Mason Adams, Author at 100 Days in Appalachia

Author: Mason Adams

Coal

Steel-Making Coal Upturn Brings New Mine, Old Problems to WV Community

by Mason Adams on October 20, 2021 Comments are Disabled

This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. For more stories from Mountain State Spotlight, visit www.mountainstatespotlight.org. This story was co-published with Southerly, a nonprofit journalism organization that covers the intersection of ecology, justice, and culture in the American South. It started with the noise, the round-the-clock roar of a […]

Election 2020

Both Parties Look for Success in a South That Is Less Monolithic

by Mason Adams on October 19, 2020 Comments are Disabled

Democrats are betting that demographic and economic change will improve their chances of success. Republicans are trying to preserve a Southern firewall. Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016 by flipping Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, but he may not have been able to do so had Hillary Clinton not lost […]

An election official places a sign as voters line up outside a polling place at the Fogelsville Volunteer Fire Co., Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Fogelsville, Pennsylvania. Photo: Matt Slocum/AP Photo

Election 2020

Where Does the Rural Vote Fit in National Elections?

by Mason Adams on October 15, 2020 Comments are Disabled

Could a decrease in rural support be part of a disappointing season for Republican candidates? The Daily Yonder looks at presidential and congressional races in three states: Pennsylvania, Maine and Montana. Conventional wisdom and national media narratives hold that in America’s 2020 presidential and congressional elections, urban areas will support […]

Disrupted

When Fad Industries Aren’t Enough, Coal Communities Have to Market Themselves for a New Economy

by Mason Adams on September 21, 2020 Comments are Disabled

As the novel coronavirus pushed American into sheltering at home in the spring, Travis and Staci Swiney were thinking about their future in Dickenson County, Virginia. After the pandemic hit, Staci, 26, was partially furloughed from her job as a registered nurse at Clinch Valley Medical Center, while Travis, also […]

Disrupted

Becoming the ‘Next Pigeon Forge’ Can’t be the Economic Savior It Once Was for Appalachia

by Mason Adams on September 21, 2020 Comments are Disabled

In fall 2014, Michael and Betty Gill, in their 50s, were ready for a new adventure in their lives, so they got in their RV and headed for the place they’d spend the better part of the next four years. Dollywood. The amusement park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, has been […]

Disrupted

Education, Automation and Migrant Workers: How One Appalachian GA County Became an ‘American Maker’

by Mason Adams on September 21, 2020 Comments are Disabled

Tuesday afternoon in late January and the campus of Lanier Technical College in Gainesville, Georgia, bustled with students pursuing career education, with a near-guaranteed job awaiting. Healthcare students studied for likely jobs with Northeast Georgia Health System, while two buildings down, others attended classes in welding and automotive mechanics in […]