100 years old and needs a little work if it is going to last another century.

thesmoothedeere · Jan 17, 2013

Sad to see but thats humans for ya .

Billy NY · Jan 17, 2013

One always has to wonder, and I'm not sure if this mining industry is high dollar profit, if so, why does nothing "cool" ever happen, like they slip some beams under it and get 'er moved.

Now I realize, many of these styles of barns are obsolete, insurance issues, need the room, its deteriorated etc.

However, old barns are symbolic of farmers going way back, and though the layout and or usefulness may not be what it once was, isn't dry space still a good thing to have, even if extra or for looks, history or nostalgia ?

Ed Junior · Jan 17, 2013

im a coal miner we use the room and pillar method no sinking.

GarrettFields · Jan 17, 2013

I dont know whats worse, what your dealing with, or strip mining. Strip jobs are prevalent in my area of KY. I dont think you could do any more damage to the land if you tried. Reclaiming laws are a joke! In parts of the county where I live there are several places that were underground mined and strip mined, they look like something from outer space. I hope the people in the video are successful in getting it stopped, but in the end the quick $ usually wins

CaseDC3 · Jan 17, 2013

Just watched that video. If they are mining in your county I take it the votes went in favor of the mining companies. Thats a shame. I grew up to the south in Madison County and hate to see that great bottom land destroyed.

Eric in IL · Jan 17, 2013

There was enough resistance in our county to the longwall method to precipitate a vote for a longwall ban.

The vote was very close, but went in favor of the longwall method.

bob featherstone · Jan 17, 2013

canada here, & have never heard of that method of mining, but OMG how can they allow the companies to do that ? almost ( almost ) makes me ok with the fact that ontario is shutting down our coal fired plants & gouging the crap outta me for hydro so they can build freaking windmills really could not stand to see that happen to land here think if they tried it i would join the natives & protest, that would be good enough to stop anything here

jm. · Jan 17, 2013

Hard fro me to understand the concept of one owning land but not what is underneath it. What is one,s home was in the path. Is the compensation for this surface damage ? Live right in sight off the river. One of the 10 largest coal fired plants is near by. Takes something like 30 barge loads a day to keep the lights on.

TomH in PA · Jan 17, 2013

It won't effect the use of the land for growing crops, and the land owners are compensated for damage to the buildings (that one looks like it wasn't being maintained anyway, look at the roof).

Fred from MO · Jan 17, 2013

God bless you coal miners! Cant figure out how backwards we have become by making coal a dirty word!

casenut1 · Jan 17, 2013

was some talk at one time here in Ohio about that method. don't know what became of it. i know that I-70 in southern Ohio was closed at one time due to a mine collapse. it was an abandoned old style mine.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 17, 2013

even surrounded by hundreds of giant windmills would be more appealing.

bill mart · Jan 17, 2013

does the mining company buy the mineral rights from the property owner? Bill

bill mart · Jan 17, 2013

Tom, how can you say the land will still be farmable?do you work for one of the mining companies? Bill

ShadetreeRet · Jan 18, 2013

Now, that just about takes the prize! While on the one hand the EPA is requiring coal burning facilities to "clean up" their furnaces to the tune of millions of dollars (which is naturally passed on to the consumer), so as to reduce pollution, on the other hand they let the coal companies ruin countless acres of prime land and doing very little if anything about it. Guess that tells us who has the most money and where a lot of it is going.

Eric in IL · Jan 18, 2013

Many of the farms here sold the mineral rights back in the 50's and 60's. Way before anyone could envision coal being removed by the longwall method. Most of the people who sold the rights are dead and gone, but a fair amount of those properties are still held by the sellers' family.

Roughly five years ago, the entity that owned the rights got tired of paying taxes on them. At that time the county gained ownership of the rights. No offer of buying the rights back was made to the current landowners. The county started looking, and found a willing buyer for the complete lot of rights.

The coal does not meet "clean standards" for burning in Illinois, so can not be sold here. As a result, our city receives zero tax dollars for the coal destined to overseas markets.

If you happen to be one of the few in the target area that still retain your mineral rights, you are "in the drivers seat" if you should decide to sell.

WantACaseLASomeday · Jan 18, 2013

(quoted from post at 22:33:15 01/17/13) God bless you coal miners! Cant figure out how backwards we have become by making coal a dirty word!

Agreed! God bless the coal miners! We need to be mining and burning a lot more coal, and stop subsidizing unprofitable energy schemes!

mkirsch · Jan 18, 2013

Think about how you "saved" that dilapidated old abandoned barn while you sit in the dark and cold because you have no electricity.

Someone's got to "take one for the team" if we want to continue to enjoy all our modern conveniences.

Eric in IL · Jan 18, 2013

I understand and respect your post.

It would be easier for me to agree with those thoughts if any of
this coal was to be used in the United States.

The Dukester · Jan 18, 2013

Around here a lot of the old barns are falling down from lack of repair...people who own them can't afford to do or have the repairs done. It's sad, but that's progress I guess. Lot of old homesites with houses and barns just "wiped off the map" too. Tornadoes wiped out several in 1965 and 1973 that were never replaced..."styleless" polebarns put up on many sites. And, honestly, it looks better if the old buildings are removed before they just fall down. Even burnin' 'em up is better than watching them deteriorate and eventually fall down. Amish reclaim a lot of them and reuse the materials to build their farmsites up....that's good I guess.

RodinNS · Jan 18, 2013

The biggest thing it's going to effect is drainage in terms of usefullness as farm land. The ground itself will still be the same.
Personally I don't see where it would be profitable to longwall under property where they'd need to PAY for the damage that's caused.
Just the same... longwall mining was practiced here for probably 50 years until the mines closed. Before that they did room and pillar mining... where they retreated the pillars out so they still got 80% of the coal. The subsidence is still going on as well... in many cases where the workings were closed 70 years ago.
That said... all of the longwall operations here were sub-sea rather than land based.

Rod

W_B · Jan 18, 2013

(quoted from post at 04:34:57 01/18/13) was some talk at one time here in Ohio about that method. don't know what became of it. i know that I-70 in southern Ohio was closed at one time due to a mine collapse. it was an abandoned old style mine.

I remember that, had I70 shut down on one side for quite some time while they filled the hole. Remember when they filled across 70 to move a huge dragline from one side to the other? Not sure if it was Big Musky, but it was a big machine.

Bye Bye, Old Barn

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