In 2008, as the economy was entering recession, parts of rural Pennsylvania were booming. Energy companies were using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to tap the natural gas reserves of the Marcellus Shale underlying much of the state. In Wayne County, these corporations offered struggling farmers lucrative leases for mineral rights.

Bob Rutledge, whose family has been in Wayne County since the 1840s, owns a money-losing cattle farm. Photographs by Adam Golfer for Bloomberg Businessweek