COAL COUNTRY: serpents_WVa-2.jpg

A woman handles a rattlesnake at a church service in Micco, West Virginia in 1979. The minister standing behind her with arms outstretched lost his 15-year-old son to a rattlesnake bite a month earlier. Snake handling is based on a verse from Acts 28:3-6 in the Bible saying, "They will pick up serpents...”. Micco is named for the Main Island Creek Coal Company. Jon Chase photo