Top Stories
10,000 Acres
Shirley Blosser likes to keep track of her ancestors. She’s descended from four families in Meigs Township, Ohio. Out of the four, it’s the Spillman clan that can be the most…
Brooke Parker has spent the past two years combing riverside homeless encampments, abandoned houses, and less traveled roads to help contain a…
As we inch toward the end of 2022, our staff is looking back on some of our most memorable stories of the year. Explore our top stories…
Recovery from addiction is possible. For help, please call the free and confidential treatment referral hotline (1-800-662-HELP) or visit…
In SE Ohio, Community Reflects on Black History Preservation, Its Importance to Democracy
Driving on Route 329, near Athens in the spring is a welcome respite after another long COVID winter. The grass on southeast Ohio’s rolling hills is turning that bright-almost-neon shade of green. I’m on my way to visit Ada Woodson Adams, a…
Review: ‘Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place’
Neema Avashia’s book points to contradictions resulting from a sense of belonging and identity informed by place as complicated as Appalachia. I want to be Neema Avashia’s new best friend. That was the feeling I came away with after reading…
Ginseng and Big Pharma: How Appalachia Built an Industry that Would Later Exploit It
More than a century before the likes of Purdue Pharma began flooding Appalachian communities with opioids and destroying lives, giant pharmaceutical companies had a very different relationship to the mountain region. Indeed, years…
In Appalachia and the Southwest, Indigenous Organizers Want a new Economy for Their Coalfield Communities
This article was originally published by Ohio Valley ReSource. Carol Davis has noticed the West drying up. Where she lives, in the Four Corners area of New Mexico and on the Navajo Nation, years of drought have left former oases dusty and…
Kentucky Flooding Tests Faith-based Disaster Response in Appalachia as Church Membership Declines
In eastern Kentucky, they waited for the rain to stop. “I’ve never heard that much rain that hard in my life,” said Tracy Counts, who attends First Presbyterian Church in Hazard, Kentucky, one of the hardest hit communities in last…
A Little Daytona In Ona, West Virginia
Ona, West Virginia, is a town with two stoplights, but it’s also a place where legends are made. Greg Sigler has been racing at Ona Speedway for nearly two decades. But today, he’s coaching his 15-year-old son, Cole, from the sidelines,…
‘A Life-defining Year’: We’re Marking One Year of Publishing the Stories of Appalachian Youth
For the past week, I’ve plopped down to write about the one-year mark of a project we thought would last roughly eight weeks. Last October, we launched the Appalachian Youth Creators vertical, because we wanted to give young people space to…