If we look for what is good, beautiful, and inspiring, we can find it in the most unlikely of places. I wrote this post over ten years ago, but the story is just as uplifting and inspiring today. That’s why I’ve left it on my blog. Enjoy.
Creating Beauty from Acid Mine Runoff: A True Story
Once upon a time, there was a hardworking farmer who owned a piece of land just south of Pittsburgh.
Like much local land, it sat atop a seam of coal. Like most local farms, the mineral rights were bought by a coal company.
The coal was mined from the land in the 1920s. Afterwards the farmer continued planting his crops. But now he had to watch out for sinkholes and the well water was no longer drinkable. But he didn’t complain, the land still provided for him and his family. Besides, it was all par for the course, part of running a farm in southwestern Pennsylvania coal country.
Time went on, and the farm passed from father to son. And father to son. New generations of children and grandchildren played in the rambling farm house built by ancestors, or rode across the fields in the old farm truck to pick blackberries, or sat under the massive maple trees that lined the driveway, husking bushels of sweet corn.
But the last farmer had no sons, only daughters, who married and moved elsewhere to make lives of their own. So–at the age of seventy-one–the farmer decided it was time to retire. He sold the land to the county, to become part of a new park they were creating. He felt good about that, knowing the land would be preserved and enjoyed.
Except that section of the park was never developed, and the land sat idle. The farmer was sad. He went back to visit the land from time to time, watching it slowly revert back to scrub forest. The land was forgotten. Ignored. Abandoned.
Fast forward twenty-five years.
In 1997 the Horticultural Society of Western Pennsylvania negotiated to lease the farm and surrounding acreage from the county park in order to build a botanic garden. Site plans and fundraising began. Things looked good until Hurricane Ivan struck, flooding the abandoned coal mines beneath the land and causing serious acid mine drainage issues.
Instead of giving up and looking for an alternate site, the group (now the Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania) took a radical approach; they decided to dig out the remaining coal, thereby eliminating the source of the problem. (Coal was left under the house and barns and pillars were left in the mine to support the rock layers above.)
And so, before becoming a garden, the land first had to become a strip mine.
Excavation began in 2010. The first phase of the Botanic Garden, a woodland garden featuring local species, will be opening next summer, but the main visitor’s center will one day sit atop the hill that belonged to the farmer.
And people from all over the world will walk the land and enjoy the beauty of what is to become one of the largest botanic gardens in the United States.
The farmer would have been delighted to see what is happening on his land today. He would never have dreamed that his little farm–with its difficult slopes, and shalely soil, and acid water–would become the location of one of the most verdant and beautiful destinations in Allegheny County.
Something beautiful created from an abandoned farm sitting atop a coal mine.
My heart sings every time I think of it! Because the farmer who sold the land was my grandfather and I remember many happy visits to the farm. I never lived there, but in my heart the land is my land too.
And I am proud that my grandfather’s farm is being transformed into the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden.
I hope my story gives you hope. Acid runoff doesn’t have to be the end of the story. Where can you find beauty if you look for it?
Judy J. Wojanis says
Dear Lisa,
Your story touches my heart. We have never met but, I share your passion for that farm land and our project.Thank you and your ancestors for the gift of seeing God’s beauty that will be the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden.
Sincerely,
Judy J. Wojanis
Board Secretary
Pittsburgh Botanic Graden
admin says
Thank you. I am very excited to come and visit once things are open. I have been following the story eagerly for years through my mother, who has been delighted to have a part in the project.
Cledice Decker says
Dear Lisa,
Thanks for this lovely write-up about that Pennsylvania farmer that we both loved. He was the only physical father I ever knew, my birth father left early in my life. Thankfully I have a heavenly Father who has always been a big part of my life.
I hope to come to the opening of the garden next year and see you and all the family.
Warm regards,
Cledice
Lisa says
It has been good to have you in the family! And thanks for all the love you gave my grandparents. Hope to see you if you come.