USA. Illinois. 2017. Local young people talk with activist Georgia de la Garza about the declining coal industry with the Bald Knob cross in the background. Mining jobs have been the core of the economy in Southern Illinois for the past century, a source of stability, prosperity and pride. In the last few decades the number of jobs have declined to a small fraction of their former number, leaving the economy in shambles with few prospects for new forms of industry to take its place.