The Appalachian Mountains : A Vast Cultural And Geographical Region

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared an unconditional war on poverty in the United States and the most photographed area was the Appalachia region. Many of the photographs intentional or not, became a visual definition of the Appalachia region. The images have drawn from the poorest areas and people to gain support for the war on poverty, but came to represent the entirety of the region. The point of the Looking at Appalachia project is to explore the diversity of Appalachia and to establish a visual counter point. (Home - Looking at Appalachia.) The three images I am going to analyze are challenge some of the stereotypes put on the Appalachia region. I believe my images challenge the stereotype that all Appalachian people do is work hard, go to church, and don’t have time for anything besides those two things.

Despite the vast geographical distance, the peoples of the Appalachians (state-side) maintain a unified identity through shared cultural identities; dialect, building practices, folk music and dance, crafts, superstitions and religion, and moonshine unite all 1500 miles of these mountains. The inhabitants of this region largely descended from English and Scottish-Irish folk traditions, brought to the region by colonial immigrants.  There were also smaller influences from other

Further from your home and closer to theirs. Elevated more than 3000 feet above sea level. The Appalachian Mountain range serves as a beacon for wildlife. Black bears, white-tailed deer, opossums, and a wide variety of rodents roam the range freely. Once standing atop a mountain you may scan in all directions as you may see many trees pulling against one another in an endless game of tug of war. The whip of the crisp breeze of hickory intertwined with oak trees would remind anyone fall is coming.

estled between the Blue Ridge Mountains and Allegheny Mountains, Rockingham County is located within the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Originally founded in 1778, Rockingham County has become a historical community committed to implementing an economic strategy of attracting new business and industry that are compatible with the way of life in the Shenandoah Valley and assisting in the retention and expansion of existing companies (Rockingham County). Most commonly known for its beauty, Rockingham County is comprised of six metropolitan cities, of which Harrisonburg holds the county seat (Rockingham County).

In Uneven Ground, the author Ronald D. Eller narrates the economic, political, and social change of Appalachia after World War II. He writes “persistent unemployment and poverty set Appalachia off as a social and economic problem area long before social critic Michael Harrington drew attention to the region as part of the “other America” in 1962.”(pp.2) Some of the structural problems stated by Eller include problems of land abuse, political corruption, economic shortsightedness, and the loss of community and culture; personally view the economic myopia as being the most daunting.

The Cherokee made a tremendous influence on the culture in Appalachia. Food traditions, medicinal practices, and dance that is prominent in the people of Appalachia stemmed from the Cherokee that lived in the Appalachian Mountains. People of Appalachia are known to grow their own gardens and to know what plants are edible, and this can be related to what the Cherokee taught the first settlers of Appalachia. “The gathering of wild plants reflects a

Daugneaux, Christine B. Appalachia: A Separate Place, A Unique People. Parsons: McLain Printing Company, 1981. Print.

Where there are various regions there are bound to be a variety of people with alternate cultures, beliefs, and ways of life. The cultures found with the Appalachia are unique in their own ways and represent a body of individuals who found their way to such an area. Land that is included within the Southern Appalachia can be best described by Horace Kephart as he does so in his book The Southern Highlander and His Homeland to include: “the four western counties of Maryland; the Blue Ridge Valley, and Allegheny Ridge counties of Virginia; all of West Virginia; eastern Tennessee; eastern Kentucky; western North Carolina; the four northwestern counties of South Carolina; northern Georgia; and northeastern Alabama.” (22-24) With so much

Biggers referred to the Appalachia as, “the burning ground of industrial America; the region’s coal.” Coal was a vast reason why immigrants began to inhabit the area to work and families settled to make a living on the natural resources offered. It was not until the late 1800s, after the Civil War when cotton mills became established and “outside corporations and entrepreneurs, tied their hopes for prosperity to the whirling of spindles and the beating of looms.” Jacquelyn Hall, Luke a Family: The Making of the Southern Cotton Mill World.

The Appalachian Region stretches from the northern part of New York, through Pennsylvanyia, all of West Virginia, the West side of Kentucky, Mississippi, and the southern parts of Maryland, S.Carolina, N. Carolina, and Alabama. The immigrants who settled in the Appalachian Region were made-up of three main ethinic backgrounds; Scot-Irish, English, and German. “Appalachian people are considered a separate culture, made up of many unique backgrounds—Native Americans, Irish, English and Scotch, and then a third descendants of German and Polish immigrants—all blended together across the region”(“Appalachian Culture”, 2015). The immigrants came to the Appalachian Region either in search of land at cheaper prices or to get away from the Quacker Leaders. The Appalachian Region has proven to create a hard way of life for those who settled the region. “The people who settled in the Appalachian region were known as hearty people who lived in an often difficult environment”(“What is Unique”, 2015). Those who live in the Appalachian Region today may not face the same challenges as his or her ancestors who settled the region, but there is no doubt the Appalachians still brings a set of challenges. However, no matter the challenges there is one thing those who live in Appalachia share, tradition. It is these traditions that assisted the first settlers, our ancestors, in living life and are still getting present day Appalachians through.

What makes Appalachian Americans unique? Starting with characteristics one that most Appalachian’s share is an intense desire for freedom. “Freedom to live as they pleased, with lots of space to themselves– “elbow room”, as Appalachian Daniel Boone used to say. People who settled Appalachia were not inclined to be bound to institutions, religious or otherwise. Those ties and that external authority were part of what they wanted to leave behind. These people brought their traditions, values and beliefs with them. They came into contact with Native Americans, and while doubtless there were fights for land, the settlers and Indians reached an understanding” (How

Appalachia has long been regarded as a place of natural beauty and allegedly 'backwards' people. In one of the early attempts to 'civilize' rural Appalachia, the population was characterized as consisting of "agricultural savages" who refused to learn better farming practices (Anglin 2002: 565). "The poverty and environmental abuse I witnessed there were not simply a failure of economics. It went much deeper than that; hence our continual failure to 'social engineer' meaningful changes there. It was a poverty of the spirit; a poverty of the soul" said one observer, of the attempt to encourage rural Appalachians to adopt modern farming practices at the turn of the 20th century (Anglin 2002: 565-566). Other than subsistence farming, the only other predominant industry in rural Appalachia is the coal industry. Rather than provide a potential source of enrichment to the region, this too has been seen as impoverishing, rather than sustaining the residents. "Appalachia has become virtually synonymous with coal and problems of the notoriously dangerous, cyclically unstable, and highly competitive industry" (Pudup 1990: 61).

The Culture of honor existing in the Appalachian mountains is when a man’s reputation is at the center of his self worth and his livelihood. Its when everything he does makes up who he is and what he is worth to himself and others. The cultural legacies go after each generation of a family intact in any condition that is thrown at them. Without them no one can make sense of the world. These legacies play a role in attitudes and behavior of others and their self. They are significant to understand when dealing with people because everyone is built from their “legacies and honor”. The way people act and hold themselves is what you have to understand when you are dealing with someone, they are not going to act like you because what they were

The Appalachian Trail, also known as the “Footpath for the People” is approximately 2,200 miles long. The trail has two different starting points, the northern terminus beginning at Mt. Katahdin in Central Maine and the southern terminus beginning at Springer Mountain in Northern Georgia.

Coal, a mineral I have discussed previously, is necessary to our everyday lives. Coal is an incredible source of energy; it heats our houses and buildings, and also fuels stoves. You may often wonder where this extremely useful mineral comes from. Coal does not just appear; it needs to be mined through a process which results in our being able to utilize it. Coal mining is fairly inexpensive, is carried out on a large scale and can be mined in either underground or surface mines.