The Mountains Of Central Appalachia

The stories in “The Children of the Appalachian Mountains” and “My People” have many similarities and differences. For example, in the book the story seemed much more happier and pleasant were es the video seemed more realistic. The video had gone on and on about how life really was, but in the excerpt wrote only about her college experiences and not the mountains. Yes, both in the text and the interviews they had roofs falling of and a large amount lived in trailers, but the story it made it seem less than it was. The video talked about how their living spaces were horrid, they had barely any food, and even how people could not get a job because of transportation but in “My People”

The subject of this cultural biography is the history of the region of Appalachia. It is an extensive profile on the cultural diversity of mid-to-late 20th century Appalachian people and illustrates how far from mainstream America their lives were. The authors include profiles of specific individuals, their influences on multi-generational traditions and how time had slowed to a minimal progression for these unique and fascinating people. The opening is a descriptive and comprehensive overview of the origins of this eighty-thousand square mile area. The founders of this region date back to settlers prior to the American Revolution who came for the fertile lands, mild climate and the picturesque beauty.

When people think Appalachia, they think of West Virginia, but the Appalachian Mountains stretch far from West Virginia and the people living in their hills have a shared cultural heritage that is evident no matter what state they are a part of.

The Appalachian plateau is the smallest and northern most region in Georgia as well as being home to many superb physical features. Its abundance of natural beauty attracts visitors far and wide to the peach state. It showcases many natural attractions including, infamous Lookout Mountain, Sand Mountain, Cloudland Canyon State Park, Pigeon Mountain, and many more throughout the area stretching from Alabama to New York. The expanse has many natural resources consisting mostly of sedimentary rock-limestone, sandstone, and shale. It also contains resources such as ironstone and is the only known source of coal in Georgia. The Plateau is of great economic significance due to the many coalfields

Appalachia has long been regarded as a place of natural beauty and allegedly 'backwards' people. In one of the early attempts to 'civilize' rural Appalachia, the population was characterized as consisting of "agricultural savages" who refused to learn better farming practices (Anglin 2002: 565). "The poverty and environmental abuse I witnessed there were not simply a failure of economics. It went much deeper than that; hence our continual failure to 'social engineer' meaningful changes there. It was a poverty of the spirit; a poverty of the soul" said one observer, of the attempt to encourage rural Appalachians to adopt modern farming practices at the turn of the 20th century (Anglin 2002: 565-566). Other than subsistence farming, the only other predominant industry in rural Appalachia is the coal industry. Rather than provide a potential source of enrichment to the region, this too has been seen as impoverishing, rather than sustaining the residents. "Appalachia has become virtually synonymous with coal and problems of the notoriously dangerous, cyclically unstable, and highly competitive industry" (Pudup 1990: 61).

Burns, Shirley Stewart. Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal Surface Coal Mining on Southern West Virginia Communities, 1970-2004. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2007. Print.

In Uneven Ground, the author Ronald D. Eller narrates the economic, political, and social change of Appalachia after World War II. He writes “persistent unemployment and poverty set Appalachia off as a social and economic problem area long before social critic Michael Harrington drew attention to the region as part of the “other America” in 1962.”(pp.2) Some of the structural problems stated by Eller include problems of land abuse, political corruption, economic shortsightedness, and the loss of community and culture; personally view the economic myopia as being the most daunting.

Biggers referred to the Appalachia as, “the burning ground of industrial America; the region’s coal.” Coal was a vast reason why immigrants began to inhabit the area to work and families settled to make a living on the natural resources offered. It was not until the late 1800s, after the Civil War when cotton mills became established and “outside corporations and entrepreneurs, tied their hopes for prosperity to the whirling of spindles and the beating of looms.” Jacquelyn Hall, Luke a Family: The Making of the Southern Cotton Mill World.

The author identified two Appalachian crisis in this article. First, the author mentioned that many people in Appalachia places like eastern Kentucky lost nearly 70% of their coal jobs to mechanization (mountain removal strip mines). Also, the author argued that mountain removal causes the most deaths related to cancer and other diseases in central Appalachia.

To understand Appalachian culture one has to look at the culture’s traits, customs, nomenclatures, strengths, and the weaknesses. While the Appalachian region is large, 1,500 miles of land that reaches Quebec, Canada to northern Alabama (Pollard, 2003), the culture discussed will be considered “coalfields.” The coalfields consist of West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and south western Virginia. Some of the traits of coalfields Appalachian culture is being family orientated and having large families (Jude & Jude, 2015; Baghbad, 1984). Being family oriented means that family is always the center of importance. No matter how hard times may be, there is always family to be support. While Jude and Jude (2015) can remember a time were family sizes could be between 5 to 12 children, today the number had decreased. According to Pollard (2003), families in Appalachia more slightly higher in amount of children than the

Appalachia, a vast, beautiful panoply of lush green mountains. At least, most of the thin line of peaks that make up the Appalachian Mountains used to be that way. Currently, the continued spread of a method of coal extraction known as mountaintop removal mining has plagued areas of the eastern United States, mainly including the state of West Virginia. Throughout its increasing stages of implementation, mountaintop removal mining has caused numerous hampering effects, including causing serious harm to nearby residents, and polluting a once-pure environment. Because of this, mountaintop removal mining needs to be limited in order to preserve the natural state of the Appalachian Mountains.

Since 1742, West Virginia has provided our nation and the world with the finest coal found anywhere. As of today, West Virginia’s coal miners apply useful and effective mineral removal technology that makes other countries envy their counterparts around the world. West Virginia’s exports more coal than any other state in the country. West Virginia has more longwall mining systems than any other state. This leads the nation in underground coal productions and sets the pace for the rest of the industry in recovery and environment protection. At the same time, West Virginia coal industry displays a sense of responsibility for health, safety and environmental that is incomparable anywhere in the world. Over the years, coal has

The Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina is a diverse geological area to study tectonic setting, metamorphic and igneous rocks, and how the tectonic history has affected the development of the minerals in the area.

Coal mining, in particular, strip mining has become the latest casualty of the growing green movement in the United States. What is strip mining? Encyclopædia Britannica Online defines strip mining as the removal of vegetation, soil, and rock above a layer of coal, followed by the removal of the coal itself (“strip”). Most Americans don’t realize the impact this material of biological origin that can be used as a source of energy (“fossil”), or fossil fuel, has on their everyday lives or the nation’s economy. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the mining industry directly employs some fifty thousand Americans with nearly half that number working in the more specific field of strip mining, or mountain top removal

The Appalachian region is one of the most valuable areas of the United States. It is rich in many natural aspects and is home to some of the hardest working citizens in this country. Unfortunately, Appalachia is also home to a variety of harsh social problems including severe drug abuse and a gripping poverty facing a large portion of Appalachian citizens. The two of these issues seem to go hand in hand in many cases, so the solution of one could also lead to the solution of the other. Appalachians have always had a history of handling their own problems, these drastic social problems are no different.