Stories of Appalachia

In the early 20th century, there was an awakening across Appalachia, with Pentecostal churches coming into being across the area. One of the odder branches of Pentecostalism involved the handling of deadly snakes to prove your devotion to the Lord. Snake handling flourished during the Depression, but after World War II it was banned across […]

Every year the Tri State Singing Convention would come to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, bringing together the most popular southern gospel groups in the world to play for a packed audience. At the Convention in 1959, tragedy struck in the form of a bridge collapse. On this episode, we tell the story of the collapse […]

On July 27th, 1996, the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games were rocked with an explosion which killed one person outright and led to a heart attack that killed another, as well as wounding many more. The man who set off that bomb, as well as three others at abortion clinics and a gay nightclub, led authorities […]

After the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court, schools began preparing to integrate across the South, with the first school scheduled to be Clinton High School in the East Tennessee town of Clinton. The end of segregation brought protests, threats, beatings, and a bombing that destroyed the high school. On […]

Starting in the early part of the 20th century, coal operators discovered that forming baseball teams in each coal camp was a great way to promote unity among their workers, as well as give the men something to do in their free time. From this tradition sprang minor league teams around Appalachia and a love […]

Appalachia is a land of natural beauty combined with one of the largest deposits of coal on the planet. What happens when a large deposit of that coal catches fire? You get carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulphur fumes, unbearable heat beneath your feet, quite literally hell on earth. And that’s what happened to the town […]

The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was passed by Congress in 1919. In order to become part of the Constitution, 36 states had to ratify it, and on August 18, 1920, Tennessee became that 36th state. On this episode of Stories, Steve and Rod tell the story of how the right of […]

During the Depression Franklin County, Virginia, was known as the moonshine capital of the United States. Federal officials noted that the small county consumed more sugar per month than the entire city of New York, with it being used in distilling whiskey. And all of this moonshine production was not only being done under the […]

On this episode of Stories, Rod and Steve tell the story of the Southwest Virginia State Mental Hospital in Marion, Virginia. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher or on your favorite podcast app. We’re on Facebook at facebook.com/storiesofappalachia. We’re also on Twitter @storyappalachia. Thanks for listening!

In 1815, there was a tremendous volcanic explosion in Indonesia, with millions of tons of dust, ash, and gas spewed into the upper atmosphere. The next year, all that debris blocked the sun’s energy on the other side of the world to such an extent that the people of Appalachia called 1816 “eighteen hundred and […]

During the Great Depression, a man lived in West Virginia much as he imagined his literary hero Tarzan would have lived, had Tarzan been in the wilds of Appalachia instead of the jungles of Africa. Today, Rod and Steve tell the story of the original “hippie,” Orval Elijah Brown of Clay County, long hair, beard, […]

On this episode of the podcast, we tell the story of the formation and admission during the Civil War of the only state that lies completely within Appalachia. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes or Google Play or on your favorite podcast app. We’re also on Twitter @storyappalachia. Thanks for your ears!

In the early part of the 19th century, gold fever struck the North Georgia mountains. Before that fever went elsewhere, a great Indian nation was literally picked up and forced west of the Mississippi River at the command of President Andrew Jackson. This week, Steve and Rod tell the story of Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu, or the Trail […]

Before the release of the Salk polio vaccine, polio epidemics were commonplace in the United States. In 1950 one such epidemic hit the Commonwealth of Virginia, with the Appalachian town of Wytheville being so badly hit that it made national news. On this episode of Stories, Rod and Steve tell the story of the 1950 […]

In 1775, Appalachia WAS the West, and people were pouring into the region and beyond. With the purchase of millions of acres of Kentucky land by the Transylvania Company, a way was needed to get settlers over the mountains to that land. And that’s where Daniel Boone came in. Boone and a company of ax-men […]

There is little else worse than a flood in the Appalachian Mountains, due to the water being funneled down deep river valleys straight into towns and cities. What is worse is when that flood could have been prevented. On this episode of Stories, Rod and Steve tell the story of the Johnstown Flood of 1889, […]

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42629998 The 1930s saw the Great Depression come over America, and probably no place was harder hit than the coalfields of Eastern Kentucky. During that decade, Harlan County was the epicenter of a great struggle to establish the union, and it was a bloody one. Today, we tell the story […]

There are tales of strange creatures seen in the mines and caves of Appalachia. On this episode, Rod and Steve tell the story of the giants in the earth, on Stories. You can subscribe at iTunes, the iPhone podcast app, Google Play or on your favorite Android or Windows phone podcast app. We’re on Facebook […]

Moonshining has long been associated with Appalachia. Probably the most well-known and well-marketed moonshiner was Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton of Cocke County, Tennessee. Popcorn dressed the part, at least the way he believed everybody outside the area thought a moonshiner should look like. And he made sure everybody knew who he was, appearing on television, in […]

In the hills of North Georgia in the 19th century lived a farmer named Micajah Clark Dyer. Dyer wasn’t just a Georgia farmer, though. He was a self-taught inventor and tinkerer whose passion was flight. Clark Dyer devised a very detailed flying machine that not only received a patent from the U.S. Patent office, but […]

In 1780, the Patriot cause was suffering from losses across the colonies. Then, a British commander threatened to cross the Appalachians and lay waste to the settlements established in what is now East Tennessee, and that changed everything. Around 1400 militia were mustered from Southwest Virginia, present-day East Tennessee and Western North Carolina and set […]

In the spring of 1891, wealthy Pikeville, Kentucky, businessman James Hatcher buried his young wife, Octavia, after she apparently died while giving birth to their baby boy, who also died. Unfortunately, there was a bout of African sleeping sickness going around the coalfields at about this same time, with the symptoms mimicking death. On this […]

In 1903, the Wentz family of Philadelphia was in control of the Virginia Coal and Iron Company and Stonega Coal and Coke. In that year, young Edward Wentz came to the coalfields of Wise County, Virginia, to help manage the corporate property. In fact, Edward took a personal hand in patrolling the property, throwing out […]

Starting in the mid-19th century, just before the Civil War, there were several Tennessee court cases that helped define the role of the mysterious people known as “Melungeons” in Appalachian society. On this episode, Rod and Steve tell the story of those cases as well as the history, as best it can be determined, of […]

There is a Cherokee legend about a war with a fair-skinned people with blue eyes and beards, who were extremely sensitive to light. One version of this legend has them responsible for pre-Columbian stone fortifications located in Georgia, pictured above. This week on Stories, Rod and Steve tell the story of the Moon-eyed people of […]