2006 – Issue 6 (December)

Early travelers once believed Virginia’s Mountain Lake was bottomless – or, at least, up to 300 feet deep. In reality, the mountaintop pond extends about 100 feet from the surface. And there’s a hole in it. Water comes into the natural 55-acre basin from a 500-acre watershed, but it escapes at a rate of 600…

Appalachia: A History. By John Alexander Williams. 2002, University of North Carolina Press. While certainly a scholarly book, Williams’ readable style makes this an ideal source for the casual reader. His narrative begins with the earliest European explorers and concludes with the current state of Appalachia, including the crisis of mountaintop removal. He examines and…

From there, Donetta Blankenship kicks back at life. At 39, her failing liver struggles to eliminate the toxic levels of heavy metals in her system. Courage, John Wayne said, is being scared to death – and saddling up anyway. This Christmas, that’s exactly what Blankenship is doing. “With my liver problem, I just wonder if…

ftp://avweb:U9e3KxY@www.appvoices.org:21//appvoices.org/images/voice_uploads/gensing.gif Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America’s Most Valuable Plant. By Kristin Johannsen. 2006. University Press of Kentucky. 224 pages. $ 24.95 The rich, humus-laden hardwood forests of southern Appalachia are home to American ginseng, a bright-leaved, red-berried plant that grows wild throughout the mountains. Valued in Asia for the various health-promoting qualities of…

I only met Charles Kennedy a grand total of three times, but his recent death has shaken me as deeply as if I had known him all of my life. The first time I met him, ironically enough, was on assignment from this very newspaper. I was writing an article about Charles’ work to help…

ftp://avweb:U9e3KxY@www.appvoices.org:21//appvoices.org/images/voice_uploads/church.girl.gif Does this mean that the Bible justifies mountaintop removal mining? Not at all. Most translations of the Bible, including the the New American Standard and the King James Version, say “Every valley shall be exalted…” or “raised” — and not “filled in.” This is because the NAS and KJV Bibles are translated from the…

The Santa Train rolls through three of Virginia’s “coal counties”: Dickenson, Russell and Wise. Along with neighboring Buchanan, Tazewell and Lee counties, the coal counties of southwest. Appalachian Virginia, are among the most distinctive in the Commonwealth. They often feature the highest unemployment and poverty rates in the state, and are the target of government…

ftp://avweb:U9e3KxY@www.appvoices.org:21//appvoices.org/images/voice_uploads/krause.santa.gif The crowd started to trickle in by nine, watching the volunteers of “Dante Lives On” set up their bake sale on the concrete slab that marks the site of the former theatre. By ten, children were playing on the grassy lot that once housed the company store. The Santa Train used to stop at…