Harlan County
In Harlan County, the collapse of Blackjewel LLC abruptly shuttered mines and left hundreds of miners without work. The company filed for bankruptcy and failed to pay workers, the miners blocked the trainline for 59 days, the blockade ended after securing over $5 million in back pay.
It wasn’t just a bankruptcy; it exposed a harder truth: the industry’s decline is no longer cyclical, but structural.
As energy markets shift toward cheaper sources, communities like Harlan and their workers face a pressing question: what could meaningful investment and a new kind of future look like here?
Down town Harlan, Kentucky, USA. July 24, 2020.
If you're laid off at a mine you can get some help to get another profession and my dad always said 'as long as you had your CDLs you won't be out of work.' So I got my CDLs, but I'm completely blind in one eye, I was born that way, so I can only drive in the state of Kentucky right now. I'm trying to get my vision exemption approved so I can drive from one state to another, but they're still reviewing it. It's hard to move somewhere else when you have a mortgage, you can't sell when no one wants to move here. That's why I've started looking at going back to mining. I've put my name in up the hill to try and go back mining for a company called black hawk. I don't want to go back to mining but my unemployment is running out so I've gotta do something quick, all these bills are piling up and I've got kids.
Bobby Stevens at the Hurricane Creek Mine Disaster Memorial in Hyden, Kentucky.
Site of the coal train blockade by Blackjewel miners in Cumberland, Kentucky.
I did 6 months studying to get into fiber optics, but then I had to drop it. I just couldn't afford to not be working with 6 kids and a mortgage to pay. I work on a line pulling the meat off the rack. I strip the 'cloth' off of the cooked meat then pack and send it out for people to buy. I enjoy the people I'm working with but it's rough work. When you're pulling 1,500 pound lumps of meat around all day it can wear you out. I won't be doing that the rest of my life. I'm hoping to move up with the company into some sort of supervisory position or something. I won't be going back to coal mining. I miss it a lot but it's not reliable enough. When it's good it's good, but when it's bad it is really bad. I can't ever go back, I do miss it but I'm done.
Jeff Willig, Cumberland, Kentucky.
A storm-damaged memorial wall at the Coal Miners Memorial Park in Benham, Kentucky.
East Main Street, Cumberland, Kentucky.
I have five kids, so health care is always going to be a necessity for my family. If everything works out, I'll finish up spring twenty twenty two and take the Registered Nurse exam. I want to work a few years in an ICU or an emergency room. And the dream is to become a flight nurse. I figure if I can do something like this, I'm showing my kids that no matter how long you've been out of school, that it's never too late to go back. If you put your mind and willpower into it, you can adapt. People adapt.
John Swanson, Martins Fork Lake, Smith, Kentucky.
Andrew Burton, (34) ex coal miner, in his garage, Cumberland, Kentucky. Burton is training to be a registered nurse.
I was on vacation at the beach with my family when I got the call that they were filing for bankruptcy. I had the opportunity to go back underground a couple of times, but I didn't go because I knew it wasn't reliable work. I mean, it's over. Mining here is over. Every man in my family, that's the only thing they've ever done. From an early age, both my grandpa and my dad were totally against it. They wanted us to go to school. But when you're 18, coming out of high school, and you can make eighty thousand dollars a year with no degree, it's hard to pass up in a small town. I don't care what anybody says. It's awful. It's the worst job you'll ever have in your life. You don't really feel human working twelve hours a day in total darkness. If anybody had the choice to do something else and make the same amount of money, they would do it in a heartbeat. There's no way I'd have gone underground if it wasn't for the money. That's just being honest.
Store for rent, Cumberland, Kentucky.
West Main Street, Cumberland, Kentucky.
Village Center Mall, Grays Knob, Kentucky.
A miner’s son and former banker, Harlan County’s judge‑executive Mosley, has been promoting a “build-ready” site set aside for new businesses. He's hoping to attract employers who can tap into the area’s available workforce in a region where unemployment is twice the national average.
Judge-Executive Dan Mosley at his office in Harlan County.
Vacant land set aside for new businesses in Cumberland, Kentucky.
I had brothers and a father who worked in the coal mines. My time underground was about four years. I started working as a face man. Now I work for Southeast Community College. I’ve been in the maintenance department for almost 20 years, and I worked for the City of Lynch for about 33 years. On top of that, I’m a part-time bus driver. That’s what my life in this community has been, just working. I also help out here with whatever they need, including cleaning, stocking shelves, and setting up different displays and scenes. We have a coal mining museum here in Benham, and people come from all over the world to visit and be part of it. About three miles up the road in Lynch, there’s a place called Portal 31, where you can go inside a mine. If you’ve never had that experience, they take you on a “man trip,” which is what we used to ride in and out of the mines. It’s a good experience. If you’re ever in this area and want to know what it’s like to be underground, this is the place to be.
Walter Ravizee (62), Ex coal miner, Kentucky Coal Mining Museum, Benham, Kentucky.
Entrance to the Portal No. 31 Underground Coal Mine exhibition in Lynch, Kentucky.
An underground exhibit at Portal No. 31 in Lynch, Kentucky.
Deona Mimes (23), daughter of a coal miner, at the front desk of the hotel she works at Benham Schoolhouse Inn, Benham, Kentucky, USA.
An exhibit showing a historic example of a miner’s house at the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum in Benham, Kentucky.
A display inside the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum showing a poster for a performance by country music singer and coal miner’s daughter Loretta Lynn.
"I’ve been here since 1952. Used to run dozers and cranes for coal stripping and road construction. When I was done in the forces I got back here and found my wife up at a coal camp. I stopped to get a pack of cigarettes and she was the one who sold them to me." - WL Brassfield (78), Cumberland, Kentucky.
Lynch 3 preperation plant sits idle following the 2019 Blackjewel Mining protests, Oven Fork, Kentucky.
Dollar store, Cumberland, Kentucky.
Julionna and Robby Johnson, Cumberland, Kentucky.
Solar panels at the closed coal plant across from the Portal No. 31 Underground Coal Mine exhibit in Lynch, Kentucky.