Nearly 450 feet below ground, rock dust fills the air as coal miners at the Elk Creek Mine in Hopkins County, Ky., break down a belt line previously used to transport coal. The walls are periodically treated to make them fireproof, a process that kicks up dust and makes it hard to see and breathe. At 11 p.m. at Elk Creek Mine in Hopkins County, Ky., Jarrett "Country" VanCleve, 21, and Ron "Indian" Rhodes meet in the parking lot and walk to meet their friends before starting their nine-hour shift underground. Jarrett VanCleve, 21, is glad to see his friends at the Elk Creek Mine in Hopkins County, Ky. Outside the shower room, the miners gather at the 11 p.m. shift change and are loud and horse around, despite the hard labor that they are about to do. Jarrett "Country" VanCleve, waits to start his shift at Elk Creek Mine. The miners go by their nicknames underground, a strong tradition to every miner. Breakfast is ready for Jared VanCleve, 21, when he comes home from the coal mine where he works third shift. Every morning, his mom, Benita "Cricket" VanCleve, waits for Jared to call and let her know he is safely out of the mine. "I worry about him. . . . It's hard for a mother to understand that when a child is grown, they get to choose what they want to do," she said. Jarrett VanCleve, 21, goes to church with his parents twice on Sundays and once on Wednesday at Nortonville Baptist Church. He lives for "the Lord, my family, and that coal mine," he said. Best friends and neighbors since they were little, Melissa Clayton, 18, and Jarrett VanCleve, 21, get to spend a few minutes together when Clayton comes home from Eastern Kentucky University, where she is a freshman. "He misses me like crazy," she said. Warm, October light streams through the foggy morning air off Island Ford Road in Hopkins County, Ky.
