Goals preparation plant in the morning

The Goals Preparation Plant at Sundial is a site for washing coal to bring the coal into compliance with clean air regulations. The name "Goals" draws our attention to the folklore of naming practices in mining. Many mines and coal towns have been named by company officials, often in honor of someone in the family or in the company. The town of Colcord was named for E.C. Colcord, who owned mines on Coal River in the early 1900s. "Dorothy" was named for his daughter. The "Samples" mountaintop removal site on Cabin Creek is named for Ronald Eugene Samples, a former Arch company official, while the "Stanley Heritage Mine" is named for the Stanley Heirs who have established a park on top of Kayford Mountain. Sometimes names for set of mines may be thematically linked, as the names of A.T. Massey subsidiaries on Coal River appear to be, calling attention to desirable attributes in a national imaginary of progress: Goals, Performance, United, Independence, and Progressive. Progressive was formerly known as "Mountaintop Removal Mining," but the name was changed in the late 1990s. Names for rooms within mines as well as for individual mines may also be thematically linked. One superintendent recalled that the rooms in which his men worked were all named after the Little Rascals. Another official at Elk Run has been naming mines after chess pieces: Black King, Black Knight II, White Knight, and so forth. It doesn't appear that any have yet been named for pawns.