The Sludge Pond at Shumate's Branch, rising above the Marsh Fork Elementary School, Sundial, WV

"Shumate's Branch was settled in the 19th century by Green Clay (son of Charles and Aura Clay) and his wife Betsy Ann, daughter of Jacob and Celia Pettry, who had settled in Hazy Creek. The hollow was home to descendants of Clays, Pettrys and others until the mid-1980s, when the Peabody Coal Company implemented a plan formulated by Armco to build a "Shumate Branch Coal Refuse Impoundment." To clear the way for the impoundment, Peabody relocated several dozen families and a cemetery. A number of graves from the Clay family cemetery may be seen at the Pineview Cemetery in Orgas. At the foot of the dam, which measures ? feet high, is the Goals Preparation plant, and immediately downstream, the Marsh Fork Elementary School.
Note the Marsh Fork Elementary School, just below the dam, lower left."
Event: Aerial tour of mountaintop removal and reclamation.