title: Jake's Mountain
author: Edwards, Vic
description: In 1888 Rho, 16 years of age, leaves the beautiful Ohio River farm of her parents, after marrying one of her dad's workers, Jacob, to go live and love on an Appalachian Mountaintop in what would later be the coalfields of Buchanan County of Southwest Virginia. Rho learned to identify and appreciate the value of herbs and the art of a midwife, by her grandmother in the mountains of West Virginia, and she soon became a legend in the coalfields. How could Della, Rho's granddaughter, and now the sole owner of Jake's Mountain protect her Granny's legacy, and more importantly Jake's Mountain from the unscrupulous coal barons that would move mountains to get to the black diamond underneath? Della only wanted the peace and security of the Appalachian Mountains she had learned to love while growing up as a child, spending the summers with her Granny Rho on Jake's Mountain. After the tragic deaths of her mother and Granny Rho in the coalfields of Buchanan County, she immersed herself in work and education to become a high ranking Environmental Protection Agency official. What could possibly keep Della from selling out and running from the coalfields of Buchanan County forever? Saving it was probably impossible. She doubted if the basketball star and gas-well driller, Russell Casey, was any less of an environmental polluter, but she was drawn back again to give him a chance and to try to find the killer of her legendary, and dear, Granny Rho.