A place where generations of immigrants and dreamers could work and lift up their family. alan: the town of welch, when it was booming, the sidewalks were so crowded there would be traffic backed up like a mile. you couldn t find a place to park. we had three hospitals, had a taxi cab stand, had, like, three jewelry stores. it was just a wonderful place. anthony: the rest of the country took a lot of money out of these hills over the decades. billions and billions of dollars. and when it became cheaper, or more convenient to pull the coal we needed to power our electrical grids, and to make our steel elsewhere, this is what was left behind. but this is not a poverty porn show. do not pity the people here, who despite what you may think, are not unrealistic about a return to the glory days of coal and better times. linda mckinney: i drank coffee from the time i could walk. they put coffee in your bottle. coffee or wine. [ laughter ] anthony: linda mckinney is a true daughter of
anthony: linda runs 5 loaves & 2 fishes , a food bank that holds many of the lives here together during tough times. bob: gracious god, we just thank you for this day that we re able to give food out again, this is not a regular give-out. watch over us and protect us, help us to keep cool heads. father, we pray over the food we re about to eat, for the nourishment our body is blessed, in the name of christ, amen. group: amen. anthony: the coal that came out of this area built america, right? linda: yes. bob: mcdowell county alone was called the billion-dollar coal field. and the people that were in charge at the time didn t take advantage of all that money in case something did happen to the coal mine. bob: we got spoiled. the last coal mines i worked at i made base salary was
Retired teacher Lori Bishop has lived in Keystone all her life. She remembered when the coal mine tipple seen from her front porch in the once booming town ran 24