We’re the tenth smallest state in America, but the variety contained within our state is astounding. It’s one of the things we love most about West Virginia. Here’s yet another startlingly different (but beautiful) landscape you can find within our borders — and it’s one that you might not have even known about until now!

Welcome to the old Hobet 21 Coal Mine in West Virginia's Mud River watershed.
West Virginia National Guard/Flickr
It was one of the largest mountain-top removal coal mines in the state and is located on the border of Boone and Lincoln Counties.
Hobet looks like a place one might expect to stumble across in a desert scene out West...
West Virginia National Guard/Flickr
...but it's actually hidden right in the center of acres of typical, lush Appalachian forest.
West Virginia National Guard/Flickr

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You see, it's the remnant of a massive strip mine that produced millions of pounds of coal from 1974 to 2015.
West Virginia National Guard/Flickr
At its peak in 2002, the mine produced 5 million pounds of coal in just one year.
It's so big that you can spot it from space.
NASA
Strip mining is an efficient but environmentally controversial mining method involving mountaintop removal.
The consequences of strip mining include decapitated peaks and deforestation, biodiversity loss, and water pollution due to toxic runoff from the mining area.
NASA/Wikipedia
But despite these significant drawbacks, strip mining leaves pockets of startling beauty in its wake.
West Virginia National Guard/Flickr
Coal mining is an undeniable part of who we are as a state and as a nation, and in West Virginia, we're not afraid to own it, both the good and the bad.

The Hobet 21 Coal Mine is no longer an active mine, but the area is still used by the National Guard for training exercises. Further environmental and developmental options are being discussed and implemented for this site, and we’re excited to see how it all turns out!

Have you been to the Hobet Coal Mine? Did you feel like you had been suddenly transported to another state? For another out-of-this-world experience right here in West Virginia, try Seneca Caverns.

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Mud, WV 25565, USA