oral history Archives - Appalachian History

Bringing in a live bear

West Virginian Bruce Crickard describes trapping a live bear, then carrying it back home strung on a pole, still live.

Often the sanctuary was unpresentable on meeting days…. Men used to bring their saddles into the church and pile them down in the rear.

The story of an old-time coal miner in “bloody Harlan” (Harlan County, KY) in the early to mid 1900s, told in his own words and dialect.

The Traveling 219 Project has recorded over forty life and community histories from people who live near US 219 in WV and MD.

In the 1970s Garret Mathews, columnist for Bluefield, WV’s ‘Daily Telegraph,’ traveled back into the hollows with photographer Wade Sprees.