Forged by Coal

Forged by Coal: A Family's Story

The year was 1945, and the feudal coal camp system in post-World War II West Virginia had already begun to decline. Expecting their first child, Doug and Vergie Bailey followed in the footsteps of thousands of other Appalachian mining families and settled into coal camp life. Their story of loss, grief and self-determination unfolds through the eyes of their first child and converges with the story of a changing culture and economic system in that last decade when "Coal was King."