It has sustained eastern Utah for more than a century, creating an ever-churning economy underground for the generations who call these scattered sagebrush deserts home.

"Coal is what these two counties live for," said Sue Ann Martell, a mine historian and director of the Western Mining and Railroad Museum in Helper. "It is the reason they still exist."

Coal mining cuts deep into the rugged Book Cliffs and Wasatch Plateau here, employing more than 1,600 people and producing 70 percent of the state's coal supply. It's a booming industry that yielded more coal than the entire state of Arizona last year and contributed heavily to Utah's ranking as the 12th-highest coal producer in the country.

"It's just in our blood," said schoolteacher Traci Harmond, of Helper.

The recent collapse of the Crandall Canyon mine probably won't change that, historians say. It hasn't yet, even with all the economic downturns endemic to the business, and mine disasters that eclipse the collapse that leaves six miners imprisoned in the mountains west of Huntington.

Among the most tragic chapters in Carbon County history occurred on May 1, 1900, when an explosion - likely caused by methane gas or coal dust - killed more than 200 people at the Winter Quarters mine near Scofield.

The aftermath was excruciating, Martell said. Nearly every family lost a husband or father in the blast. Many also lost sons - a roster of fatalities shows 15 boys younger than 15 years old.

One month after that earth-shaking explosion, the mine reopened with full employment.

"The day after they cleared the mine, there was a line of miners ready to go back in," Martell said. "They never had a shortage of miners."

History has repeated itself time and again in these coal-dusted communities, where work has continued in the face of tragedy. It happened in 1924 when an explosion killed 170 workers at the Castle Gate mine. It happened again in 1930 when an explosion roared through the Standardville mine, killing 20 employees.

But coal mining has continued year after year, providing livelihoods not only for the miners, but also for the truck drivers, welders, mechanics and other occupations that support them.

The industry has kept Cody Potter close to home with high enough wages and benefits to raise a family in Huntington. He entered the mines one day after he graduated from Emery High School. Now, his 17-year-old son has similar aspirations.

"We was born and raised here," he said. "If you want to stay here, you've got to do what you've got to do to make money for your family."

The same is true for Jeff Haycock, who followed his father's and grandfather's path into the mines. The money's good, he said.

And nothing beats earning a living in his hometown.

"It's hard to pull up the roots and go," he said.

While counselors at Carbon and Emery high schools report few students who declare mining as their desired occupation, they say family tradition and tantalizing wages continue to draw young job-seekers into the mines.

Of the 2,000 miners employed statewide, about 80 percent of them work in Carbon and Emery counties, according to the Utah Department of Workforce Services. Those miners make an average of $64,000 a year, compared to $35,000 in other job sectors.

What that means for aspiring miners in eastern Utah is a time-tested trade that will pay them close to $20 an hour straight out of high school. That's tempting. Just ask Haycock.

"It's the money," he said. "That's why we do it."

The Utah Department of Workforce Services reports that mining makes up 12 percent of Carbon and Emery counties' jobs - a sizable work force for a state in which mining positions account for less than 1 percent of the total work force - and accounts for 27 percent of the wages in the two counties.

Martell doesn't see the industry diminishing, not in these coal-rich counties where some families can trace their genealogy five generations into the mines. Without it, she said, "we would be in serious trouble."

jstettler@sltrib.com