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Poultry capital of the world
Jesse Jewell (1902-1975) started what was to become Georgia’s largest agricultural crop—poultry. The now $1,000,000,000 a year industry has given Gainesville the title “Poultry Capital of the World.”...
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The WV family that brought us Mother’s Day
It took the individual effort of each Jarvis, mother and daughter, over two generations to forge the Mother’s Day we recognize today. And it’s a story with a twist, so buckle up! Ann Maria Reeves...
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Picnic in a coal mine
Sometimes the official stories that make it into museum collections just don’t shed enough light on the complete context of an event. Take this photo, titled “Picnic in a Coal Mine, Mount Savage, 1889,...
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He was bitten by a Rattler, and they sent for Ira
“From his father, my father Ira Jacob Butts learned how to mix certain roots and leaves of grass together for a cure for snakebites. He never told which weeds and roots he used, and I would not attempt...
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Patterned after one of the Soviet dreams
On May 18, 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, creating the TVA. The aim was to provide river navigation, flood control, electric power, employment and...
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Yeahoh, Yahoo or Bigfoot?
Long before it became the brand of a search engine, the creature whose uttered cry gave it a name haunted Kentuckians. Daniel Boone told tales of “killing a ten-foot, hairy giant he called a Yahoo,”...
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The June beetle – capturing a living music box
“From some long-forgotten source, I heard that June beetles made a sweet sound while flying around. I loved music, and the method to acquire this living music box was to fasten a long thread to one of...
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The Coon Creek Girls play the White House
On the evening of June 8,1939 limousines began to deliver the cream of Washington D.C. society to the East Room of the White House. President and First Lady, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were...
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The bottle tree
Are your premises safe against haints, furies and other such ornery spirits? Have you painted your front door blue? Has the neighborhood seen a sudden upsurge of bottles dangling upside down in the...
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And it’s home little gal and do-si-do
Traditional dancing in Appalachia includes several types: step dancing, set dancing, and couple dancing. Step dance traditions include clogging, buckdancing, flatfooting, and the Charleston. Set...
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They tell me I can’t pull a flower after there’s a park
On June 15, 1934 it all officially came together at long last. Congress’ act dated that day noted that an area of 400,000 acres within the minimum boundary of the park had been acquired, and therefore...
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The unsolved murder of Mamie Thurman
On June 22, 1932, her lifeless body was found where it had been dumped on 22 Mountain, which was then called Trace Mountain. She had been savagely murdered: shot in the head twice, neck fractured, face...
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This boxing match got prize fighting banned in WV
[27a. I. If any person fight a prize fight in this State, or act as second or trainer, or time-keeper, or referee, or umpire, to any persons so fighting, or if any person assist or in any way aid or...
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Prohibition comes to Alabama. Again.
On July 1, 1915, statewide prohibition went into effect in Alabama, for the second time, five years before the federal prohibition amendment was ratified under the Kilby administration. Between 1907...
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Time to put a berry basket to good use
Wild berry picking was once a common summer activity throughout Appalachia, and before the advent of Styrofoam or plastic containers the homemade bark berry basket was just the thing to haul your...
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You hurd of the oald Virginia land grant
A Letter written by Isaiah [Zade] Greer, July 8th 1912 Pike County, KY this badly dun cold & dark, but you can draw it of it is true. we have had some Sickness. Sabra 31 days that she was not On a...
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Revenuers or spies
Kephart: “People up North, and in the lowlands of the South as well, have a notion that there is little or nothing going on in these mountains except feuds and moonshining. They think that a stranger...
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Mapping the ecology of Appalachia’s hardwood forests
Starting in 1925 she logged in nearly 65,000 miles exploring the trees and shrubs of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Her resulting 1950 book, Deciduous Forests of...
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Lying on quilts, on the grass, in a summer evening
Listen to Eleanor Steber sing intro to ‘Knoxville:Summer of 1915′ She was the most celebrated American soprano of the 1940s and 1950s. She went on from there to become head of the voice department at...
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Blennerhassett Island – staging ground for high treason
The July 29, 1806 letter was the thing that undid the Burr Conspiracy. Harman Blennerhassett had been a moderately well off Anglo-Irish aristocrat prior to his becoming involved with Irish...
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