Noah Lester and Cameron Auville

Iaeger, West Virginia

Iaeger sits lower than the main road, just visible next to railroad tracks that used to be busy hauling coal. It’s mostly deserted. There’s a town hall with a working Coke machine out front, but lots of empty storefronts. High on one exterior brick wall you can just make out through the peeling paint, Pioneer Community Bank, The Little Fellows Bank. I saw a barber’s pole and an OPEN sign so I stopped in.

Noah Lester had been in this location for two years.

“I served in Iraq and then came home to work in the mines. I worked driving for a strip mine operation until I was laid off in 2012. They had a re-education program, so I went to barber school, but then got called back to the mine in 2015. In 2016 I got laid off again, so I said screw it, I’m done. I opened a shop twenty miles from here, then I found this spot. I can afford the rent, even if it is off the beaten track.

“Being a barber is great. I get to run my mouth, which I enjoy and there’s nothing better than giving a little boy his first haircut.

“People fall in love with this area ‘cause the people are genuine. Really good people.”

The door opened and a young man came in.

“God damn it, Cam, didn’t you see the closed sign?”

“It says open!”

“Oh, shit. I forgot to turn it. Fine. Get in the chair.”

Cameron Auville had just graduated from high school a few months earlier and worked loading trucks in a nearby feed store. He looked forward to the owner’s promise of training him to drive for his wrecker and concrete businesses.

“I live on a hill with my parents, my granddaddy, aunts, and uncles. They all worked in coal, but they know the same thing I do- it’s a dying field. I want to stay here because this is where my history is, but I’ll never work the mines. Never.”

Noah added, “I love coal. I really do. God made it for a reason. We should mine it as long as we can. But me? I’m not going back.”