The town that coal built, episode 28

Episode 28 is a snapshot of a much larger story in Southern Illinois.
There was a time when 7 out of 10 citizens were directly, or indirectly, connected to the mining industry in Southern Illinois. Today, not so much.
It is impossible to walk down the street in Marion and not be surrounded with history that has been built, or influenced by coal.
This plentiful natural resource in the area has brought financial boom times along with some of the darkest moments witnessed in 1920's America.
Today Marion and the surrounding towns are finding new economic paths outside of the ever-shrinking mining industry in Southern Illinois.
A difficult challenge replacing such an all encompassing industry, to say the least, but a work in progress nonetheless.
Marion's approach has been to embrace the area's rich history as a way of honoring those who dedicated their lives to the dangerous profession in order to provide for their families.
Only the future will tell what is to become with the remaining 200 billion tons of Illinois coal still left in the ground, but learning from the past is a step in the right direction.
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