The Franklin County Moonshine Trial
During the Depression Franklin County, Virginia, was known as the moonshine capital of the United States. Federal officials noted that the small county consumed more sugar per month than the entire ci...
9 Jul 201612min
The Southwest Virginia State Mental Hospital
On this episode of Stories, Rod and Steve tell the story of the Southwest Virginia State Mental Hospital in Marion, Virginia. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or Stitcher or on your favorite...
4 Jul 20169min
The Year Without a Summer
In 1815, there was a tremendous volcanic explosion in Indonesia, with millions of tons of dust, ash, and gas spewed into the upper atmosphere. The next year, all that debris blocked the sun’s energy o...
2 Jul 20169min
Tarzan of Appalachia
During the Great Depression, a man lived in West Virginia much as he imagined his literary hero Tarzan would have lived, had Tarzan been in the wilds of Appalachia instead of the jungles of Africa. To...
28 Jun 20168min
The Birth of West Virginia
On this episode of the podcast, we tell the story of the formation and admission during the Civil War of the only state that lies completely within Appalachia. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTun...
25 Jun 201616min
Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu (The Trail Where They Cried)
In the early part of the 19th century, gold fever struck the North Georgia mountains. Before that fever went elsewhere, a great Indian nation was literally picked up and forced west of the Mississippi...
18 Jun 201611min
The Wytheville Polio Epidemic
Before the release of the Salk polio vaccine, polio epidemics were commonplace in the United States. In 1950 one such epidemic hit the Commonwealth of Virginia, with the Appalachian town of Wytheville...
11 Jun 201613min
The Wilderness Road
In 1775, Appalachia WAS the West, and people were pouring into the region and beyond. With the purchase of millions of acres of Kentucky land by the Transylvania Company, a way was needed to get settl...
4 Jun 201610min
