"I had to shovel jacks and pull in some jacks. Had built cribs" — wooden structures used as roof support.

Coal mining is a challenging job and hard work, Jewkes said. "At the end I was a fire boss. I had to go in, preshift for the mine and make sure it was safe to enter." When he found that the mine was safe, he would notify the people outside that it was all right for the miners to go in.

He would check seals. When sections of a mine are mined out, "they seal them out so they don't get carbon dioxide and poison gases coming out of there." He would walk along and check the conveyor belts, "make sure the belts are OK."

The mine closed in 1994 and he didn't find another mining position. "It's hard getting a job," Jewkes said. "I had all my papers. I had my electrical papers, fire boss and mine foreman with it."

So he got a long-haul trucking job. He takes carbon dioxide gas from wells in the Price area to industries that can use it — everything from the rocket-maker Alliant TechSystems to soft drink plants, cheese plants and metal fabricators.

Asked if he was ever injured in a mine, he said, "I was caved in on a few times. When I talked to you in '76, I was hit in the head with a rock. I was off for a year."

Then in 1989, he was injured while rebolting a ceiling. "The inspectors wanted more bolts in it. I was just putting up a roof bolt and a whole bunch of rocks fell down. Hit me in the head."

His neck broken, he was taken to the hospital and had some time off while he was recovering. Probably a couple of months, he said, which he thinks probably should have been longer. Jewkes recovered "as much as I could."

In 1976, he weighed 195 pounds and today weighs about 230. "I'd just as soon be more healthy," he said, adding it was easier to stay trim with the tough workouts miners get every day.

He and his wife have four children and home is in Wellington, Carbon County, still in the heart of Utah's coal country.

His mining life was a good one, he said. Although he was in accidents, he feels mining is generally safe. "We were always told there would be enough coal for our kids and their kids," he said. "It didn't turn out that way."

Still, taking everything into account, Jewkes said, "I like coal mining."

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E-mail: bau@desnews.com