COAL COUNTRY: 2.Harlan_drive_in.jpg

This marquee for a drive-in movie with a parked coal train on the right marks a desolate landscape after the theater closed and was demolished. Harlan has come to symbolize the hard-scrabble history of coal mining in Appalachia. Mining was dangerous work, with men occasionally trapped in collapsed mines resulting in multiple deaths. The Harlan Coal Wars lasted from 1931 to 1939, with numerous miners, deputies, and bosses killed. Strikes marked by violence continued for decades afterward. Underground mines began closing in the late 1970's, replaced by mountain-top removal and large-scale surface strip mining that scarred the landscape and polluted water sources. Jon Chase photo.
2.Harlan_drive_in.jpg

This marquee for a drive-in movie with a parked coal train on the right marks a desolate landscape after the theater closed and was demolished. Harlan has come to symbolize the hard-scrabble history of coal mining in Appalachia. Mining was dangerous work, with men occasionally trapped in collapsed mines resulting in multiple deaths. The Harlan Coal Wars lasted from 1931 to 1939, with numerous miners, deputies, and bosses killed. Strikes marked by violence continued for decades afterward. Underground mines began closing in the late 1970's, replaced by mountain-top removal and large-scale surface strip mining that scarred the landscape and polluted water sources. Jon Chase photo.