HELPER, Utah—Roman Vega Jr. had just graduated from high school when he first encountered the underground “long wall” at the coal mine where his father worked in Colorado.
It was not a place for the timid or the claustrophobic, Vega recalls. The work was loud, dusty, and hazardous.
“You could see how big it was and how deep underground you had to go to get to these places,” said Vega, who is from Helper, Utah. “You watched these [machine] blades just tear through the mountain.”
Eerily, he could hear the mountain vibrate or “sing” through the large bolts driven into the stone to prevent the mine’s roof from collapsing….