Just about any search on Google for “best white water rafting” includes West Virginia. Around 150,000 people commercially raft a West Virginia river each year, mostly on the New River and Gauley River, which are near Fayetteville, West Virginia. At one point there were just less than 30 rafting companies in the […]
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The sound of twanging electric guitars fills the Madison Civic Center, a small gymnasium in the heart of southern West Virginia’s coalfields. It’s “Ride Stallion Ride,” the entrance music for WWE Hall of Fame inductee Cowboy Bob Orton. The 300 fans seated on folding chairs and wooden bleachers during this […]
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Financial insecurity is a common struggle for families in Homewood, a predominantly African-American neighborhood on Pittsburgh’s East End. Although it was difficult at times, Khaynin Mosley-Smith said his family was able to make ends meet. “I didn’t struggle extremely bad, but financially it wasn’t all the way there. My mother […]
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Coal was king in McDowell County in the 1960s and 70s. At one point, it was one of the richest counties in the country due to coal production. There were more than 53 communities that either had their own mines or housed miners who worked in the area. Because the […]
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From 2010-16 nonmetropolitan America lost population. But counties that have recreation economies (hiking, whitewater, climbing, four-wheeling, etc.) grew slightly over the same period, according to a new report from Headwaters Economics. Rural counties with recreation-based economies are gaining population slightly while non-recreation rural counties are losing population, a new study finds. Households moving to rural […]
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When we launched our religion vertical, we said, “because religion is community” in Appalachia. When we talked about a sports vertical, we said, “because sports is religion” here. It is a topic that transcends the playing field — and brings many of Appalachia’s stories into focus – from the political […]
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