Appalachian History

We post a new episode of Appalachian History weekly podcast every Sunday. Check us out on the Stitcher network, available on mobile phones, in-car dashboards and tablets worldwide. Share the show with friends via automatic Facebook Timeline integration and with one-click Twitter, Facebook and email icons. Just click the icon below to start listening: We [...]

You can already smell the Cherokee fry bread! The 38th annual Mountain Heritage Day festival takes place tomorrow over at Western Carolina University’s campus in Cullowhee, N.C. The festival will offer demonstrations of traditional folk arts such as blacksmithing, basket making and quilting. Meanwhile, fair goers will be entertained by mountain music on three stages. [...]

The same Fall or beginning of Winter Col. G. Rogers Clark from Hanover was Fixing for a Campaighn to go down the Ohia to the Falls. The Virginia Legislator had authorized him to raise an army and go westward, and my Oldest brother—to wit, James Trabue—agreed with him to inlist some men and go with [...]

Some of America’s most famous entertainers of the 1930s era, because they were African-Americans, were barred from staying in Cumberland, Maryland’s mainstream hotels. Such notable musicians as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, and others often stayed at the Davis Tourist Home while on tour. These stays were often a week at a time when [...]

Did Chicago mobster Al Capone ever set foot in Johnson City, TN? During the 1920s the town was nicknamed Little Chicago. A reference acknowledging crime ties to the north? Or nothing more than an expression of local pride in the railroads, three of which ran through town? Big Chicago was known as a railroad center [...]