Appalachian History

Early one day long ago from time out of memory the people of a Cherokee town awoke and faced east to say their morning prayers to the Creator in heaven (Ca-lun-la-ti). In the distance could be heard the cry of an owl, a sign of death and bad luck. The eastern sky began turning many [...]

Breakin’ Up Christmas is both the name for 12 days of partying, dancing, and music making ending up on January 6th, Old Christmas day, and also a song sung during that period. The tradition harks from the area that roughly includes Surry County NC, nearby Grayson and Carroll counties in VA, and the independent city [...]

Listen to the mill whistle. It’s Wheeling Steel. On the dawn of a new year, this is the Wheeling Steel family broadcast from the headquarter city of the Wheeling Steel Corporation, Wheeling, West Virginia, with music by the…. On January 2, 1938, It’s Wheeling Steel, a live radio program from the Capitol Theater in Wheeling, [...]

His public service was legendary. In 1821, South Carolinian Joel Roberts Poinsett had founded the Academy of Fine Arts in Charleston. In 1838, when he was the Secretary of War under Martin Van Buren, he had a northeast county of Arkansas named after him by that state’s governor. At that point in his career, he’d [...]

Charlie and Ollie Grogan Tucker built this home in 1914. It is located in Pine Ridge, NC. The stove is similiar to the one Ollie Tucker owned. It is a wood burning stove with six burners, a water tank on the side and warming closets at the top. Pots and pans are hung on the [...]