Before the Mountain Was Moved

The film portrays the struggle by the inhabitants of Raleigh County, West Virginia, to preserve their land from the ravages of strip-mining, and their efforts to pass state legislation to this end.

Their house appears to have been covered in mud after rain, allegedly provoked by under-regulated mountaintop removal mining and deforestation.

Ellis Bailey expresses that "I can't fight a big coal company, he's got too much money."

Resident Byrd Hendrix overlooks a stream and describes the collapse of minnow and Crayfish populations.

He claims that the current requirement for obtaining strip-mining license is a $10 fee, and includes little to no regulation.

In the end, they select ex-Sergeant Major of the Army Clarendon Williams, school teacher Ina Mae Painter, and mountaineer Ellis Bailey to speak to the lawmakers.

I'm not an educated man, don't know how to speak much, but I'm here to state the facts of what's happening in Raleigh County of West Virginia.

The residents return home to Raleigh County, where they listen to the radio and watch television to learn updates about the bill.

Due to heavy rains, the roads in Raleigh County become impassable, and they are unable to travel to the capitol again.

The bill was passed unanimously by the West Virginian Senate, but "emerged from the House in a watered-down condition."

However, in the end, the bill is passed in its original, harder-regulation form in a 98-to-1 landslide as the 1967 West Virginia Surface Mining Reclamation Act.