Excerpt from THE BONANZA KING: John Mackay and the Battle Over the Greatest Riches in the American West by Gregory Crouch.

The top ten coal miners alone had combined unpaid fines of $18.3 million by the end of April.

Virginia Attorney General and Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli made a campaign stop in Bristol this week and coal was a hot topic.

Virginia voters are split like an atom on the issue of uranium mining as 43 percent say mining should be allowed because of economic benefits while 41 percent are opposed because of environmental concerns, according to Quinnipiac University poll release today.

It was Easter Weekend 2010 when 33-year-old Gary Quarles—a skilled miner with 14 years experience and a father of two— and an “up and coming” miner, Nicolas McCroskey, 26, were having dinner with a friend. They said that “something bad was going to happen” at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine where they worked.

Three miners in southeastern Kentucky became trapped early Monday morning when part of the coal mine they were in collapsed from heavy rainfall.