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Quoted: 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... View Quote |
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When I tell my rural WV stories urban guys call bs and rural folks just smile and nod.
My wife worked for a hospice company that had its own pharmacy who would mix IV bags and deliver them for other companies as well. They sent a delivery to a rural part of this state and their driver came back with it, said "fuck you I quit" and walked out. They then called a cab (probably a hippa violation now but this was years ago). Cab driver came back, slammed cooler on counter and left. I was off that day and the pharmacist called me and said "200$ if you do it right now. I drove there and the instructions said "turn left on route 35, then turn up 2nd hollow on the right, last house at the end. I did it and at the end was a huge 3 story house that looked like an old boarding house from the 40's. Six well dressed young guys were there and the trucks in the drive were all relatively new. I rolled down my window and said "I'm looking for the home of Mrs. xxxxxx, would you guys happen to know where she lives". They came off the porch in a group, two leaned on my hood, two leaned on my tailgate and one at each door". Drivers door said "you're the third person today ... we can just deliver that morphine if you want". I said "no thank you, you can just give me some directions" . They all started laughing and he said "what are the odds you make it out of here with that cooler?" I put my truck in reverse, shifted transfer into 4H, pointed a 1911 in his face, snicked the safety off and quietly said "better than average". The other 5 busted out howling in laughter. His got over the surprise quickly and said "she's our aunt we'll show you the way" they jumped in the back of the truck and took me up the next hollow. Bunch of good boys once you got used to their sense of humor. |
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Quoted: So murder is rampant? View Quote EDIT I've been back to one hollers as "friends of friends" for camping/shooting trip. There was no concern of drinking alcohol while shooting guns, a old salty looking Vietnam vet lit off some kind of improvised firework that was very powerful, another guy told me a story how he shot himself to get pain medication, some people had full-auto and I don't believe it was on the NFA registry. I never went back out there with that friend again. |
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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 http://www.coalcampusa.com/appalachian-coal-field-map.jpg 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-coalfield-map.jpg http://www.coalcampusa.com/eastky/harlan/harlan.htm View Quote |
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checking in from eastern KY this is my holler https://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/xXLucidXx/ranger_zpsif6dncwg.jpg https://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/xXLucidXx/IMG_0130_zps1dwqdfcp.jpg https://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/xXLucidXx/20140201_132209_zpsaaqfksvw.jpg Having your own private shooting range is nice https://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/xXLucidXx/photo-2_zpsab44e419.jpg View Quote Before I retired, I would frequently head off to the mountains of Pennsylvania, Western Maryland and Northern West Virginia. As I'd leave the city, and especially as soon as I started up the first ridges, I could feel my blood pressure relax. People mock it, then go back to their McMansions and beltway hell. Just smile and shake your head. Who's got a better life? |
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I love Appalachia. Before I retired, I would frequently head off to the mountains of Pennsylvania, Western Maryland and Northern West Virginia. As I'd leave the city, and especially as soon as I started up the first ridges, I could feel my blood pressure relax. People mock it, then go back to their McMansions and beltway hell. Just smile and shake your head. Who's got a better life? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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checking in from eastern KY this is my holler https://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/xXLucidXx/ranger_zpsif6dncwg.jpg https://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/xXLucidXx/IMG_0130_zps1dwqdfcp.jpg https://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/xXLucidXx/20140201_132209_zpsaaqfksvw.jpg Having your own private shooting range is nice https://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a218/xXLucidXx/photo-2_zpsab44e419.jpg Before I retired, I would frequently head off to the mountains of Pennsylvania, Western Maryland and Northern West Virginia. As I'd leave the city, and especially as soon as I started up the first ridges, I could feel my blood pressure relax. People mock it, then go back to their McMansions and beltway hell. Just smile and shake your head. Who's got a better life? |
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Quoted: How many strangers did you murder for wandering on your property? View Quote No, violence isn't all that common, maybe because not many "outsiders" go in to the area. Suspicion, shunning and general unfriendlyness? Sure, but no more than I've experience in other parts of the country. That all changes if you're with a local, have family in the area or stick around long enough for people to see that you're not going to cause problems by messing with the hollers community. I have personally never been involved in a physical altercation with an "outsider". I have seen fist-fights and a couple of warning shots (shotgun round in the air) though, and those weren't because the "outsider" was an "outsider", but because they were giant assholes who started the fight. In the case of the warning shot, attempting to steal shit. |
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@lorazepam Lee ya say? We're from Bloody Breathitt right on the Lee co line. Earned its name honestly. eta: Hell, as I think about it, we're liable to be distant relatives. Lots of pretty common family names around there. Crawford, Gabbard, Lawson, Coomer. Hollers can be as small as a re-entrant which is basically a run off. Some get named like Horse holler where someone walked a poor horse up and shot it dead. Some are big enough to have smaller hollers branching off from it. I happen to prefer to travel at the top of the holler. Bottom of the family holler. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/206831/11026142_10207190020134006_8931248090853702880_n_jpg-857881.JPG The type of domicile and folk you're liable to run into in a holler. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/206831/cabin1_jpg-857887.JPG Not shittin' about the dangers. There's a house and two wells in this pic. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/206831/11402936_10207190021974052_4451050832758711183_n_jpg-857888.JPG View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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My parents are buried in a hollow in Lee County, KY. Beautiful, rugged country. Lee ya say? We're from Bloody Breathitt right on the Lee co line. Earned its name honestly. eta: Hell, as I think about it, we're liable to be distant relatives. Lots of pretty common family names around there. Crawford, Gabbard, Lawson, Coomer. Hollers can be as small as a re-entrant which is basically a run off. Some get named like Horse holler where someone walked a poor horse up and shot it dead. Some are big enough to have smaller hollers branching off from it. I happen to prefer to travel at the top of the holler. Bottom of the family holler. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/206831/11026142_10207190020134006_8931248090853702880_n_jpg-857881.JPG The type of domicile and folk you're liable to run into in a holler. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/206831/cabin1_jpg-857887.JPG Not shittin' about the dangers. There's a house and two wells in this pic. https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/206831/11402936_10207190021974052_4451050832758711183_n_jpg-857888.JPG My family came from McMinn County Tennessee and there are still plenty of real distant relatives there. When I went to the East visitors center at Smokey Mountain National Park a few years back, I about fell over from the number of photos of folks that shared my name. Most of those were from Cade's Corner. In the 80's I took a long gone gal friend to see my folks, but we took a side trip to the Big Piney River at Duke Missouri. On the way the road used to pass a house about like the one in your photo, a real hillbilly classic with rock pillars, dogs, chickens, swinging screen doors, all the hillbilly assets scattered around. She started bawling. She felt sorry for the people that lived there, and I explained to her they were as happy as we were and didn't want anything else. I should have told her that my folks lived there, but I saved that for another place at Green Mountain. Makes me homesick. |
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I used to live near a Holler when I was a kid...............the people that lived down there were not to be messed with
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It's not a question to anyone that lives here. Latch is the only pronunciation accepted. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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You’ll never leave Harlan alive... View Quote Patty Loveless "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" |
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I was born in Harlan, and I got out just fine. We lived across the mountain in Va, and the Harlan hospital was the closest that delivered babies at the time. We don't even have a hospital in our county now.
Part of the old Harlan road runs through my property. It was an old wagon road from VA to KY. Just make sure you can speak hillbilly if you go up in the hollers around here, and you will be just fine most of the time. |
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Quoted: Depends on who's asking. California transplant? I lost count by the time I was 12, but that's because I never learned to count past 20 No, violence isn't all that common, maybe because not many "outsiders" go in to the area. Suspicion, shunning and general unfriendlyness? Sure, but no more than I've experience in other parts of the country. That all changes if you're with a local, have family in the area or stick around long enough for people to see that you're not going to cause problems by messing with the hollers community. I have personally never been involved in a physical altercation with an "outsider". I have seen fist-fights and a couple of warning shots (shotgun round in the air) though, and those weren't because the "outsider" was an "outsider", but because they were giant assholes who started the fight. In the case of the warning shot, attempting to steal shit. View Quote I quickly corrected that that my ancestors were from his area, the Tug Fork valley. "Who were they?" he asked. When I told him the name of my 5x grandfather he said "hell, we're kin!" Warmed right up to me once he found out we were related. |
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HA Pikeville's civilization. There's lots darker places in E KY than Pikeville. Now out in Pike county maybe... like the aforementioned John's Creek. View Quote |
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When my wife was living in Nashville we took a long weekend and rented a cabin near Pigeon Forge. I drove around some backroads and there was a lot of "nice house" "two crappy houses with ancient satellite TV dishes" "falling down trailers" nice house nice house abandoned house. My wife said something about "wow look at this" and I told her "you know there are small towns within a half hour of your parents' house that look just like this" "I never went there" Generally speaking they wouldn't bother anyone, but I spent a ton of time in rural TN and PA and it was similar. There were some guys in TN who I think were considering trying to steal my wife's camera when we were pretty far out in the woods, but they never said or did anything so who knows. Good thing as it might have still been illegal to carry in Federal Parks View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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My grandmother used to have an aunt in middle TN who lived in a holler back in the woods. It was a very Clampett-like arrangement, one of those "if your front porch collapses and kills more than two dogs" kind of things. There was a rundown old house and I don't think they even had electricity, or if so, maybe one bare light bulb in the main room. I visited a couple of times. She had a common law husband named Otto who I never saw do any work around the place; his main occupation seemed to be either getting drunk or trying to get drunk, and he was pretty good at it. My mother told me they (our relatives) "didn't come down out of the hollers until they paved the main road". No reason to I guess, it was mainly a subsistence society then. |
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I live on the hill between two hollars...though not quite as secluded as most are talking about in this thread.
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I got transferred to White Pine, Tenn, back in the late eighties. I thought there would be nice southern folks like the rest of the south, but got a surprise. Half of the people I worked with didn’t have telephones and half of them didn’t have indoor plumbing. There was a Remington 870P in our bathroom due to car thefts in our parking lot. Had a Chinese girlfriend at the time who wanted to visit. I told her the people there stared at me and weren’t friendly to me and they sure as hell wouldn’t like her. She traveled there anyway and I’ll be damned if people didn’t walk up to her and strike up a conversation when they wouldn’t give me the time of day. From there I did some traveling through eastern Kentucky. White Pine was like NYC in comparison.
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this thread reminds me of Pikeville Kentucky, be afraid, be very afraid. OP, this video gives you an idea of the terrain in the region, although it can get far more isolated than what's seen here. A Trip Up Wolf Pen Drive aka Wolf Pen Holler, Sissonville, West Virginia |
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Holler is not really a hollow.
It's just a low lying piece of land, not necessarily a valley but with a high spot on one side. They are on the back 40. |
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My family was so remote the creek was the road up in the holler they were at.
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Quoted:
I was born in Harlan, and I got out just fine. We lived across the mountain in Va, and the Harlan hospital was the closest that delivered babies at the time. We don't even have a hospital in our county now. Part of the old Harlan road runs through my property. It was an old wagon road from VA to KY. Just make sure you can speak hillbilly if you go up in the hollers around here, and you will be just fine most of the time. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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You'll never leave Harlan alive... Part of the old Harlan road runs through my property. It was an old wagon road from VA to KY. Just make sure you can speak hillbilly if you go up in the hollers around here, and you will be just fine most of the time. |
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Both sides of my family came from the McKee-Jackson-Sand Gap area, both of which were around during The Great Depression. Used to do security work for one of the gas companies down there. Just like anywhere else, there are some great folks in that area. There are also reasons why I carried more "tools" with me there than I have working in any third world shit hole. Not knocking it since most of my family came from there, but you better be cautious of where you are and who you deal with.
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Quoted: Yep. Pikeville is the cosmopolitan big city of E. Ky. Out in the county might be hurting but there's still old coal money wealth in Pikeville. Plus what the Medical Center and UPike bring in. OP, this video gives you an idea of the terrain in the region, although it can get far more isolated than what's seen here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQGlNd2rqBc View Quote |
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Quoted: I'm not who you intended this for but I figured I'd throw some pictures in. This is my grandparents house and where my dad grew up in Ashcamp, Ky. The brown building to the right was the Ashcamp grocery that my great grandfather owned and my dad worked in as a child. They had a couple of gas pumps out front, and sold groceries, household items, guns, and ammo inside. The top of the mountain in the distance is the Ky-Va state line. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7804/47215119171_54812cc092_o.jpg My great grandfather's house, just on the other side of the creek. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7842/47163074942_bae0a0410f_o.jpg The post office. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7848/47163075262_b324390549_c.jpg Our family cemetery. How long do you think it would take nature to reclaim this if it wasn't kept up? With the jobs drying up and people moving away or dying off I think a lot of the area is going to end up lost to the widerness. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7882/47215119431_902f2a933f_c.jpg I took this at the nearby Breaks Interstate Park. My wife and I got married here. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4838/46642747282_d8d5dda2e0_b.jpg Wife pic from there, since I know you fuckers will ask. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7872/46642746612_bbcb28c354_b.jpg Took this on the road to the Breaks Park. You can see why they say if you're deep in a holler you won't see the sun until 10am and it sets by 3pm. https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7820/46491610904_e6751e294a_b.jpg Family reunion at my Aunt's house just outside of Pikeville. https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3937/33934456785_e6bc3eba30_b.jpg View Quote |
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The sun ain’t seen some of them since creation. Quoted:
Well I'm glad you're having a good laugh. It's good for the soul The whole "outsider" thing might be a little overstated these days. But go ambling around the backwoods and find out for yourself how things are handled. |
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A holler so deep Hoot Owls hoot all day long...
Hootie hooooooo! |
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Quoted: Some are, but he kinda left out the massive welfare/"Disability" dependency, unemployment prescription drug abuse, and petty crime. The poorest and most welfare White people in American since South Boston gentrified. They even have their own names for things. "Draw check" = disability check. "Crazy check" = a check you get every month for your children from SSI when you get them to qualify for a fake disability. View Quote |
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Both sides of my family came from the McKee-Jackson-Sand Gap area, both of which were around during The Great Depression. Used to do security work for one of the gas companies down there. Just like anywhere else, there are some great folks in that area. There are also reasons why I carried more "tools" with me there than I have working in any third world shit hole. Not knocking it since most of my family came from there, but you better be cautious of where you are and who you deal with. View Quote And agreed on the people these days. The damned dope has took the place. I don't fear them and have never had even a hint of a problem but I do turn up the situational awareness a tad just to be sure. A hardcore hillbilly (or 2) with a serious habit can be a dangerous encounter out in their country. I'm also hearing that the Messicans are moving in pretty heavy moving the dope and they bring their own customary ways of doing business with them. |
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