Introduction

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.