Rick Johnson’s introduction to the world of coal began as a teenager more than 40 years ago in rural western Virginia. For a decade and a half, he worked for extraction and chemical production companies across Appalachia.
“I was fed on coal,” he said recently.
But his work kept him away from home for long periods. And by the mid-1990s he and his wife, Heather, saw another major resource staring them in the face: the region’s natural beauty. As the once-profitable local mining and extraction industry suffered a downturn, leading company after company to board up, the Johnsons decided to buy a rafting business in Oak Hill, West Virginia.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/05/west-virginia-coal-miners-tourism