Clik here to view.
The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County, part 1
Whether or not gas will be employed in future wars is a matter of conjecture, but the effect is so deadly to the unprepared that we can never afford to neglect the question. General John Pershing, 1919...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Mad Gasser of Botetourt County, part 2
(…continued from yesterday) The “Anesthetic Prowler” or “The Phantom Anesthetist,” he was supposedly a dark, mysterious figure responsible for dozens of Virginia victims falling ill from mysterious...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Some of our adventures in the Tennessee Valley
“The first of a series of articles this, through which the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority will keep Survey Graphic readers abreast of the most arresting single project in America today. As...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We shook hands with them all, including two held for murder
“The administration of justice in the isolated areas still surprises the visitor with its differences from the ways of the town. Despite a few modern touches, a cuspidor or two missing, or the presence...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We cannot believe Christ would use tobacco in any form
“A discourse on The Use of Tobacco was delivered by evangelist M.S. Lemons and discussed by others. After due consideration this assembly agrees to stand, with one accord, in opposition to the use of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The accidental town
There is a town in Maryland’s westernmost county of Garrett that got its name from a happy accident. In 1750, Maryland settler George Deakins was granted 600 acres of land as a payment of a debt from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A racy book, full of the thrill of mountain adventure
In winter one must draw the little hickory split chair close to the hearth, for most of the heat from the great glowing fire goes up the chimney. The house may have a small window-sash immovably built...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sixty years of change in Ironton Ohio
Los Angeles, February 6, 1934 Editor Tribune: Sixty years have passed since the writer answered an advertisement in the columns of The Tribune’s honored predecessor, The Ironton Register, resulting in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
He treed the coons in the cliff
Back in nineteen and thirteen me and my brother coon hunted lots [in the] Smokies. We had a dog named Track. He was a good one. We went to Flat Creek one evening, built up a camp fire, and stayed till...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Worst industrial tragedy in WV history
The Fayette Journal (WV) reported on February 24, 1933 that 130 of the 3,000 men working on the Hawks Nest Tunnel at Alloy had already died from silicosis, caused from inhalation of silica rock...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Every woman in my place is bound to feel blue too
Listen to Ida Cox sing “Any Woman’s Blues” Any Woman’s Blues My man ain’t acting right He stays out late at night But still he says he loves no one but me But if I find the gal That’s trying to steal...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The CCC boys has been giving away the buildings
In May of 1926, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill authorizing the establishment of a 521,000-acre Shenandoah National Park. The bill stipulated that no federal funds could be used to acquire the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A better race of men?
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That whenever the Superintendent of the Western State Hospital, or of the Eastern State Hospital, or of the Southwestern State Hospital, or of the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Zelda Fitzgerald dies in hospital blaze
Late on the night of March 10, 1948, a fire started in a kitchen of the main building of Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina. Spreading rapidly through a dumbwaiter shaft, flames reached...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cead Mile Failte, says Kentucky
Kentuckians have long shared, among other things, their love for horses, whiskey making and music with the Irish. Listen carefully to Eastern Kentucky’s fiddlers and you‘ll hear the refrains of Irish...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy Eostre!
One can hardly talk about Easter traditions in Appalachia without referencing German traditions, since the region is so heavily settled by immigrants from that country. The first known reference to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The true pork pie hat
The Kingsport Times Kingsport, TN Sunday, March 24, 1935 “Pork Pie” is the Newest Style Note in Hats The fabled phoenix, that marvelous bird endowed with the power to rise from its own ashes, finds a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The King of Stink
Ramps are the first green thing of spring in Appalachia, and certainly the smelliest. Mountain folks have traditionally looked forward to the return of the ramp after a winter of eating mostly dried...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It was daytime, but the sky was as dark as night
It still stands on record as the 5th deadliest twister in American history. Shortly before 9:00 A.M. on the morning of April 6, 1936, the citizens of Gainesville, a prosperous northeast Georgia textile...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Horace Kephart, champion of the Smokies
On April 2, 1931 Horace Kephart was killed in an automobile accident near Ela, NC along with fellow author Fiswoode Tarelton. Kephart (1862-1931) was a travel writer and librarian who published...
View Article