Behind a Valero gas station just outside Norton, Virginia, an access road winds up a mountain to an old strip mine site. The road ascends to a flat area, devoid of the region’s usual thicket of trees and understory, open to the air and sun. The ground is dusty in patches, with flecks of coal still visible. But mostly, it’s pockmarked with shrubs and grasses along the steep inclines that divide levels that appear to have been flattened by bulldozers.
A line of cars and vans carrying 200 high school students scale up the road on a Friday afternoon in late April, kicking up dust that’s mixed with coal, dirt and pebbles. The road isn’t long—the mine site is only set back a little from the main highway, and the view from the top of the mountain encompasses the entire town and ridges that encircle it.
