In the coalfields of Appalachian West Virginia, everyone hopes the mine will keep giving up its coal to pay rare six-figure salaries. But their prayers ask that they return safely to the surface.

Nixon signed into law the Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act after public outcry over a mine explosion the previous year in Farmington, West Virginia, that killed 78 workers. Under the law ...

Ava Johnson knows West Virginia coal will not ever be what it once was. But as she makes her way along overgrown railroad tracks near the abandoned Kay Moor mine in the New River Gorge National Park ...

Morgantown, West Virginia — In West Virginia's coal country, Marion Tennant says ... at the facility — from the people who oversee mine safety to those who study cancer-causing chemicals ...

Ava Johnson knows West Virginia coal will not ever be what it once was. But as she makes her way along overgrown railroad tracks near the abandoned Kay Moor mine in the New River Gorge National ...

Ava Johnson knows West Virginia coal will not ever be what it once was. But as she makes her way along overgrown railroad tracks near the abandoned Kay Moor mine in the New River Gorge National ...

FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — The winner of this year's West Virginia Coal Festival teen beauty pageant walks among the ruins of a community abandoned 70 years ago and imagines the rusted remains ...

Thursday, April 17, 2025, (AP Photo/Leah Willingham) West Virginia Coal Festival teen beauty pageant winner Ava Johnson, 16, explores the abandoned Kay Moor mine complex in the New River Gorge ...