This is the first in a five-part series, “Fed up in Kentucky,” exploring how political issues are playing out in personal ways in the Bluegrass State this election season.

Harlan County, Ky. — In eastern Kentucky, generation after generation of coal miners have done the hard, dirty, dangerous work of extracting what they call black gold. Ever proud and increasingly defiant, residents here celebrate coal as a way of life.

“Every young boy wants to be like his dad,” said Jamie Johnson, a 41-year-old coal miner. “So I seen my dad come home from the mines every day, and I just fell into it myself.”

But the local coal industry is in free fall. Kentucky coal production decreased by nearly 12 percent last year, to just over 80 million tons — the lowest level since 1963, according to a report produced by the state in partnership with the Kentucky Coal Association. The report also stated that the decline in industry cost eastern Kentucky 7,000 jobs from 2011 to 2013, leaving fewer than 12,000 miners in the state. Most mines here have shut down, been idled or gone bankrupt over the past decade. Harlan County residents blame Barack Obama’s administration and what they call a war on coal.

“No doubt, there is a war on coal,” said Clyde Vester Bennett III, who owns four coal mines in Harlan County that employ 200 people. There are 87 active coal mines in the county, according to the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

He comes from a family that has mined coal for more than a century. His grandfather founded the company in 1912. “We got the best miners in the world,” he said of Kentucky coal miners.

Despite a long history in the business and a pool of expert workers, Bennett said his coal business days are numbered. Employment, production and profits are all declining. “We’ll be lucky if it is still here in five years,” he said, adding that he’s had to cut his workforce by 70 percent since 2006.

“You don’t like to go in debt and stuff, because you don’t ever know when you’re going to have a job,” said Harold Mulkey, a 36-year-old miner who works for Bennett. “I have worked at five different mines that have shut down and laid off and stuff like that.”