Hard as the Rock Itself: Place and Identity in the American Mining Town

5: Conclusion

185 I N THE ANTHRACITE COAL MINING TOWNS OF PENNSYLVANIA, BEN MARSH OBserved :“[T]HERE is a paradox to these valleys. . . .The land means much, but gives little.” Marsh explained this contradiction by showing that a broad concept of place includes consideration of the physical support a landscape provides, or its means, as well as its less tangible meanings. His research is revisited in order to highlight its salience to the case studies presented in this book. Residents of the mining communities herein also have maintained attachments to landscapes that have provided, or continue to provide, limited material reward. Indeed, Marsh was correct in suggesting that this phenomenon stems from a common set of experiences in historic mining areas. “The same history that so degraded this countryside,” he wrote of the anthracite coal region, “has solidified this society.”1 The same holds true forToluca, Cokedale, and Picher. In fact, these commonalities in place experience are especially notable given the diversity of the case studies. All are turn-of-the-twentieth-century rural mining communities, but each occupies a different physical and cultural region of the central United States. Each was settled by people of different ethnic and national C H A P T E R F I V E Conclusion 186 CONCLUSION backgrounds, and mining’s operational lifespans and the mineral commodities produced also varied. So, too, have mining’s economic and physical impacts. Deindustrialization has produced varied economic outcomes and each community now confronts different planning challenges and different degrees of environmental problems. Regardless of these differences, however, there exists in each community a shared attachment to place that is rooted in the mining past. In each case study, the mining landscape draws residents toward that past, reflecting and reinforcing central aspects of identity. At the broadest level, the case studies show that place value is not necessarily wedded to aesthetic attributes or to the physical and economic support a place provides for survival. As shown, there is a dichotomy to place experience in historic mining regions. Historically, outsiders have viewed these places as derelict locales, whereas residents have tended to emphasize their positive experiential values. In general, the mining life has created emotional bonds to place that the industry’s physical legacies assist in maintaining, but it would be wrong to suggest that variations in place meaning do not exist. At a more focused level, the case studies show that historic mining regions, like all symbolic landscapes, are perceptually complex.Thus, it would be counterproductive to oversimplify the relationship residents and outsiders have to these places as they are already burdened by abstractions—popular generalizations and myths of the mining imaginary. Although occupation of mining landscapes is not necessarily dehumanizing, it must be noted that life in these places is not inevitably rewarding and rarely is it trouble free. In fact, attachments to place produce a difficult future for the residents of historic mining towns who are reluctant to abandon communities and environments that are detrimental to quality of life from a socioeconomic or environmental standpoint. The mining past remains central to the production and maintenance of a local sense of place. Although mine closure eliminated these communities’ economic ties to the mining industry, it did not sever emotional ties to the mining way of life. Residents continue to associate mining with their communities’ reason for being and this is one of the most obvious ways in which the industrial past contributes to place meaning. Mining provides a context for existence. Moreover, in many ways, the mining-era represents a time of clearer purpose, especially in Cokedale and Picher where no new industries have filled mining’s economic void and where the present function of community is unclear. Even inToluca, however, which began life as an agricultural trade center and has now returned to its farming origins, mining is at the fore in historical reminiscences of place. In all of the case studies, mining is ingrained in local history. In all three towns, residents turn to their mining heritage to validate their communities’ existence. For the residents ofToluca, Cokedale, and Picher, mining provides an answer to the question, why are we here? In addition, it plays a vital role in defining personal and social-group identity. It is in the mining past that residents find 187 CONCLUSION answers to the question of who they are. Identity is rooted in and reinforced by memories of the mining...