Stories-a History Of Appalachia, One Story At A Time

In the early twentieth century, a young man from Scott County, Virginia, joined the circus as a trick shooter, probably one of the best to come out of Appalachia. And in another time, in another place, that talent might have won him accolades, perhaps as a sniper in war, or as a military trainer. But […]

For over a hundred years, the states of Tennessee and Virginia tried to figure out their common border. It took a United States Supreme Court decision and a near war between Bristol, Tennessee, and Goodson, Virginia, over water pipes in the middle of present-day State Street to get that line drawn on a map. On […]

Holston Mountain is the tallest peak in East Tennessee, and the location of several television and radio towers. It’s also near the Tri City Airport, the air hub for the East Tennessee/Southwest Virginia region. And the mountain is the site of several plane crashes, but one crash in particular, over 50 years ago, sparked a […]

Today, Steve and Rod have not one story, not two stories, but THREE stories, along with a short story! This week is crime week, and on this podcast we tell the stories of two Scott County, Virginia, prisoners who managed to escape and were later caught by chance, one in the 1850’s and the other […]

In January, 1964, a crippled B-52 was on its way home from Massachusetts to an airbase in Georgia, when it ran into a heavy snowstorm. The plane’s vertical stabilizer (the tail) was ripped off, and it went into a spin, crashing on Big Savage Mountain in Western Maryland. Two of the five crewmen survived the […]

In 1926, Prohibition was in full force, and the Commonwealth of Virginia had prohibition enforcement agents employed across the state, looking for illegal liquor. In Dickenson County, Virginia, that man was James Sherman Mullins, who was on the trail of the Dickenson County Sheriff, Pridemore Fleming, on suspicions that he was helping local moonshiners and […]

In the last part of the nineteenth century, newspapers across America were obsessed with tales of blood feuds in Appalachia, the best known of which is the Hatfield-McCoy feud. At the time, however, no other feud got more coverage than that between the French and Eversole families of Hazard, Kentucky. Private armies battling each other, […]

In 1982, Knoxville, Tennessee, hosted a Worlds Fair. The fair was a success, breaking even, but it led to the downfall of the Butcher banking empire in East Tennessee. On this episode of the podcast, Steve and Rod tell the story of Jake and C.H. Butcher and the Knoxville World’s Fair. We’re on Facebook @facebook.com/storiesofappalachia. […]

The people who settled Appalachia were tough. They’d have to be to carve a home out of the forests and mountainsides of the area. In 1777, two girls, Polly Alley and Jane Whittaker, proved how tough they were when they escaped Indian captivity in Ohio and made their way back home to Scott County in […]

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 […]

On this episode of Stories, Steve and Rod tell the story of Civil War soldier and unrepentant Confederate Ezekial Pyles, who joined 20,000 other men and women in founding a colony in Brazil after the war. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for […]

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 […]