Cultural historian Jeff Biggers takes us to the dark amphitheatre ruins of his familys nearly 200 - year - old hillside homestead that has been strip - mined on the edge of the first federally recognized Wilderness Site in southern Illinois. In doing so' he not only comes to grips with his own denied backwoods heritage' but also chronicles a dark and missing chapter in the American experience; the historical nightmare of coal outside of Appalachia' serving as an expos of a secret legacy of shame and resiliency.