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Squirrel hunting season gets under way
Squirrel hunting was and is a passion, necessity (that may be more of a was), and a sport in the hills of Virginia and Kentucky. You see it reflected in the place names: Dickenson County, VA has...
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Gravely and his motor plow
Dear Sir: During the past year, I have had occasion to discuss the business situation with practically every business man in the City of Charleston and suburbs. Our very limited number of productive...
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The Laurel Creek Murders, part 1
On the night of September 21st, 1909, Howard Little allegedly came to visit Elizabeth E. Baker Justus and her extended family in Laurel Creek, VA and asked if he could spend the night. The family knew...
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The Laurel Creek Murders, part 2
When the fire had died, the neighbors and relatives who went through the smoking ruins of the cabin were met with a most gruesome sight: the charred bodies of Betty and Lydia and two of the children....
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Judaculla Rock
No other rocks in the area have similar markings, although there are many other boulders in the vicinity. Some of the pictographs on it appear to be animals and animal tracks, while others appear to be...
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Home Sweet Home. For 9,000 years.
Alabama has 3,400 documented caves. The most famous of these is Russell Cave (now a national monument), the oldest rock shelter used regularly for a home in the eastern United States. Named for Thomas...
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Benton MacKaye proposes the Appalachian Trail
“Extensive national playgrounds have been reserved in various parts of the country for use by the people for camping and various kindred purposes. Most of these are in the West where Uncle Sam’s public...
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When my stories are true, why, I don’t yodel to the end of the story
“I’ve been a guide now for quite a few years, and I was borned and rared in the Great Smoky Mountains, at the foot of Mount Leconte, and when I was a boy, I didn’t do anything but hunt. One day I went...
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Haints and Hags on Halloween
Halloween’s around the corner. Here’s a little haint tale for the occasion from Putnam County, Tennessee. About one mile and a half east of Cookeville the Buck Mountain Road is crossed by the old...
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When you get into your head to go sparking, go over the mountain
Appalachian writer James Still (1906-2001) moved to Kentucky after he was grown, and stayed, finally living in Hindman but keeping his original cabin, located between the waters of Wolfpen Creek and...
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Kentucky politicos bought votes with gingerbread
“One of my elections was contested. They accused me of buying gingerbread and using other ways of influence on the voters. Giving them money. They figured what they done, I done the same thing....
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Haunted Tunnels: The Silver Run Ghost, and the Lost Tunnel
Please welcome guest author Susanna Holstein. Professional storyteller, writer, poet, blogger and balladsinger Susanna Connelly Holstein is from Jackson County, WV. Her work has been published in...
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