Man, I used to breathe coal dust as a kid. Came with the territory - the beds of railroad tracks were lined with it like black chalk dust. The tire plant’s twin stacks belched clouds of it. I’d dig in the dirt looking for fossils in those hills and ridges and find chunks of it everywhere. Still have burning coal seams up there that throw out pockets of steam through the bedrock, and you can see it during the winter months, like the boilers on a train engine. Most of the coal industry in western Maryland is dead now; they mined most of the ‘good coal’ right up through the 70’s. Now most of the mine shafts are reclamation projects.
Was this in Wales, Pennsylvania, or Wyoming?