An exploratory study focusing upon the career choosing patterns of high school seniors in a relatively isolated, coal-mining county of West Virginia is reported in this paper. The 2 basic hypotheses examined were that rural youth from upper status family backgrounds will have higher status career orientations than those from lower status family backgrounds and that the pattern of career orientation of youngsters from coal-mining families is different from that of youngsters from other non-coal families. The study population consisted of the predominantly white male and female graduating seniors from all 6 high schools in Mingo County. Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire. Findings included that the first hypothesis was supported, that the data did not support the second hypothesis, that educational achievement is a strong factor in providing a condition that affects career ambitions, that youngsters in the manual-worker, non-coal families are more inclined than youngsters from coal families to have been influenced by parental interest, and that the patterns of career orientations of youth living in other areas of the United States are similar to those of youth in Mingo County. (PS)