Submission

The massive expansion of coal industries in Appalachia completely changed the region economically, ecologically, and socially. At the time the coal industry reached its peak, the Appalachian city of Lynch had a population of around 10,000. By 2018, that number had dropped to 600. When work disappeared from the town and the population dwindled, many of the finest schools closed their doors. The city, built from the ground up by a massive global coal corporation, struggles in its absence. The rapid economic and ecological expansion left not only a changed and polluted landscape, but a changed generation. Coal, in many respects, became Appalachia.