2007 – Issue 1 (February)
Appalachian Women: A Vital Role in the Drama
With a long history of organizing and activism, Appalachian women have played vital roles in the drama of this mountainous region. Activists such as Anne Barton, Aunt Molly Jackson, and Widow Combs, all who hail from the first half to the middle of the twentieth century, provide the foundation for contemporary Appalachian women, those working…
Read MoreBuffalo Creek – 35 years later
images/voice_uploads/Tacket.gif Imagine. You’re cooking breakfast. Suddenly, the lights blow out. A low rumbling sound like an explosion echoes down the hollow. You run outside. Someone screams: “The dam has broke!” You grab the children and run uphill — any direction will do. Then you hear it. A three story wall of water roars down your…
Read MoreThe virtues of the hickory tree
images/voice_uploads/nn.p23.hickory.gif When European settlers arrived in America, they found an abundant nut tree unknown in the Old World. Native Americans had a curious practice of pounding the nuts and tossing them into boiling water. The heat separated a cream-colored oily substance from the nuts, which was skimmed off and stored as a pasty material the…
Read MoreAcross Appalachia: Acting Locally on Global Problems
Appalachia is waking up to the political impact of local action. For example, Blacksburg VA and Morgantown WV joined over 350 cities and towns nationwide in recent weeks, pledging to reduce their global warming pollution. Other cities in the region are working towards similar goals. Black Mountain, NC, for example, has a Green Buildling Council…
Read MoreBuffalo Creek Survivor Testimonies
“It was a nightmare” Betty Tackett I took my children out of the house, and my husband ran across the railroad track to make sure the neighbors weren’t still in bed. He told me to take the children up off of the main road. When I got the kids in the car, we lived in…
Read MoreMeet Appalachian Voices Youngest Volunteer
When asked what Olivia “Blue” Stegall thought of mountaintop removal coal mining she described it as “eeewy.” This was the word that Appalachian Voices’ youngest and highly dedicated volunteer had to say about people blowing up the mountains. Blue, a Johnson County, TN native, attests that it makes her sad when she sees destruction of…
Read MoreDominion Power’s Blank Check
Deregulation of Virginia’s electric utilities has been a failure – almost everyone agrees on that. What to do about it ought to be the subject of a broad and far-reaching public policy debate. Instead, Virginia’s leading utility, which wrote its own ticket for deregulation back in 1999, is now hurrying to write itself a blank…
Read MoreTwo Catholic Sisters: Working in the Web of Life
For the past 26 years, Sister Beth Davies has lived in one of the most remote towns of southwestern Virginia, in a little coal camp called St. Charles. Her “holler” literally dead ends into a mountain, but it is neither a metaphor for the way she lives or what she has helped the people of…
Read MoreSo Cool – Winter hiking offers peace and solitude
Appalachia may be famous for its colorful fall foliage, But autumn gives way to an equally enchanting wonderland of snow covered hills, frozen waterfalls and the promise of evergreens speckled throughout hillsides. Hiking in the wintertime gives you a new perspective about otherwise familiar trails and local parks. In the winter, the lack of foliage…
Read MoreThe ghosts of Buffalo Creek
On the 35th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek disaster, we remember with great sorrow the 125 innocent men, women and children who lived their lives in harm’s way and lost them due to the recklessness of Pittston Coal Company. We will never forget the unethical engineering that brought millions of gallons of water crashing down…
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