But a group of West Virginia residents and environmentalists successfully sued by complaining that communities in the mountain hollows were being devastated by the blockage of waterways.

His father was a Socialist, bitterly resentful of Wall Street and the big-money world far from the mountain hollows where he raised his children.

But retired miners like Mayor Premo, who worked 40 years underground, remain addicted to the beauty of the mountain hollows.

Retired miners, addicted like Mr. Premo to the beauty of the mountain hollows, remain, having watched their progeny forced to move for career opportunities elsewhere.

The corps has created wetland lagoons to treat sewage from mountain hollows and introduced trash-skimming boats and barriers on lakes and rivers.

Taught to cherish even distant family connections, the migrants did not forget their roots, returning yearly to the mountain hollows.

Grotto-heavens are usually caves, mountain hollows, or other underground spaces.

The practice pours waste down into the mountain hollows, where residents have been increasingly displaced or bought out by the companies.

Small settlements and distant cabins, some hidden in the mountain hollows, screened by laurels, where the residents might not see another white face for months-or years-at a time.

Yet, in other ways, moonshiners, who still hide in remote mountain hollows, are every bit as crafty as in the days of the Prohibition.