Delivering Appalachian news and culture in the twenty-first century!
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Aerial of Williamson, West Virginia, Showing the Coal Rail Yards and the River That Divides Kentucky at the Upper Left and West Virginia. The Town Has the Largest Coal Train Yard in the World, Followed by Danville, West Virginia 04/1974 - Photographer: Jack Corn
American Coal Miner
Public consensus places the American coal miner as an ignorant hillbilly who is out of touch with the modern world.
But that is not so.
The coal miner is a professional man. He comes from a long heritage of dedicated workers.
The modern coal miner is educated in many fields. He knows high voltage electricity and he can diagnose low voltage panel boards and switches in equipment.
He is trained in ventilation controls; he knows how to apply first aid; he is skilled in hydraulics and he knows how to communicate with others in a dark, noisy environment.
The coal miner is a block mason and he is a carpenter and he is trained to work with explosives. He is a skilled mechanic who works on specialized equipment that you and I cannot begin to understand.
The coal miner knows more mining laws than the average attorney; he has a working knowledge of rock formations; he is a medic who knows how to dress wounds and he can build splints for broken bones.
No regular EMT can come underground to his rescue, he watches out for the safety of his brothers in labor, working in a harsh environment.
He knows how to bring the wounded out.
The coal miner uses complicated instruments to measure noise levels and atmospheric oxygen and respirable dust.
He is a geologist; he is a chemist. He is an engineer.
He is business savvy and he welcomes responsibility.
He knows how to get it done.
The coal miner is a professional man. He is a business man. He is a family man. He is the head of his home, yet he is everyone's servant.
The coal miner is a real man.
The coal miner isn't looking for a handout from Washington. He looks for a weekly paycheck that he has earned for a job well done.
He pays his taxes and he feeds his family.
The coal miner is the hub of a very large wheel that turns the economy of our state. Give the coal miner a chance and he will apply himself to delivering the coal that is needed to make the steel that will rebuild our country's infrastructure.
He will keep our lights burning.
Don't knock him; and don't mock him.
The coal miner does not seek your approval nor your praise. We should give him our respect.
He has earned it.
"The Cheerake tell us, that when they first arrived in the country which they inhabit, they found it possessed by certain 'moon-eyed-people,' who could not see in the day-time."
Early American botanist and historian Benjamin Smith Barton wrote in 1797 about a Cherokee account of white-skinned, cave-dwelling people who predated even their tribe in present-day Georgia and North Carolina. Called the moon-eyed people, theories about these mysterious early Appalachian people range from the crew of a Welsh prince who fled to America's shores to the more paranormal. Barton himself believed them to be ancestors of albinos that an early 17th-century explorer contacted and even lived among in Panama — and who he also referred to as "moon-eyed." Go inside one of the most fascinating mysteries of early America: https://bit.ly/3Im3xVC
One of the new species, Troglocladodus trimblei, is named for Mammoth Cave's superintendent and the discoverer of the shark's fossil.
There is a strip of land between Tennessee and Kentucky, varying between 6 and 12 miles in width and running from the Cumberland Gap to the Tennessee River that was once the subject of a border dispute between the two states.
It had its origins in an attempt to settle the border between Virginia and North Carolina, the parent states of Kentucky and Tennessee.
Dr. Thomas Walker and Daniel Smith surveyed the border in 1779-1780 along what they thought was the border but was actually to the south. Both states claimed the disputed land, leading residents to ask “where they Tennesseans or were they Kentuckians?”
Many just said they lived in “Kennessee.”
The dispute was partially resolved on this day in 1820, then finally in 1826 when the two states agreed fully on the present border between them.
This year marks the return of the locust brood of 2007!
Everyone always asks ”How are the roads?” But nobody asks “How is Mothman?”
My first podcast episode of 2024 covers the word "untelling," a variation of "there's no telling." Do you use it, or have you heard it? If so, in which part of Appalachia? It's untelling what 2024 will bring, but I hope yours is full of good things!
Start the year off right with your Talking Appalachian 2024 Desk Calendar and get a word or expression each month. Proceeds support the podcast. Link in profile 🌄
August 25, 2021 marks the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Co-host of Appodlachia, Big John telling it like it is. We control our story.
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