In the annals of human labor, certain rural jobs stand out as particularly gruesome and dangerous. Coal mining, for instance, has long been associated with appalling conditions, with miners toiling in cramped and poorly ventilated underground tunnels, exposed to toxic gases and the constant threat of cave-ins. Logging, too, has claimed countless lives, as workers felled towering trees with primitive tools, often in remote and hazardous terrain. Sheepherding in the vast, desolate expanses of the American West was another notoriously challenging occupation, with herders braving extreme weather, isolation, and the constant threat of wolf attacks. These are just a few examples of the many grueling and perilous jobs that rural workers have historically endured in order to eke out a living from the land.
