Appalachian History

“Nancy Ward, where are you?” It’s getting late. A sudden turn in the road and we’ve reached the place; the cabin is on the right across this rocky ditch. And on the narrow porch sits Nancy herself, most venerable of midwives, respected by all because of her calling. The old woman rises with the quiet [...]

Claude W. Hibbard was the first naturalist at Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park (June 1, 1934 to August 22, 1935). His job was to evaluate the area and record the types of wildlife he found in this region. Hibbard was to look at various habitats in this region and evaluate them to help determine what [...]

Oh come all you young fellers so young and so fineSeek not your fortune in a dark dreary mineIt’ll form as a habit and seep in your soulTill the stream of your blood runs as black as the coal Where it’s dark as a dungeon damp as the dewdanger is double pleasures are fewWhere the [...]

“I’ll tell you, Mrs. Higher was right down here on the corner. As you go down over the hill and go to town. She was right on the corner. That corner building was where she was. And she was a mighty good old lady. She kept all the loggers, you know, the woodsmen came and [...]

Please welcome guest blogger Bob Sloan. My grandfather, William Baldwin Sloan, was born in 1877, in Rowan County, Kentucky. I was thirteen when he died, young enough far too many questions went unasked. Like, how’d a mountain kid born on an isolated Appalachian ridge get the name “Baldwin?” I never met another man named “Baldwin.” [...]