The Coal Mining Heritage Park Science Center represents a collaborative
effort on the part of the Montgomery County Public Schools, in conjunction
with Montgomery County's Departments of Planning and Parks and Recreation,
the Coal Mining Heritage Association, Radford University's Department of
Anthropology, Virginai Tech's Departments of Forestry, Geology, and Urban
Design and Planning, the Virginia Tech Natural History Museum, Draper Aden
and Associates, and the Waste Policy Institute.
The Coal Mining Heritage Park, as one observer noted, is a 29.2 acre site
characterized by an abandoned mine site and company town (foundations only),
steep slopes, a small stream, and wetlands. After the Merrimac Mine closed
in 1934, the mining, supporting business (commissary and hotel), and residential
structures were torn down. Some of the materials were used to build houses
in other parts of the immediate area; some were sold for scrap; and some
were used as heating fuel. In 2002, only the tipple and hoist house foundations
remain visible. Other than a limited reclamation project some 20 years ago,
evidenced by the stand of white pines on the south slope above the tipple
and the abundance of crown vetch, the Merrimac Mine site has been left alone.
The story of the Merrimac Mine is two fold: the history of the place and
the people during the mine's hayday; and the natural history and scientific
reality of a brownfield site left, for the most part, to its own devices.
In addition to a wetland at the east/north end of the park, the Coal Mining
Heritage Park has six distinct biozones-- some defined by human occupation
and some masking the evidence of a landscape once laid bare by mining activity
and overgrazing.While the park land looks, at times, unruly, the evidence
of the land's regeneration and the influence of its human occupants are
spread throughout the property. Scattered among the pin oak and hickory
are ancient, gnarled apple trees; beds of irises and daylilies grown amidst
the common mullien, the joe pye weed, and the cardinal flowers.
The Coal Mining Heritage Park provides a permanent science laboratory for
area schools and universities, which will allow for long-range and comparative
scientific studies and projects. The Science Center provides students and
teachers in the Montgomery County Public Schools science programs the necessary
tools, equipment, and facilities to carry out longitudinal studies using
a hands-on approach, while also supporting the Virginia Standards of Learning.
For more information on the Coal Mining Heritage Park Science Center, contact
Kim Lee, Science Coordinator for
the Montgomery County Public Schools, or Meghan
Dorsett, Montgomery County Planning Department.
