You ever been to Louisa?

I ran the job when they built the WM there.  Met some mighty fine fellers too.    

I live 20 minutes from Harlan in Virginia. All we have are "hollers". not really, some people live out by the road. I actually live in Long Hollow which isn't on a map its just a local name. We also tend to name areas after churches like Millers Chapel or Smiths Chapel. Then there are the old river feature names that stick around like Shaffer's ford or areas named after a long gone mill.

Thought that looked familiar. Prenter was the first thought I had. Small world. I did some work there in 2010.

Nope. Dont think I've made it that far northeast.

Yes, it IS where the Meth is made.

Main reason I know own an INreach Sat texter and a pistol. :)

That's the space in between them thar' hills!

Perfect post^^^

This is only good for northern WV. Most of the central and southern WV don’t use “Run”.

I like Pike Co, but I couldn't live there. I'm kind of spoiled living a half hour from Lexington. We go to Buds and Sportsman's Warehouse almost weekly.

It's always fun to visit though. My cousin's youngest son likes to ride his bicycle up and down the road trying hit Copperheads. I get a kick out of seeing people enjoy a simpler (albeit more dangerous) hobby besides playing on their phones.

No joke. I have a friend who is Native and would sometimes come to work in his wife's car. She'd take the kids up to the rez to see her grandmother, and would take his lifted, locked K-5 Blazer because her Explorer "wouldn't make it".

Shelby Lee Adams Home Funeral, 1990


in-bred Brothers, Unknown


Stikes Holler, Stikes family homestead in Ashe County, North Carolina, Chuck Hayes, October 22, 2014

This. I grew up in a holler in Estill Co.

Among other things.

My brother bought some land in West NC and the realtor was joking that he'd get a good price because it faced the wrong way. Land that gets good sun gets bought up by pot growers.

We also found part of an old still in one of the two springs on his property.

It is the "amberlamps" of Appalachia.

Been to a lot of scenes that look like that. My brother dubbed them 'slam jobs'. Some old man originally had a farm or business. Kids don't leave as they come of age and 'slam' in trailers in a satellite formation around the original house place. Often slamming two trailers together to make one abode. Often safe to visit if you act respectful going in to meet one of the compound members or to do business. Usually, the county Sheriff has these programmed in GPS.

I had been living in WV for about three years and would take the "Back Way" to the job site depending where I was working. The way coming home wasn't thru the holler (that was the other way in and out) this was a one lane paved with 1/2+/- shoulder. Total rise from valley floor to top 1,600 Ft. Many switchbacks.
I came around one,  and there parked across the roadway was homemade wrecker built on a 70's era ford pickup. Color was WV rust.
There were three good old boys with a cable running down to the bottom.
I asked if they needed some help and they said no they were just recovering a junk car (it looked about 40-50's vintage).
When they got it to the top they moved and let me pass.

FPNI

I lived in a holler until I left Eastern Kentucky for the Army. The following is in regards to inhabited hollers.

They can be wonderful, or terrible places to grow up. It all depends on the hollers community, much like any small town or neighborhood, everyone knows everyone family or not. Often the same families have lived in the same hollers for generations. For instance, my grandmothers family has lived in the same holler since the early 1800's.

Now, the holler I grew up in was pretty nice. There were only 2 families that were "on the draw" (also sold their prescriptions). Every other family had jobs and took good care of their property-it may not have been million dollar homes, but they were clean and generally lacked cars on blocks. The kids I grew up with were generally not idiots and turned in to (mostly) productive members of society.

Other hollers are not so fortunate. About 4 miles up the road there is a holler that is much more heavily populated, particularly by drug dealers and addicts. Naturally the kids there were not encouraged to get an education, stay out of trouble or do anything with their lives other than draw government benefits and sell their prescriptions. Those places are 3rd world shitholes.

Since generations tend to stay close to home, it produces a cycle of abuse-or success. Unfortunately there are more impoverished (read drug addled) hollers than successful ones which, along with the decline of coal and generally bad geography (for manufacturing and distribution) has led to the larger region suffering from economic under-development.

A few positive notes however - the hills and hollers are beautiful, the people who live in them are resourceful in the sense that they will make the "best" (by their personal standards) of a situation that they can. The communities are VERY closely knit and mutual aid is a big deal in most. I wouldn't trade the childhood I experienced there for anything. Attached File

*image not mine, but I've spent a lot of time with that scenery first hand.

I learned a thing or two from Charlie don't ya know, they'll never come back from Copperhead road.

Good point about some being good, others bad.

The Pike county holler where my aunt lives is fairly tame. She knows all of the neighbors. They go to church together and help each other out. Still though, if you're an outsider the reception can be cold.

My last visit until a few years ago was the early 90s. The roads were all gravel then. When I went back everything was paved (poorly) and the geography just wasn't recognizable to me. I got lost. Road signs were missing in some places. I ended up about 2 miles from her. I saw a guy walking and stopped and asked him. He wasn't friendly nor helpful. He tried to steer me back out the way I had come. My car had dark tint so he could only see me until my mom rolled down her window from the back seat. She interrupted by asking this guy where so-and-so lived (her sister) His demeanor changed immediately. My mom and her sister look almost identical. He knew my aunt and gave up directions, along with his life story and all of the kind things that my aunt had done for him.

He assumed at first we were lost city people in a fancy car and didnt want anything to do with us. But once he saw my mom he switched gears and welcomed us like we belonged. It's a crazy dynamic to experience. I dont even know this old man's name, but I left there knowing that my aunt recommended the herbal medicine that cured his constipation.

Doddridge, so yeah, northern WV.

I used to work with a company that would send me all over E. KY mostly to the extremely small towns with only 1 or 2 places to buy stuff. It would be like a combination of a gas station, deli and minimart. Plus I have several friends who live or are from there. Most of the counties are "dry" meaning they don't allow alcohol sales (although that has been sloowly changing). People in this area are mainly Scottish and Irish heritage and can get very rowdy when drunk.

There is quite a significant scofflaw attitude among many of the people to the point that many illegal things are common and ignored by everyone including law enforcement. An example might be a gas station selling firearms or illegal fireworks (although the law was changed a few years back and pretty much all fireworks are legal now), another example would be driving 4 wheelers around on public roads. Drunk driving is also very common but is not generally ignored by law enforcement and is a common reason why locals get into trouble. The roads are VERY curvy and usually hug a creek or river. There seems to be a lot of crosses on the sides of the road and I have seen crashed vehicles just left where they crashed because recovery is too difficult. There is also a large amount of coal hauling trucks on the larger roads and they can drive pretty dangerously.

Marijuana growing is very common and there is little fear of getting caught. Pills have ravished the region and I hear meth is getting popular too. Overall, there is a general distrust of government, the farther off the government comes from them more distrust. LEO is few and far between and if they run into trouble help is far away. I have heard stories of people hiding in the woods and shooting the lightbar off of police cars when they were entering an area where they are not welcome. Large swaths of the land is basically unusable mountainside, either owned by large coal companies for potential future mines, government or god knows who. But the locals treat most of these wilderness areas as free range to do whatever on. Run down old dirt roads and trails are fairly common in some areas, its not uncommon to see 4 wheelers with rifles and coolers full of beer riding up and down them, are they just out having fun? Checking on their pot? Who knows, probably better if they don't see you. There are quite a few vets that patrol "their" woods. Even if they don't own the land they will treat it as theirs and keep people from doing nefarious things near their holler. In general I would say outside of the towns property lines can get a little "fuzzy".

I would never consider going into the woods in E. KY unarmed.

If you're on this map, or just want to see these towns 100 years ago, go and spend some time at http://www.coalcampusa.com



Hundreds, if not thousands of small towns thay wers born to serve a mine or coke ovens, then were left to return to nature after the company left.

Since Harlan, KY was mentioned, take a gander, then go read a few pages.



http://www.coalcampusa.com/eastky/harlan/harlan.htm

I was born and raised in Pond Lick Holler in S.W.Va

Like most places, some great folks and someb n trash. Lots of generational shitbirdedness too.

Went to a reunion on wife's side, eastern KY.
20+ years ago, and I dont stop or slow down when out that way no more.

Can't address KY, but elsewhere in the hills I used to do a lot.of driving around trying to find remnants of old railroad lines (mostly abandoned) and the industry that served them. I would make a point of explaining to people why I was there and what I was searching for, maybe show them a book which had pictures of the RR & local towns and My DeLorme state map books. This was before GPS with maps were available. Almost all were very friendly. Places like VFW's were good. I'd explain up front I'm not a vet but wondered if anybody might know where such and such a railroad was around here. Same with libraries, post offices. Once started, as long as you had a name (so and so said the railroad ran up this way) people were friendly & helpful.

This was >20 years ago, so maybe before all the meth issues. Most of the old timers I talked to had worked or knew someone who worked closed mines.

Look up Feds Creek KY.  You will then understand a holler.  That is where my grandmother moved from when she came to Ohio

Might be in one of these counties

http://www.coalcampusa.com/swva/swva.htm

Probably on one of these





http://www.coalcampusa.com/eastky/eastky.htm

Origins of lots of towns were similar. At least you may get an idea what she saw when she was young.

Any of you guys that are from the coal country, help the guy out that runs the site with pix, stories or a buck or two. He does a pretty darn good job trying to save history in that area. No affiliation, jjst appreciative of his work.

... a scream, shout, yell, shriek, hoot, holler, vociferation, outcry, bellow, or raising one's voice is a loud vocalization in which air is passed through the vocal folds with greater force than is used in regular or close-distance vocalisation

Thanks for sharing that. I have actually been to most of those KY towns and seen many of the buildings pictured. E. KY is a very interesting and beautiful place.

You've been in my county then

If you travel back through, take pictures. Lots of the old houses, company stores, mine buildings etc are demolished every year. See what he has on his site and help fill in gaps or take newer/better pics if they're still standing. Share that site with locals (libraries are good, or just anyone who happens to ask what you're takin a picture of). Suspect cellular coverage is iffy, so keep a saved page on your phone/tablet.

There are a bunch of old RR stations/buildings around the country that wound up being turned into homes/apartments. Residents are often pretty outgoing once you show them a photo from back in the day.

I do this as I try to photograph Railroad stations in PA and Ohio

Suppose there are similar sites for other states.

Even New York has people trying to record old stations.

@Aimless check it out

Makes for a neat destination for a weekend day drive. Get off the beaten path, find a few neat two lane roads off the Interstate...

Pre tee much

I went to HS in Bellefontaine (Logan County) and spent most of my adult life in the area. I have been all over the tracks and old rail beds/yards.
Interesting stuff. None of those links show the old, old sidings and yards on the north west side of town, north of Sandusky avenue west of 68.
I was told they are older than the ones on that page, pre civil war.

Where was the old roundhouse? That was north of Chillicothe at Elm st., I think.

I think it's funny that WV has a Logan county with Mingo county just south. We have a small village called Mingo just south of Logan county here in Ohio.
We have Champaign County with it's seat of Urbana, too.  People from there moved out to Illinois and took the names.

One of the best shows.

Killer off road trails in the area.

Lots of hollers.

Copperhead Road is real.  Also in that song it mentions buying a car with Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side.  That is the county in upper east Tennessee where I grew up.  They used to run moonshine from deep in the Appalachian mountains to Knoxville and down to Georgia on that road.  Today it's meth and weed.

Having been to several, as my wife is from the area, you really don't.

FYI that show was shot in California

My wife sings this song just about as good as her.

Come on over to Belfry or Phelps. Wife is from Brushy.

Grandmother is from Wolfcreek in Martin County.

Lol people have no clue

So murder is rampant?

Often parroted, never substantiated.

Even people here in the northern part of the state believe it.

Damn OP, you ain't from around here are ya.
Only a good ol southern boy would know that.

No.

For most every town east of the Mississippi, and many in the west, entering the name of the town & railroad or railway will bring upna wealth of information (not sarcasm, most people don't realize how big a part the railroads played in where towns got built)

For Bellefontaine, this appears: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_and_Bellefontaine_Railroad

The roundhouse was probably an old "Big Four Route" (later NYC, then Penn Central, then Conrail)

"Bellefontaine became a major railroad town in the 1890’s when the Big Four (Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and St. Louis) made it one of their main terminals and built its largest roundhouse between New York and St. Louis in Bellefontaine. Consequently, many railroad workers lived here and enhanced the economy of the town."



http://r2parks.net/bigfour.html

From the brewing company https://www.roundhousedepotbrewing.com/chef



"Chillicothe Avenue, 1900 CE-

Bellefontaine was put on the map by the railroad in the 1800's. Benefiting from it's location between major cities like Cleveland, Cincinnati, New York, and St. Louis the Big Four Railroad company decided to make it's main hub in Bellefontaine. It was here then on Chillicothe Ave. that their Roundhouse and Depot were built and where our brewery now sits. Their investment in Logan county amplified our position as a rail powerhouse. For almost 100 years the railroad was very prosperous here and much of the town was employed or was benefited by the railroad. This all started to come apart when on Sept. 2nd, 1943 the Roundhouse suffered a catastrophic fire. The final nail in the coffin for the rail industry in Logan county came on Sept. 20th, 1946 when the Big Four's Depot caught fire and was completely leveled. These tragedies left a big impact on the community of Bellefontaine. The railroad never really regained from this loss. But it isn't the tragedy that inspires us so much as the memory of that railroad culture that fueled this community for so many years. Here at RDBC we want to remember and honor the heritage of the railroad by providing a space where folks can reminisce on our history while sharing a great beer."

How many strangers did you murder for wandering on your property?