August 16, 2012
Maryland, Opinions

They’re here, and even more of them are coming

Bill Zapf | Cumberland Times-News | times-news.com 2 August 2012

And, there they were. One of the worst nightmares for anyone who lives and loves the mountains, views, and outdoor life of Western Maryland. There they were on Big Savage Mountain. The wind mills!

The Big Savage Mountain that stands and guards our western border. The Big Savage Mountain the was first discovered and named for John Savage of the Mayo surveying expedition of 1736.

The Big Savage Mountain that is snow topped and wind swept in the winter and is shining emerald of life in the summer is being desecrated by horrific, blasphemous windmills that destroy the sanctity of it’s majestic appearance.

As I was driving towards Mount Savage on Sunday morning thinking about the old railroad beds to my left and probably passing back and forth over the Turkey Foot Trail that took settlers and missionaries through Mount Savage and on to the new western frontier, I looked up at the normally crowning view of Big Savage Mountain to the west and saw the three white spires of the wind mill towers under construction on Big Savage Mountain.

This is a sign of things to come. If you like to live here and absorb the mountains and views in our little valley, they are coming. The windmills are coming.

If you have friends that visit and tell you how pretty our mountains are, if you have relatives that come home and say how they miss the beauty of our area, it is disappearing. The windmills are coming.

How environmentalists can be in favor of windmills is beyond my comprehension. A normally pristine mountain has gashes of roads cut through habitat and greenery.

Then at the wind mill site, trees and rocks and ledges that are millions of years old are destroyed and replaced with tons of concrete. Wind mills are placed where the wind is and therefore in the path of soaring birds that follow the ridges and air currents.

The economic scam of wind mills is overwhelming. Yes, your tax dollar subsidizes their production and erection. Your tax dollar subsidizes their operation.

Yes, the trade unions need the temporary work that their construction provides. God Bless Them.

Let’s hope that when we wake up years from now and begin to tear them down, that the same craftsmen can destroy them and return our natural beauty to us.

If you want to see destruction of the landscape, drive over the new corridor H west of Moorefield and see the line of windmills running the length of the mighty Allegheny Front.

Drive to Keyser and see Green Mountain disgraced with their row of windmills.

And of course, stop by Calla Hill in Mount Savage for a full frontal insult of the Big Savage Mountain that has stood over Mount Savage, Western Maryland and our way of life since the collision of the continents.

Bill Zapf

Cumberland


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/08/16/theyre-here-and-even-more-of-them-are-coming/