{"id":37360,"date":"2016-09-03T23:50:03","date_gmt":"2016-09-04T03:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=37360"},"modified":"2020-08-12T00:16:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T04:16:56","slug":"william-hayes-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=37360","title":{"rendered":"WILLIAM HAYES (PART III)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Pine Mountain Settlement School
\nSeries 19: Students
\nSeries 09: Biography – Staff\/Personnel
\nSeries 05: Administration – Board of Trustees<\/h5>\n

WILLIAM HAYES (Part III)<\/h2>\n

Student, September 1934 – May 1938<\/strong>
\nFarm Manager, 1937 – 1953
\nMember, PMSS Board of Trustees, 1984 – 2006<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n

TAGS:<\/strong> William Hayes, Bill Hayes, Fern Hall Hayes, farm manager, Dr. Richard Drake, Berea College Service Award, surface mining, SMCRA, Kentucky Division of Forestry, Putney, KY., US Forest Service, Daniel Boone National Forest, Red River Gorge, Little Shepherd Trail, Kentenia State Forest, forestry, scenic roads, Wilson Wyatt, Office of Surface Mining, US Department of the Interior, reclamation, Lands Unsuitable for Mining, coal mining, coal camps, tuberculosis, Dr. Willis Weatherford, Howard Burdine, Native Americans, Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees,\u00a0 American Indian pictographs, woodcraft,\u00a0 furniture, gardening; log cabins; Robin Lambert ;<\/p>\n

\n

WILLIAM HAYES III:<\/strong> NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACTS<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The documenting of Native American cliff dwellings, pictographs, and artifacts during work as a farmer and as a reclamation supervisor was a long-standing interest of Bill. Many surface mining sites and artifacts were destroyed by surface mining before discovery or before the appropriate intervention could be arranged. Bill was able, in some cases to document location, pictographs, and other indicators of Native American habitation. Now buried under tons of overburden or blown away, these early sites continue to be destroyed before legal action can be initiated to prevent destruction. Most, unfortunately, many were already vandalized by artifact hunters and other acts of irresponsible behavior, before surface mining came into being.<\/p>\n

Bill’s collection of artifacts gathered over many years, were donated to Pine Mountain Settlement School in 2004 and along with other collections, that of Fred Burkhard and James Faulkner, the collections form the nucleus of the Native Americans educational module in the Environmental Education program<\/a> at the Settlement School.<\/p>\n

WILLIAM HAYES III: Back to Pine Mountain – Board of Trustees<\/strong>\u00a01984 \u2013 2003<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Following his departure from the Office of Surface Mining, Department of the Interior, in 1983, Bill became a member of the Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees. His many years of employment at the School and his years of service to the School while at the Putney Ranger Station and his subsequent years of support when called upon, made him particularly well suited for trustee work at the School. Again, he entered a\u00a0responsibility at a time of considerable conflict. At the School, the Director position was again changing and the School had found itself at the center of the surface mining debate in the region. Further, his brother Paul Hayes<\/a> was selected to manage the School as an Interim Director in the absence of a full-time Director.<\/p>\n

Bill provided support mainly for the Buildings and Grounds Committee, as his familiarity with the structures on campus and their history filled in many gaps related to the preservation and maintenance of the structures and the grounds.<\/p>\n

GALLERY: Board Reviewing PMSS Structures and Grounds<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
\"Members<\/a><\/dt>\n
Members of the Buildings and Grounds Committee, c. 1984. (lft. to rt.) ?, Ben Begley, M. Pride, Paul Hayes, Milly Mahoney, Burton Rogers, ? PMSS BOT<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
\"William<\/a><\/dt>\n
William Hayes with ?, Burton Rogers (behind) and James Greene III, members of the PMSS BOT \u2013 Building and Grounds Committee, c. 1984.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
\"Milly<\/a><\/dt>\n
Milly Mahoney, James Greene III, ?, ?, M. Pride, and Burton Rogers at Barn at PMSS BOT \u2013 Building and Grounds Committee, c. 1984.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
\"Paul<\/a><\/dt>\n
Paul Hayes(center) with BOT members (M. Pride) and Ben Begley to far rt. at PMSS Barn. Building and Grounds Committee, c. 1984.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
\"Ruth<\/a><\/dt>\n
Ruth Shuler Dieter, ?, Ben Begley, Bill Hayes, Milly Mahoney, ?, Jane Bishop, James Greene, Burton Rogers \u2013 Building and Grounds Committee at PMSS, c. 1984.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
\n
\"William<\/a><\/dt>\n
William Hayes (far rt.) Ruth Shuler Dieter (cntr) and ? (far lft) in Chapel field with members of the PMSS BOT \u2013 Building and Grounds Committee, c. 1984.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

WILLIAM HAYES III: Lands Unsuitable for Mining Petition\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Pine Mountain Settlement School<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"lands_unsuit_001\"

[lands_unsuit_001.jpg]<\/p><\/div>In 2001 the Director of Pine Mountain Settlement School, Robin Lambert, with the backing of the Board of Trustees of the School, including Bill Hayes, filed a petition with the state of Kentucky which asked that the land around the historic School be declared unsuitable for surface mining. The Lands Unsuitable petition was not the first of its kind in Kentucky but it was the first filed deep withing mining country in Eastern Kentucky.<\/p>\n

It aimed to ban the permitting of surface mining operations within the boundary of the petition which was the visual and sensory area surrounding the School. The petition was prompted by the actions of Nally and Hamilton Coal Company which had filed a preliminary application to remove coal using surface mining up to the boundaries of the School campus. The mining activity threatened the environmental activity of the School as well as the physical historic site and its buildings which would be susceptible to the large use of explosive charges among other depredations. The activity of the mining company was also seen as disruptive of the activities of the well-known environmental programs at the School and endangerment to school children who participated in the programming. The \u201cLands Unsuitable for Mining\u201d petition was forwarded to James Bickford the Director of Natural Resources in Kentucky and was broadly distributed to the public in an attempt to stop the mining operation.<\/p>\n

While the petition did not seek to alter the uses and the ownership of lands surrounding the School, only stop the activity of surface mining,\u00a0so near the School, the \u201cLands Unsuitable for Mining\u201d petition created a range of fears regarding the\u00a0petition. The petition, described in the page PMSS<\/strong>\u00a0LAND USE \u2013 LANDS UNSUITABLE FOR MINING,<\/strong>\u00a0was forwarded to James Bickford the Director of Natural Resources in Kentucky and was broadly distributed to the public in an attempt to stop the mining operation, Bill Hayes\u2019 expertise as a former surface mining inspector was tested on many fronts during this contentious process.<\/p>\n

Editorial columns in newspapers and the media outside the region were solidly behind the Pine Mountain petition, particularly the LouisvilleCourier-Journal<\/em> and the Lexington Herald-Leader <\/em>but a counter campaign was launched at the local level that sought to characterize the effort as an attempt to put people out of work and as a thinly disguised restriction on personal freedoms and personal land disposition.\u00a0<\/em>While there were nearly 3000 letters written to the State and all but 76 supported the Pine Mountain position, the position of the Governor, Paul Patton, a coal supporter, was a critical pivot in the outcome. Importantly, the Kentucky House of Representatives passed House Resolution 133 supporting the Pine Mountain Lands Unsuitable petition 95-0 and the reluctant Governor capitulated. The tide appeared to be turning for environmentalism in the State.<\/p>\n

WILLIAM HAYES III:\u00a0<\/strong>VIPER AND THE HAYES CABIN<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

During the years when Bill was negotiating the enforcement of surface mining legislation and surface mining realities in the region, Fern was working first for the local Community College and later for the Kentucky River Health District office in Hazard. But, Bill and Fern were also engaged in a personal endeavor — building their own home. In 1967, Bill and Fern moved to Viper, Kentucky, onto property once owned by Fern Hall\u2019s<\/a> ancestors. P.W. Hall, an early ancestor, who came to Perry County in the middle 1800s as a surveyor and speculator. Philip Whisman, or, P.W., a Virginian, purchased considerable land along the North Fork of the Kentucky River in Perry County. On one of his steep hillsides, Myrtle Hall, Fern\u2019s mother used to milk her cow on the \u201cflat\u201d of the mountainside, It was there on a small inherited lot that Bill and Fern began work on the reconstruction of three salvaged old log cabins to build themselves a home. It was to be the first home the couple had ever owned and it was built almost entirely by Bill with initial help from his two sons. Steve and Philip.<\/p>\n

It was there that Bill and Fern gardened, grew rare and unique mountain plants and watched their grandchildren grow up nearby. It was on a steep mountain hillside that Bill raised his prize crop of tomatoes.<\/p>\n

WILLIAM HAYES III:\u00a0<\/strong>Gardening \u2013 \u201cTomatoes. A regular kitchen symphony.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"hayes_garden_02\"

[hayes_garden_02.jpg]<\/p><\/div>\n

\"hayes_garden_12\"

[hayes_garden_12.jpg]<\/p><\/div>Though the steep hillside at Viper was a challenge, Bill had seen steep hillsides before and knew how to coax the mountainside into a fertile garden. He planted pear, apple, and golden rain trees. Arbors of grapes ran across the hillside. Between the stones and buried cliffs, he raised corn, beans, tomatoes, okra, kale, lettuce, and squash in abundance. Fern nurtured plants that were rare and unique in the mountains of Kentucky but that thrived in the rich loam of the north slope. Her flame azaleas brightened every corner of the property and giant green-dragons were four feet high. Her mother’s heirloom roses brightened many corners. The greenhouse grew lemons and fig trees and 60-year-old cacti from Arizona.<\/p>\n

Always an admirer of tomatoes of many varieties, Bill once described that summer fruit as a \u201c\u2026regular kitchen symphony.\u201d Fern canned, strung \u201cleather britches\u201d (dried beans), shelled hickory nuts and walnuts sometimes turning them into pies. Dried apples were turned into “Massy” apple stack-cakes\u00a0by Bill. Sassafrass bark made sassafrass tea and teaberry grew at their back door. Bill hand fed his pet giant bullfrog in their small pond and took his dog Missy for long walks to check on his ginseng patch. The ginseng,<\/p>\n

The ginseng, golden-seal plants and black cohosh never made it to the drying rack as they were raided in a land that still has little respect for property borders, Hopefully, the seven-year-old ginseng plants stolen in the night went to feed a hungry family or get a miner through the month. But it is more likely that it went to feed a drug habit. Drugs for drugs.<\/p>\n

GALLERY: The Garden at Viper Cabin<\/h3>\n\n\t\t