Podcasts by Stories of Appalachia
A look at the history and folklore of Appalachia, one story at a time.
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Further podcasts by Steve Gilly, Rod Mullins
Podcast on the topic Geschichte
All episodes
The 1902 New River Coal Strike -The Battle of Stanaford from 2023-12-09T01:00:02
In 1902 coal miners struck the mines along the New River, seeking better wages and better working conditions. The strike continued until February 25, 1903, when a massive gun battle broke out betwe...
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The Fentress County Witch from 2023-12-02T01:00:03
In 1843 a prominent man in Jamestown, Tennessee, distributed a broadsheet, under an assumed name, accusing the wife of a tavern owner of being, among other sordid things, a "witch of the most extra...
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Orlean Hawks Puckett. Appalachian Granny Woman from 2023-11-25T01:00:03
Granny women were the healers and caretakers of folks in Appalachia, dispensing folk remedies, serving as midwives, and even dousing for water. These women were essential in rural Appalachia, where...
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The Gun Battle of Thorn Hill, TN from 2023-11-18T01:00:02
At the turn of the 20th century a wealthy and politically connected man from Grainger County, Tennessee, lost a lawsuit filed by a widow and was ordered to pay her a sum of money. Failing to do th...
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The Eccles Mine Disaster from 2023-11-11T01:00:02
In 1914 a series of massive explosions occurred in the Eccles Mine No. 5 near Eccles, West Virginia in Raleigh County, West Virginia, leaving over 180 men and boys dead, including an insurance sale...
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Cora Wilson Stewart and the Moonlight Schools of Kentucky from 2023-11-04T00:00:03
At the turn of the 20th century a young woman named Cora Wilson Stewart was hired as an elementary school teacher, later becoming Rowan County school superintendent. Fifteen years later she began ...
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John Forbes Nash, Jr.: Appalachia's Mathematical Genius from 2023-10-28T00:00:03
Today we tell the story of one of the 20th century's most brilliant mathematicians, born in Bluefield, West Virginia, and the subject of the movie "A Beautiful Mind," John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Dark Deeds in the Mountains: The Twisted Tale of Thomas David Carr from 2023-10-21T00:00:03
Thomas David Carr was born in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1846. After a childhood marked by abuse, a prison term at age 8 and an attemped poisoning of one of his "acquaintances," Carr joined the Uni...
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The Sanctified Hill Mudslide from 2023-10-14T00:00:03
Sanctified Hill was a section of Cumberland, Kentucky, where many retired African American miners and their families resided in homes many had built themselves. In 1972 heavy rains fell across App...
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The Curious Case of L. K. Garber from 2023-10-07T00:00:03
Around the turn of the 20th century a man charged with murder escaped from the Scott County, Virginia, jail and headed to Texas. He likely would have spent the rest of his life there but for an ac...
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The Battle of Point Pleasant from 2023-09-30T00:00:03
Rising tensions along the Appalachian frontier culminated with what's called "Lord Dunmore's War," named after the royal governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore. That conflict came to a head with a bat...
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The West Virginia Mine Wars: Matewan from 2023-09-23T00:00:02
Our story of the West Virginia Mine Wars continues at Matewan, West Virginia, where a famous gun battle left several mine company hired guards dead, along with the town mayor, among others. The fi...
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The Hanging of Cal Logston: An Eerie Prophecy From The Gallows from 2023-09-16T00:00:02
On April 5, 1872, the last man to be hanged in Fentress County, Tennessee, was said to have made three eerie predictions, all of which came true.
Today we tell the story of Cal Logston, ...
The West Virginia Mine Wars: Paint Creek and Cabin Creek from 2023-09-09T00:00:02
For a century and a half the king of central Appalachia has been coal. That mineral powered the industrial revolution in America, made some men and corporations very wealthy and provided jobs for t...
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The Savant of Rhea County, Tennessee from 2023-09-02T00:00:03
Alvin Goins was a hard worker who, like many Appalachian men of his time, never finished school and was unable to read or write. That never stopped him from getting work as a laborer in and around...
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The Dark Mystery of Booger Hole from 2023-08-26T00:00:03
Starting in the latter part of the 19th century and continuing up into the 20th century a valley in Clay County, West Virginia, became the site of a series of mysterious disappearances and deaths. ...
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The Great Glen Alum Payroll Robbery from 2023-08-19T00:00:02
On Friday, August 14, 1914, three Glen Alum Coal Company employees were returning to the mine office with that week's payroll.
They didn't make it with the money to the mine alive.
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From Darkness to Hope: The Appalachian Journey of Bob Childress from 2023-08-12T00:00:02
In 1912 a young man's life was transformed by his witnessing a historic tragedy: the infamous Carroll County courthouse shootout, which left several prominent lawyers, police officers and a judge d...
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The Laurel Mine Disaster of 1884 from 2023-08-05T00:00:03
The Pocahontas coal field, located in southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia, was one of the most productive coal areas in the United States. The town of Pocahontas, in Tazewell County, Virg...
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Woodrow Derenberger And The Man From Lanulos from 2023-07-29T00:00:03
In November 1966 a man on his way home from work literally drove into Appalachian history when he encountered a UFO blocking his way on I-77 outside Parkersburg, West Virginia. Not only that, he a...
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Appalachia's Petticoat Government from 2023-07-22T00:00:02
In 1948 Clintwood, Virginia, held an election for the town's offices. After the campaigning, the voting, and the vote counting, something unique for it's time had happened: All of Clintwood's elec...
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The Goat Man from 2023-07-15T00:00:02
From the 1930s to the 1980s an itinerant preacher from Georgia traveled throughout Appalachia and beyond in a ramshackle wagon pulled by a herd of goats. It was his way of spreading the gospel and ...
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The Blue People of Kentucky from 2023-07-08T00:00:02
In 1820 French orphan Martin Fugate and his wife Elizabeth arrived as new settlers in eastern Kentucky. Unknown to them, they carried genetic traits that would pass on to their descendants, causin...
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The Mysterious Christmas Eve Fire: The Missing Sodder Children and their Haunting Legacy from 2023-07-01T00:00:02
On Christmas Eve, 1945, a mysterious fire broke out at the Fayetteville, West Virginia home of George and Jennie Sodder. Try as they might, George and his oldest son were unable to put out the fire...
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The Dark Mystery of the Sensabaugh Tunnel from 2023-06-24T00:00:02
Theft. Infanticide. Insanity. Murder. Ghosts.
The stories that surround a notorious tunnel in Tennessee contain all those elements and more.
Today we tell some of those st...
Haunted Waters: The Tragic Tale of the Siren's Song in the French Broad River from 2023-06-17T00:00:02
A tale was told by the Cherokee of a siren that inhabited the deep whirlpools of the French Broad River in western North Carolina. These sirens were said to be demons that would lure men to their ...
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Sam's Magnificent Beard from 2023-06-10T00:00:02
A mountain farmer and schoolteacher from the North Carolina town of Magnetic City (now Buladean) got so tired of shaving that he tossed his straight razor in the garbage and just let that facial ha...
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The Appalachian Insurrection of 1917 from 2023-06-03T00:00:03
As the United States entered World War I, it was found to be necessary to start drafting men to serve in the military.
That decision was met with widespread resistance across the countr...
The Kentucky Cannibal: Boone Helm from 2023-05-27T00:00:02
Right before and during the Civil War an outlaw roamed the West who was unlike any of the other outlaws you might have heard of. This man, born and raised in eastern Kentucky, gained a reputation ...
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An Appalachian Frontier Legend: Simon Kenton, Part Two from 2023-05-20T00:00:02
Today we wrap up our story about legendary Appalachian explorer, longhunter and guide Simon Kenton, who went from explorer and longhunter to owning hundreds of thousands of acres of frontier land, ...
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An Appalachian Frontier Legend: Simon Kenton, Part One from 2023-05-13T00:00:02
Today we have a story so big we had to split it into two parts!
Simon Kenton was an Appalachian explorer, longhunter and guide. His life was so filled with adventure that it became the s...
French, The Alderson Lion from 2023-05-06T00:00:02
In 1890 the circus came to Alderson, West Virginia. When the circus moved on, it left a new resident of the town, which became loved by all, well, except for one traveling salesman.
Toda...
The Amazing Life of One-Armed Jimmy from 2023-04-29T00:00:02
Today we tell the story of a man who refused to let a "disability" keep him down.
Linguist, athlete, amateur astronomer, adventurer and genealogist James Brownlow Lawson from Sevier Coun...
The Buffalo Creek Disaster from 2023-04-22T00:00:02
In February, 1972, a coal company muck dam along Buffalo Creek in Logan County, West Virginia, collapsed after a winter of heavy snow and rain. The resulting flash flood of water and gob destroyed ...
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The Outlaw Otto Wood: Appalachian Escape Artist from 2023-04-15T00:00:02
Otto Wood was headed in the wrong direction from a young age. As a child he learned how to make moonshine while in the care of his relatives in West Virginia, to whom he had run away from home.
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Dr. Ralph Stanley from 2022-04-16T00:00
Today we tell the story of one of the most successful musicians to come from Southwest Virginia: Dr. Ralph Stanley, from Dickenson County.
Be sure to subscribe to the Stories podcast at A...
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The Crash Of The Shenandoah from 2022-04-09T00:00
In 1923 a rigid airship, made with new material produced by Alcoa Aluminum in Pittsburgh, became the U. S. Navy's flagship aircraft. Two years later this airship came down in bad weather in easte...
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General John Hunt Morgan from 2022-04-02T00:00:28
Today we tell the story of the man who led the most successful Confederate raid on American territory during the Civil War, leading his men into battle throughout Indiana and Ohio. Afterwards, ...
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The Last Survivor of the Sultana Explosion from 2022-03-26T00:00:06
In April 1865 a riverboat that carried cargo from Illinois south to New Orleans was hired to transport newly freed Union prisoners from Vicksburg, Mississippi, home.
Unfortunately, many ...
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The Silver Legion from 2022-03-19T00:00:39
In the 1930's a man interested in writing, new age religions and far-right politics came to Asheville, North Carolina, where he established his own fascist organization in support of Adolf Hitler a...
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Jenny Wiley's Escape from 2022-03-12T01:00:09
In the area of Bland and Tazewell Counties in Virginia in the late 1780's a pregnant young woman and her child were captured by a band of renegade Indians consisting of two Cherokee, three Shawn...
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A Criminal Operation from 2022-03-05T01:00:33
In 1912 a Presbyterian pastor in Greeneville, Tennessee, decided to help his former secretary back at the school he headed in Pittsburgh. That decision cost the woman her life and landed the pas...
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The Bloody Harpes from 2022-02-26T01:00:02
In the late 1700s two cousins, Micajah Harpe and Wiley Harpe, terrorized the Appalachian frontier, stealing, fighting, raping and killing pioneers as they crossed Appalachia looking for a new ho...
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Ida Mae Stull from 2022-02-19T01:00:53
Today we tell the fascinating story of the first woman in this country to go down in the coal mines to make a living, and how she made it legal for women to do so.
You can subscribe to th...
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The Crash At Clingman's Dome from 2022-02-12T01:00:07
In the summer of 1946 a training mission for a B-29 Superfortress ended in tragedy.
Today we tell the story of that B-29, which crashed into the third-highest mountaintop in the eastern U...
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The Regulator Movement from 2022-02-05T00:00:07
Who were the men who moved into what’s now East Tennessee, establishing the first local governments there, such as the Watauga Association in 1772 and the State of Franklin in 1784?
Many of them...
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The Witch Murders from 2022-01-29T01:00:02
In 1950 a man shot and killed his sister-in-law and niece in a country store in northeast Tennessee.
Why he did that is our story today.
Don't forget to subscribe to the Stories po...
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The First Integrated Little League Team In The South from 2022-01-21T23:00
In 1951 Little League baseball came to Norton, Virginia. In that very first season the Little League allowed black boys and white boys to play together, fully integrated, for the first time in ...
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Blennerhassett and Burr from 2022-01-15T01:00
After the end of the Revolutionary War the land north and west of the Ohio River was organized by Congress into the Northwest Territory. Soon settlers began to move into the eastern part of the...
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Death By Psychic from 2022-01-08T00:00
At the turn of the 20th century, a Kentucky man obsessed with spiritualism, fortune-telling, seances and speaking to the dead, was convinced to marry a "psychic" and give her all his property. T...
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The Fraterville Mine Disaster from 2022-01-01T01:00
In May of 1902 one of the best-run mine companies in the Coal Creek, Tennessee, area suffered a disaster when an explosion trapped and killed 216 miners, all but 3 of the adult male population o...
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Encore: The Krampus from 2021-12-24T01:00
This holiday season has been a tough one for us, so we haven't had the opportunity to put together this year's Christmas episode. Instead we give you last year's wonderful tale of the Krampus. ...
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The Thealka Explosion from 2021-12-18T01:00
On June 17, 1922, a tremendous explosion happened at the Thealka mine near Paintsville, Kentucky, killing two miners starting up mine equipment.
This blast was no accident.
Join us...
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The Lost Children from 2021-12-11T00:00
In the spring of 1856 the two little boys of Samuel and Susanna Cox disappeared, seemingly without a trace.
Today we tell the story of how the tragedy of that disappearance led to a mirac...
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Green Allen Brooks, "Mountain Man" from 2021-12-04T00:00
There was a man who lived in Lee County, Virginia, who claimed to have once been a Tennessee Circuit Court judge, a preacher, a teacher and a business owner in Cumberland Gap.
He was also...
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Encore - The Trials of Edith Maxwell from 2021-11-27T00:00
With it being Thanksgiving weekend, Rod and Steve have decided to take this week off, so today we are presenting an encore presentation of one of our first podcast episodes.
In 1935 a you...
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Cap Hatfield's Run from 2021-11-20T00:00
Over 120 years ago one of Devil Anse Hatfield's sons made his escape from a Williamson, West Virginia, jail. How he got in that jail, why he escaped and where he went is our story this week. Listen
A Robbery Gone Awry from 2021-11-13T00:00
A hundred years ago two men were captured near Harriman, Tennessee, after an intense manhunt. They, along with two other men, were responsible for an attempted armed bank robbery, two kidnappin...
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Lewis The Robber from 2021-11-06T00:00
In the early 1800's central Pennsylvania was the home of a man named David Lewis. Lewis joined the army then went AWOL, starting down a road that led to him becoming a charming con man, counter...
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Encore - The Hermit Of Pound Gap from 2021-10-30T00:00
For this year’s Halloween tale, we’re going to go back a couple of years to once again tell you one of our more popular stories, about the hermit of Pound Gap.
A traveler uncovers a local...
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The Trial Of Dr. Smith from 2021-10-23T00:00
In 1877 a young Kentucky man's body was found by the side of the road, the victim of a knife attack. Suspicion quickly fell on the deceased's former best friend since the two had recently had a ...
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The Sevier/Jackson Duel from 2021-10-16T00:00
In 1803 John Sevier was the governor of the state of Tennessee and Andrew Jackson was a Superior Court judge, both in Knoxville. They were also bitter political rivals. One day the two met on ...
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The Bridge To Vulcan from 2021-10-09T00:00
In 1977 a small town along the Tug River in West Virginia needed a bridge. They got that bridge, and became world-famous in the process.
That's our story this week.
Be sure to s...
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The Rugby Colony from 2021-10-02T00:00
After the Civil War a group of English men and women traveled to the hills of Tennessee to set up a utopian colony.
Today we tell that story.
You can subscribe to the Stories pod...
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Moses Stepp from 2021-09-25T00:00
Today we tell a story that's a little bit history and a little bit folklore about a legend in eastern Kentucky named Moses Stepp, supposedly the oldest man to have ever lived in the state.
<... Listen
The Knox Mine Disaster from 2021-09-18T00:00
In 1959 a mining operation ignored mine regulations leading not only to a mine roof collapse but flooding so bad that miners were killed and the entire economy in the area was pretty much destro...
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Escape(s) From The Yancey County Jail from 2021-09-11T00:00
1929 was a rough year for the jailer at the Yancey County jail, in North Carolina. That year saw not one but two 3-prisoner escapes from the facility.
That's our story today.
Th...
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Part Two: Davy Crockett Goes To Texas from 2021-09-04T00:00
We wrap up our story about Davy Crockett, telling of his leaving Tennessee and moving to Texas to fight in the Texas War of Independence.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast on your ...
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The King of the Wild Frontier, Part One from 2021-08-28T00:00
Probably nobody embodies Appalachia and her people more than a man born near Limestone, Tennessee, in 1786. Davy Crockett was a frontiersman, cowboy, businessman, politician and a martyr to the...
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The Batts And Fallam Expedition from 2021-08-14T00:00
In 1671 Thomas Batts and Richard Fallam set out from Appomatox Town (near present day Petersburg), Virginia, on a mission of exploration into Appalachia. Along the way they discovered the New R...
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The Hillsville Courthouse Shootout from 2021-07-31T00:00
In 1912 a Carroll County, Virginia, man was sentenced to serve a one year sentence in the state penitentiary. The announcement of that sentence set off a gun battle that became one of the worst ...
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The Secret Still from 2021-07-24T00:00
In 1931 Knox County, Tennessee, sheriff's deputies, along with federal Prohibition officers, found something very interesting underneath a house in Knoxville.
You can subscribe to the Sto...
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An Unsolved Appalachian Mystery from 2021-07-17T00:00
Shortly after the end of the Civil War an orphan boy disappeared near the High Knob, on the border of Scott and Wise Counties in Virginia. Today we tell a story that's been handed down for over ...
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Maggie Bailey from 2021-07-03T00:00
In the 1920s a young woman opened a business providing moonshine to all the bootleggers in the Harlan, Kentucky, area during Prohibition. After Prohibition she opened a store that sold legal li...
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The Execution of Daniel Dean from 2021-06-26T00:00
In 1877 a farmer was shot dead as he was working in his fields. No one saw who fired the shot and nobody confessed to the murder. But Daniel Dean was hanged for the crime, splitting his commun...
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Mack Elliott from 2021-06-19T00:00
In 1929 there were textile strikes going on across the southeastern U. S., including at the two mills located in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Mack Elliott worked at one of those plants and was invol...
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The French Settlement from 2021-06-12T00:00
During the French Revolution a French baron attempted to establish a colony of Frenchmen in Appalachia, at present-day St. Paul, Virginia. Today we tell you that story.
You can subscribe...
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Joseph Martin from 2021-06-05T00:00
Explorer, surveyor, soldier and Indian agent are all jobs held by Joseph Martin. He also built a settlement, Martin's Station, that was a way station for settlers moving west into Kentucky.
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The Draft Dodger from 2021-05-29T00:00
During World War I a wealthy playboy from Philadelphia refused induction into the U. S. Army and was charged and convicted of draft evasion. He managed to escape and, when captured, offered to ...
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Who Am I ? from 2021-05-22T00:00
Today we tell the story of an East Tennessee man who realized after 20 years of marriage that he wasn't who he always thought he was.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at Apple Pod...
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The Scopes Monkey Trial, Part Two from 2021-05-08T00:00
In 1925 the state of Tennessee passed the Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach the theory of evolution in public schools. Today we tell part two of that story, the trial itself.
Yo...
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The Scopes Monkey Trial, Part One from 2021-05-01T00:00
In 1925 the state of Tennessee passed the Butler Act, which made it illegal to teach the theory of evolution in public schools. A group of men in Dayton, Tennessee, decided to challenge that law...
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The Kentucky Meat Shower 2021 from 2021-04-24T00:00
Today we go back and retell one of our favorite stories, about a very odd occurrence at a farm in Kentucky in the 1870s that's still a mystery today.
A tasty tale, indeed.
You can ...
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Cassius Marcellus Clay from 2021-04-17T00:00
Prior to the Civil War the Clay family of Kentucky was one of the nation's most prominent political families, the most well-known of which was congressman, senator, speaker of the House and Secr...
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George Washington's Lost Colony from 2021-04-10T00:00
After the French and Indian War the governor of Virginia awarded veterans land in the western part of the state in payment for their service to king and colony. Among those vets receiving land ...
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Bouncing Bertha's Appalachian Ghost from 2021-04-03T00:00
In 1938 a family had an encounter with an Appalachian ghost when young Bertha Sybert's bed began to shake mysteriously every night. Soon people were coming from all over the country to witness t...
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Kidnapped! from 2021-03-27T00:00
In 1949 a gang robbed the Bank of Follansbee, near Weirton, West Virginia, of $5,400.00 and made their escape. Later that night two policemen pulled over a car they suspected belonged to those r...
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The Marshall University Plane Crash from 2021-03-19T23:00
November 14, 1970, is a date burned into the memories of the residents of Huntington, West Virginia. That's the day Marshall University lost its football team in a terrible plane crash, and tha...
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Fire In The Hole! from 2021-03-13T01:00
New Straitsville, Ohio, was founded as a coal town in the Hocking Valley after the Civil War. Labor unrest happened in the 1880's, leading to the Great Hocking Valley coal strike. During that st...
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The Greeneville Cholera Epidemic of 1873 from 2021-03-06T01:00
In 1873 a wave of cholera swept across the southeastern U.S. This epidemic hit the town of Greeneville, Tennessee, hard; so hard, in fact, that around 10% of the town's population was killed. Listen
The Shelton Laurel Massacre from 2021-02-27T01:00
Loyalties were divided in Appalachia, from Kentucky to Tennessee to North Carolina. And it was in western North Carolina that a Confederate army unit committed an atrocity against Union sympathi...
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Appalachia And The First Anti-Lynching Law from 2021-02-20T01:00
Wise County, Virginia, saw very little racial violence after the Civil War. In fact, up until 1927, there were only three known cases of death by lynching in this southwestern Virginia county. B...
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The Lady Chained To The Wall from 2021-02-13T01:00
Firefighters responding to a house fire in Canton, Pennsylvania, in 1896 were stunned by what they found.
Today we tell that story.
The Stories podcast is available at Apple Podc...
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The Wild Man Of The Smokies from 2021-02-06T01:00
Mason Evans was a schoolteacher and principal in McMinn County, in southeast Tennessee. After his one true love left him he made a fateful and life-changing decision to head to the Smoky Mountai...
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The Wright-Templeton Gang from 2021-01-30T01:00
The bloody legacy of the Civil War lived on in Appalachia up until the beginning of the 20th century in the form of feuds and honor killings between those who once served the Union and those who...
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The Murderous Landlady from 2021-01-23T01:00
After World War II a young vet moves to Abingdon, Virginia, to take a teaching and coaching position in an area high school. And, being short on funds, he rents a room to live in from a widow. Listen
The Natural Tunnel Train Wreck from 2021-01-16T01:00
Early on Christmas Eve, 1911, a 24 car coal train wrecked inside the Natural Tunnel in Scott County, Virginia.
Today we tell that story.
You can subscribe to the audio version of t...
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Ty Cobb And The Heckler from 2021-01-09T01:00
Ty Cobb was born in 1886 in Narrows, in north Georgia. He became a baseball legend, known as much for his fierce competitiveness as for his athletic ability. Today we tell the story of what ha...
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Jock Yablonski from 2021-01-02T01:00
For years the UMWA was under the tight control of John L. Lewis. After he retired in 1960, he engineered the election of his hand-picked successor, W. A. (Tony) Boyle, as vice-president and the...
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Brushy Mountain's Prodigal Son from 2020-12-26T01:00
An attempted robbery of a Johnson City, Tennessee, laundry in 1930 eventually led to a stint in Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, a prisoners strike and an escape for the robber. Two years la...
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The Krampus from 2020-12-19T01:00
Christmas is fast approaching so this week, as we do at this time of the year, we tell a Christmas story. And, since this is the pandemic year, 2020, what better story to tell than that of a man...
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A Courtroom Tragedy from 2020-12-05T01:00
The Avery family is very well-known in western North Carolina, starting in the late 1700s with Waightstill Avery, a lawyer and the very first attorney general in the state. His grandson, William...
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Faster Than A Speeding Bullet from 2020-11-28T01:00
Today we tell the story of the man from West Virginia who became a brigadier general in the U. S. Air Force, helped train the first American astronauts and became the first man to break the soun...
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Appalachian Travellers from 2020-11-21T01:00
At one time it was a common sight to see a traveling group of Roma, known then as gypsies, come through Appalachia. Folks would barter with them for livestock, utensils and services.
Alon...
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The Last Gunfight In Knoxville from 2020-11-14T01:00
Disputes in Appalachia between the well-to-do were often handled with the use of firearms with one of the most well-known people from the region, Andrew Jackson, being famous for his duels with ...
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The New Market Train Wreck from 2020-11-07T01:00
Saturday, September 24, 1904, started just like any other day for the passengers getting ready to board the Southern Railway Number 15 train at the Bristol Train Station. It would end in a horr...
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Ghost Stories 2020/A Look Back Over Five Years from 2020-10-31T00:00
It's Halloween so Rod and Steve each have a bit of Appalachian folklore for you, in the form of two ghost stories. Stick around after the stories, though, because Halloween is the fifth anniver...
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Will Harris from 2020-10-24T00:00
In 1906 a North Carolina prison escapee comes to Asheville. There he gets into a drunken shootout with police and an escape littered with his murdered victims. Today we tell the story of Will ...
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Raccoon John Smith from 2020-10-17T00:00
In 1784 a child was born on the Appalachian frontier, along the Holston River, in what was then the state of Franklin. This child would grow up to become a preacher, a leader in the Restoration...
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Ollan Cassell from 2020-10-03T00:00
Many world renowned athletes have come from Appalachia, from NFL players Thomas and Julius Jones to gymnast Mary Lou Retton, just to name a few. Today we tell the story of a runner born in Nick...
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Worcester v. Georgia from 2020-09-26T00:00
In the 1830s the Cherokee of north Georgia had settled on a strategy of using litigation to establish and enforce rights that had been given to them by treaties with the United States. Samuel W...
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Cinder Bottom from 2020-09-19T00:00
Today we take another trip to Keystone, West Virginia. Last time we were here, we told of a bank failure so huge it was a forerunner of the financial crash of 2008 and the Great Recession. On ...
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Shanksville from 2020-09-11T11:24:08
19 years ago today Al Qaeda terrorists seized four commercial jets with the intent to use them as suicide bombs against American targets. Three of these succeeded, resulting in the collapse of ...
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William Fayssoux from 2020-09-05T00:00
William Irvine Fayssoux was a psychic and illusionist in the south early in the 20th century. He traveled throughout Appalachia, performing feats that would seem incredible even today. There's ...
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D. C. Stephenson from 2020-08-29T00:10:20
In 1962 a World War I vet came to the VA hospital at Mountain Home, Tennessee for medical care. This man decided to stay in the area, getting a job at the weekly newspaper in nearby Jonesboroug...
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The Cane Ridge Revival from 2020-08-22T00:00
Today we tell the story of the camp meeting to end all camp meetings, the one that helped to spark the Second Great Awakening.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at Apple Podcasts, ...
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Lillie Ladd from 2020-08-15T00:00
In 1927 the wife of the Roane County, Tennessee, sheriff managed to persuade two escaped prisoners to return to the jail in Kingston without using a weapon of any kind. That's a story in and of...
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The Bunch Gang from 2020-08-08T00:00
In May, 1934, a man wanted for the robbery of a bank in Ewing, Virginia, made a daring escape from the Cocke County, Tennessee, jail. Thus started a summer of carjackings, highway robberies, mo...
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The Governor from 2020-08-01T00:00
Today we tell the story of the first Republican elected governor of Virginia since the Civil War, who also happens to be the father-in-law of one of the state's current senators, and who also ha...
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Pocahontas Hale from 2020-07-25T00:00
In the 1860s a Cherokee witch doctor arrived in Bristol, Virginia, to assist in the local Confederate hospital with her salves and potions. After the war she invested her meager savings into a ...
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Abijah Alley from 2020-07-18T00:00
Back in the 1800's a preacher named Abijah Alley from Scott County, Virginia, made a name for himself when he began traveling around the world. He also was a bit of a prophet, as he foretold th...
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Beulah and Jean from 2020-07-11T00:57:45
You've probably seen the movie "Thelma and Louise," about two housewives who hit the road for a bit of adventure that eventually goes wrong. Today we're going to tell you a story about a real l...
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Martin Van Buren Bates, The Kentucky River Giant from 2020-07-04T00:00
From Kona, in Letcher County, Kentucky, came one of the tallest men in the world, a true giant. Martin Van Buren Bates traveled the world as a circus performer, which allowed him to meet the lov...
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The Escape Artist? from 2020-06-20T00:10:55
Today's story is from Clay County, Kentucky, and involves a man who was arrested for allegedly killing his father and stepmother, but who escaped justice for years by breaking out of jail again,...
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Pictureman from 2020-06-13T00:00
William Richardson Mullins made his living as a photographer in Eastern Kentucky and Southwest Virginia. Starting in the Great Depression, he traveled the mountains taking pictures until, event...
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Der Furrier from 2020-05-30T00:18:49
Today we tell how Adolf Hitler came to be in eastern Kentucky after World War II...not. It's actually a story about a massive con job on post-war Nazi sympathizers all done from Middlesboro, Ke...
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The First Woman Convicted Of Bank Robbery In Kentucky from 2020-05-23T00:00
Today we tell the story of Lillian Grace Browder who, with her husband Carl, robbed the Farmer's Bank in Louisville, Kentucky. In the process she earned the distinction of being the first woman...
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L. W. Wright, Nascar Legend from 2020-05-16T00:00
In 1982 a man in Nashville managed to con enough people to earn a spot in the Nascar race in Talladega, Alabama. He made it a few laps, earned a little prize money, then vanished, leaving behin...
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The Murder of Lillie Davis from 2020-05-09T00:00
In 1907 a woman was killed in a cemetery that straddled the border between Virginia and Tennessee in Bristol. Newspapers of the day soon turned this crime into a media circus, especially after ...
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The Spanish Flu, Part Two from 2020-04-25T00:00
A few weeks ago we told about the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that swept across Appalachia. Today we return to tell more of that story.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at Apple Po...
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Atomic Breakdown from 2020-04-18T00:00
In the 1940's workers, scientists and the military came to Anderson County, Tennessee, and built a city in which to develop an atomic weapon. The weight of what they were doing came to be too m...
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Divided Loyalties from 2020-04-11T00:32:24
At the start of the Civil War, the Appalachian part of Tennessee voted 2-1 to remain a part of the United States in that state's secession vote. When Tennessee left the Union and joined the Con...
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Virgil Q. Wacks from 2020-04-04T00:00
Appalachia is filled with unique and colorful characters. Today we tell the story of one of them: journalist, baseball entrepreneur, self-promoter and chronicler of life in southern Appalachia ...
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Jackie Mitchell from 2020-03-28T09:22:46
In 1931 a Chattanooga woman made baseball history by striking out, back to back, two Yankee legends. Today we tell her story.
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The Spanish Flu from 2020-03-21T00:31:25
They say that history doesn't repeat itself. While that's certainly true, it's also true that history does tend to rhyme every now and then.
Today we tell the story of the Spanish flu, a...
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The Bell Witch from 2020-03-14T00:00
When the Bell family left North Carolina to settle in Tennessee they imagined a new life with lots of opportunity. They got that, along with a spirit, or witch, or demon, take your pick. Today...
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Mother Jones, Part Two from 2020-03-07T01:00
Today we continue the story of labor activist Mother Jones, beloved by generations of Appalachian coal miners.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, RadioP...
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Mother Jones, Part One from 2020-02-29T01:00
A woman born in Ireland who immigrated to, first, Canada, then the United States, became a schoolteacher and dressmaker. The tragic loss of her husband and children led eventually to a career i...
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Wiley Oakley from 2020-02-22T01:00
A boy's search for the spirit of his late mother in the Smokey Mountains led to a career as a Great Smoky Mountains National Park guide and a life as a well-loved Gatlinburg businessman and tell...
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Tabitha Holton from 2020-02-15T01:00
Up until the late 1800's the legal profession in North Carolina was limited to men only. That changed with the admission of a spunky woman born in Iredell County named Tabitha Ann Holton. Toda...
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Nancy Ward from 2020-02-08T01:00
One of the most well-known Cherokee on the Appalachian frontier was Nancy Ward. Today we tell the story of the Cherokee "beloved woman."
The Stories podcast is available at our website, ...
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The Luther Elkins Petroglyphs from 2020-01-18T01:00
Wyoming County, West Virginia, contains a set of strange rock carvings called petroglyphs on a rock ledge of a cliff overhanging the upper Clear Fork of the Guyandotte River. While most scienti...
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Homer and Geneva from 2020-01-11T01:00
In 1937 the state of Tennessee passed a law that forbade marriage for anyone under the age of 16, without their parents' permission. The first case brought under that new law involved 32 year-o...
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An Insurance Scheme in Pike County, Kentucky from 2020-01-04T01:00
What do you get when you mix a coal mine, explosives, and greed? Why, you get today's bit of Appalachian history, of course!
Today we tell the tale of an insurance scheme gone horribly...
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Attakullakulla and Dragging Canoe from 2019-12-28T01:00
Today we tell the story of two of the most prominent Cherokee the first settlers encountered on the Appalachian frontier, Attakullakulla and his son Dragging Canoe.
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A Fugitive Returns from 2019-12-14T01:00
Connolly Fields lived with his wife in Scott County, Virginia, in the 1880s. All was well, until he, his wife, his brother in law William and his associates all got into a fight over trespassin...
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The Flood of '77 from 2019-12-07T00:58:54
Appalachia has always been prone to flooding in one valley or another but in 1977 the heavens quite literally opened up over the entire region, setting off the worst widespread flooding in Appal...
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The Feud (Full Episode) from 2019-11-30T17:00
It's Thanksgiving week and Rod and I are absent from the Stories podcast studios, doing family stuff. But that doesn't mean you don't get a story, no sir, for we have an encore of our tale of t...
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Elgin Baylor's Boycott from 2019-11-23T11:35
The Minneapolis Lakers weren’t exactly setting the basketball world on fire in January, 1959. In fact, on January 16th they had a 15/27 won loss record for the season. The 16th was the day the...
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The Murder Of Judge Lawler from 2019-11-16T11:00
Today we have a story of politics, corruption and murder in 1916 Huntsville, Alabama.
The Stories podcast is available on RadioPublic, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, IHeart Radio and ...
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The Wreck Of The Old '97 from 2019-11-09T11:24:04
On September 27, 1903, a mail train was on it's way to Spencer, North Carolina, from Monroe, Virginia, when it crashed at a trestle in southern Virginia, near Danville. That terrible wreck insp...
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The Hermit Of Pound Gap from 2019-10-26T11:00
A traveler uncovers a local legend about an old hermit living in a cave on the Virginia/Kentucky border, so he sets about to investigate. We tell you that story, this year's Halloween tale, on ...
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Boneyard Hollow from 2019-10-18T11:27:32
Between the towns of Big Stone Gap and Appalachia in the mountains of southwestern Virginia was a place once known as "Boneyard Hollow." This little hollow was where a meat butchering concern ...
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Tizrow McGhee from 2019-10-12T11:00
The strange story of Tizrow McGhee, born on Friday the 13th in Kentucky, who kept getting into all kinds of scrapes, including one that kept him awake for 23 years.
You can subscribe to t...
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The Knoxville Football Riot from 2019-10-05T11:00
When the Chattanooga Mocs came to Knoxville to take on the Tennessee Volunteers in the fall of 1958, Tennessee was looking forward to breaking a losing streak. You see, the Mocs had lost their ...
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The Rowan County War from 2019-09-28T11:00
Feuds were fought across the mountains of Appalachia after the Civil War, as families competed for the newly developed timber and coal riches in the area. One of the most well-known, outside th...
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Uncle Dyke from 2019-09-21T11:00
Today we tell the story of one of southern West Virginia's most beloved circuit riding preachers, William Dyke Garrett. Garrett is best known to the rest of the world, though, as the preacher w...
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The Shooting Of E. E. Carter from 2019-09-14T10:30
Who shot the mayor of Bluefield, West Virginia, back in 1917? Today we tell the story of that little bit of Appalachian history.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast on RadioPublic, ...
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Hugh Morton And Grandfather Mountain from 2019-09-06T20:14:35
Grandfather Mountain is one of the most popular tourist destinations in western North Carolina, and has been for decades. It's also a world heritage site for the protection of the plants and an...
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Buster Duggan from 2019-08-31T11:00
Today we tell the story of William Winfield Scott Duggan, better known as Buster Duggan. Duggan was an outlaw, moonshiner and murderer notorious in southeast Tennessee and northeast Alabama ear...
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The Prophets Of God from 2019-08-24T11:00
Today we tell the story of two oddly dressed street preachers who showed up in Beckley, West Virginia, in the summer of 1930, causing a great deal of commotion among the African-American communi...
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The Asheville Election Riot Of 1868 from 2019-08-17T10:57:30
The 1868 presidential election was the first held in the country since the end of the Civil War. Recently freed slaves flocked to the polls on election day in Asheville, North Carolina, to cast...
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Robert Sheffey, Circuit Riding Preacher from 2019-08-10T10:30
Today we tell the story of Robert Sheffey, one of Southwest Virginia's most well-known circuit riders. These preachers traveled from one community to the next, bringing the word of God to those...
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Chief Benge from 2019-08-03T10:44:48
The Appalachian frontier of the 1780's and 1790's was a dress rehearsal for the Wild West of the 1870's and 1880's, with the establishment of new towns, new farms, and wars with the Native Ameri...
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Napoleon Hill from 2019-07-26T11:44:21
There are a lot of men and women who make a career out of helping others achieve their life goals. These self-help teachers and authors include Norman Vincent Peale, Tony Robbins and Dale Carneg...
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The Hawk's Nest Tunnel from 2019-07-20T10:00
During the Great Depression jobs were hard to come by. So when the Rhinehart and Dennis Construction Company came looking for workers to build a hydroelectric tunnel on the New River in West Vi...
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Two True Tales Of Crime In Appalachia from 2019-07-13T10:30
We have a "two-fer" for you this week!
In our first story, from Pennsylvania, we tell of a murder with a wizardly twist.
In the second, a husband with a dying wife in West Virginia...
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The War Of The Roses from 2019-07-06T10:33:30
In 1886 two brothers from Carter County, Tennessee, ran for governor of the Volunteer State, one a Republican and the other a Democrat. Instead of ripping the family apart, the campaign allowed...
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Lesley Riddle from 2019-06-28T10:45:06
Back in the 1920's A. P. Carter scoured the Appalachian countryside looking for songs the Carter Family could perform. Along with him was a young black musician from Kingsport who was instrumen...
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A Soviet Spy in Appalachia from 2019-06-22T10:35:20
Today, in a retelling of our very first podcast episode, Rod and Steve tell the story of a man who, during the 1930's and 40's, worked at Tennessee Eastman, Holston Defense and in Oak Ridge on t...
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The Judge Who Ran Both Ways from 2019-06-15T12:27:03
Today we tell the story of Judge Alexander Ratliff of Pikeville, Kentucky, who ran for office as both a Democrat and as an Independent, at the same time, gathering enough votes from both ballots...
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Encore-Chief Benge's Last Raid from 2019-06-15T10:30
This week we bring you an encore presentation from 2015, the story of the last Native American raid on the settlements of Southwest Virginia by Chief Benge, the son of a Cherokee woman and a Sco...
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The Kidnapping of Peggy Ann from 2019-06-08T10:30
The story of the kidnapping of a high school student in Shade Gap, Pennsylvania, who was dragged off into the woods while walking from her bus stop to her house. The man who took her was known a...
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Massacre at Lattimer from 2019-06-01T10:15:22
On September 10, 1897, more than a dozen coal miners, mainly eastern European immigrants, were shot and killed by police while on strike at the Lattimer mine in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. This was...
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Nance Dude from 2019-05-25T10:30
Today we tell the story of Nance Dude, of Haywood County, North Carolina, convicted in the death of her granddaughter in 1913.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at RadioPublic, S...
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Dr. John Romulus Brinkley from 2019-05-18T11:00
Today we tell the story of Dr. John Romulus Brinkley, from the mountains of western North Carolina. Dr. Brinkley lived a colorful life as a promoter of patent medicines, quack cures and goat "g...
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Encore: The Wytheville Polio Epidemic from 2019-05-11T10:30
Today we present an encore episode about a polio epidemic which swept through Wytheville, Virginia in the 1950's.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at RadioPublic, Apple Podcasts...
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The Baroness from 2019-05-02T12:47:57
Today we tell a story of love, lust, and espionage in Chattanooga, Tennessee during World War I.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at RadioPublic, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify...
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Highlander from 2019-04-20T01:00
The Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee, outside Knoxville, was in the news recently when one of the buildings there was burned. Fire investigators found a white p...
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Tennessee Ernie Ford from 2019-04-11T11:43:35
Today we're going to have a pea-pickin' old time telling the story of one of the most talented and popular entertainers to ever come out of Appalachia: Tennessee Ernie Ford, of Bristol, Tennesse...
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Dock Boggs from 2019-04-06T11:00
Among the pioneers of what was then known as "hillbilly music" was a coal miner from Norton, Virginia, named Moran Lee Boggs. Better known as Dock Boggs, he became known for his unique style of...
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Another Batch of Short Stories from 2019-03-30T10:26:07
Today we share some interesting short stories about this place we call home, Appalachia.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at our website, ...
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The Mummies of Philippi from 2019-03-23T11:00
Today we tell you a story about some homegrown Appalachian mummies from West Virginia.
The Stories podcast is available on RadioPublic, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and on many other...
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The Homestead Strike from 2019-03-16T10:52:51
In 1892 Homestead, Pennsylvania, was the site of a strike, pitting the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, one of the most powerful unions, against Carnegie Steel, owned by Andrew...
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The Murder of Mary Magdaline from 2019-03-09T12:00
Greenup, Kentucky, was the scene of a tragic and brutal murder of a three year old child at the end of 1927. That crime and its notoriety brought the nation's attention to the issue of child ab...
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John Peter Salling from 2019-03-02T12:00
In 1742 German immigrant John Peter Salling was asked to join an expedition set to travel far into the Virginia back country, all the way to the Mississippi River. To this he agreed, thus setti...
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Andrew Taylor Still from 2019-02-23T12:00
Andrew Taylor Still, born in the Appalachian frontier town of Jonesville, Virginia, went on to become a self-educated doctor. He moved to Kansas just in time to become involved in the bloody ci...
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The LaFollette Bombing from 2019-02-16T12:00
In 1935 LaFollette, Tennessee, like most other American towns, was in the grips of the Great Depression. Money was tight and the banks were calling in loans that couldn't be paid. One of those...
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The Election of '88 from 2019-02-09T12:00
Our theme today is "the more things change, the more they stay the same." You'll see how that fits in as we tell the story of the contested election for West Virginia governor in 1888.
T...
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A Jailbreak in Wise from 2019-01-26T12:00
Back in 1923 there was a mass jailbreak from the Wise County jail, led by a member of the Hatfield family. Today Steve and Rod tell you that story.
Stories is available on Apple Podcasts...
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A Dispute Over Liquor from 2019-01-12T12:00
Back in 1911 several of the sons of Devil Anse and Levisa Hatfield came to the coal town of Boomer, in Fayette County, West Virginia, with the intent of opening a saloon. Now in those days salo...
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Bristol Motor Speedway from 2019-01-05T11:00
What started out as a little racetrack in East Tennessee has developed over the years into a world-class sports complex, hosting NASCAR races, college football, remote area medical services, Chr...
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Dr. Thomas Walker from 2018-12-29T11:00
Today we tell the story of Dr. Thomas Walker, who was sent by the Loyal Land Company to explore that company's lands in Appalachia in 1750. The Walker expedition named many of the natural featu...
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The Potter's Field from 2018-12-15T12:00
Back in 1903 the Knox County undertaker was discovered to have been engaged in a bit of fraud. We tell you that story on today's episode of Stories, A History of Appalachia.
We're on Twi...
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The Hensley Settlement from 2018-12-08T11:30
Early in the 20th century a family moved to the top of Brush Mountain, near the Cumberland Gap, and proceeded to live the next 50 years much like the pioneers did, growing their own food, making...
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The Pine Grove Fire from 2018-12-01T12:00
Pine Grove, West Virginia, was a boom town back in 1905, fueled by vast deposits of natural gas and oil. One thing the town lacked at the time was a fire department. And in 1905, they really c...
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It Fell Out Of The Sky! from 2018-11-24T10:00
In hundreds of thousands of years not one human being had ever been known to have been hit by a meteorite. Then, in 1954, that lucky streak came to an end, in Sylacauga, Alabama. Today we tell...
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The Kidnapping of Alice Stoll from 2018-11-17T12:00
In 1934 a woman from a wealthy Kentucky family was kidnapped by a failed law student and former mental patient. Today we tell that story.
The Stories podcast can be found on RadioPublic, ...
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Wonderland from 2018-11-10T11:00
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was formed out of privately owned farms, woodlands, pastures and homes that had been purchased by the government. Most of the structures on those tracts ...
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Nancy Hart Douglas from 2018-11-03T11:00
Born in North Carolina, then moving to what's now West Virginia, Nancy Hart Douglas was a Confederate guide, scout and spy during the Civil War. We tell her story on this episode of the podcast...
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The Shadow from 2018-10-27T11:34:44
Happy Halloween, y'all!
Today we tell a little tale about a man who was unjustly hanged in the mountains of North Carolina, so he put a curse on those who sent him to the gallows, in the ...
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The Strike at Salt Lick High School from 2018-10-20T03:07:08
In 1953, Salt Lick High School in Bath County, Kentucky, was scheduled to close with the students there transferred to nearby Owingsville High School. The students were having none of it, so th...
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The McGhee Brothers from 2018-10-13T03:06:05
Thanks to the work of A.P. Carter and the Carter family, country music can trace its origins back to the hills and hollers of Scott County, Virginia, and Sullivan County, Tennessee, back in the ...
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George Roby Dempster from 2018-10-06T09:00
Did you know that the dumpster, now seen behind every convenience store on the planet, was invented in Knoxville, Tennessee? Today we tell you the story of George Roby Dempster, inventor of the...
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The Funeral from 2018-09-22T02:39:11
Once upon a time there was a man who was nearing the end of his days on this earth. This man decided he wanted to attend his own funeral while he was still in the here and now, in order to find...
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The Nerve Gas Train from 2018-09-15T08:11:29
In August, 1970, two trains loaded with deadly Sarin gas made a journey through Appalachia to the ocean at Wilmington, North Carolina, for disposal at sea. Today we tell that story.
The ...
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Floyd's Cave from 2018-09-08T01:40:41
Crawling around underground isn't for everyone, especially the hosts of the Stories podcast. But there are some for whom exploring caves is their life's work. Probably the best known of these ...
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More Short Stories from 2018-09-01T00:00:10
We're back with some short stories for you, bits of history not long enough for a full podcast each, but interesting stories nonetheless.
You can subscribe to the Stories podcast at Radio...
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Encore: The Pound Gap Massacre from 2018-08-25T03:05:10
Rod and I have gotten so busy this week that we forgot to record a podcast! Actually, we've had no time to get together to record a new show, so I dug through our vast archives and pulled up a ...
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A Sacrifice from 2018-08-17T13:12:53
In 1939 Clair Young lived with his wife and their children on a farm in Fallowfield Township in southwestern Pennsylvania. In addition to farming, Clair also was a coal miner and a lay preacher...
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John Fox Jr. from 2018-08-04T02:09:57
The first popular Appalachian writer lived and wrote in his adopted hometown of Big Stone Gap. His works became the biggest selling books of his time and gave birth to the official Virginia sta...
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The Long Arm Of The Law from 2018-07-28T11:00
Patton Flannery was a wanted man. Wanted, but not caught, for 36 years. Then his luck ran out. Today we tell Patton Flannery's story, part of the history of Appalachia.
Be sure to down...
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A School Shooting in Grundy from 2018-07-21T11:00
In the winter of 2002 tragedy struck the coal town of Grundy, Virginia, when a Nigerian student at the Appalachian School of Law there opened fire on faculty and students after being expelled du...
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War Fever! from 2018-07-14T11:00
Today we tell the story of the results of extreme patriotism during World War I in western Pennsylvania.
You can subscribe to Stories at RadioPublic, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or on your f...
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Appalachian Internment Camps from 2018-07-07T11:00
At the beginning of World War II, diplomats from the Axis countries were stranded in the United States. These enemy diplomats couldn't just be allowed to roam freely across the country, nor cou...
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Dick Fellows from 2018-06-16T11:00
A young man from Harlan, Kentucky, fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, then returned home to study law with his father. This man had the world in his hands...until alcohol took it away...
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The Church Arsonist from 2018-06-09T10:21:33
Today we tell the story of the torching of two North Carolina churches by a very unlikely arsonist.
You can subscribe to Stories at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play or on your favo...
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Lord Dunmore's War, Part 2 from 2018-06-02T11:00
Today, we finish telling the story of one of the first Indian wars in the west, Lord Dunmore's war.
You can subscribe to Stories at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play or on your favori...
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Lord Dunmore's War, Part 1 from 2018-05-26T11:00
One of the first Indian wars fought in the west happened in Appalachia at the time of the American Revolution. Led by the governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, this war, which was named for him, ...
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Appalachia's Most Wanted from 2018-05-12T10:53:24
Today we tell the story of one of the first criminals from Appalachia to make the FBI's Most Wanted List, Kenneth Ray Lawson, from Wise County, Virginia.
You can subscribe to the podcast ...
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The Prestonsburg School Bus Tragedy from 2018-05-05T11:00
Well, we are pleased to announce that this is our 200th episode of Stories! Rod and I have enjoyed telling the history of Appalachia over the last two and a half years, and look forward to many...
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The Wild West of Appalachia from 2018-04-28T11:00
Today we bring you three tales of turn of the 20th century Appalachia which show just how much this area was like the legendary American Wild West.
You can find us on RadioPublic, Apple P...
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The Confederate Treasury from 2018-04-21T11:15:12
Today Rod brings us a story about the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Confederate treasury after the end of the Civil War.
You can subscribe to Stories on RadioPublic, Apple ...
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The Moonshine Battle of Cades Cove from 2018-04-14T11:00
Nowadays Cade's Cove is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But before the park came into existence in 1934 it was a vibrant Appalachian com...
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The Legend of Headless Annie from 2018-04-07T11:00
On this week's podcast, Rod and Steve tell a Harlan County, Kentucky, legend about Headless Annie, a parable about Bloody Harlan.
You can subscribe to Stories on RadioPublic, Apple Podc...
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The Unwritten Law from 2018-03-31T11:00
Today we tell the story of a woman who enlisted her children in a plot to rid herself of "the other woman." According to her, it was her right to do so under "the unwritten law" of Appalachia.<...
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The Distinguished Senator From Tennessee from 2018-03-24T11:00
Tennessee came into the union in 1796, and former Southwest Territory governor William Blount was one of the two first senators appointed from that state. His stay in Washington was cut short, ...
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The Great Kanawha County Textbook War from 2018-03-17T11:00
In the spring of 1974 the Kanawha County, West Virginia, school board had to approve new textbooks for the schools. One of the board members objected to many of the books, saying that the mater...
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Who Was Steve White? from 2018-03-10T12:08:55
In 1924 an elderly Middlesboro, Kentucky, housepainter was taken to the hospital when he fell deathly ill. It was here that he confessed that he was not who everyone in town thought he was. To...
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The Collapse of the Keystone Bank from 2018-03-03T12:02:20
Keystone, West Virginia is a small town in McDowell County with 282 residents, mostly African American. Like many small coal communities, Keystone has seen its population plummet over the years...
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The Tucker County War from 2018-02-24T12:00
During the 1880's a dispute broke out over where the county seat of Tucker County, West Virginia, should be. Unlike the usual political fighting over where the courthouse and county offices sho...
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Charles Johnson from 2018-02-17T11:45:10
Today we tell the story of Bristol, Virginia, native Charles S. Johnson. Born the son of a Baptist minister during the time of Jim Crow, Johnson got his college education and began a lifelong st...
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George Washington's Appalachian Land from 2018-02-10T12:00
After the American Revolution, General George Washington took a trip out west to inspect land he received for his service to the country, land that was located in Appalachian Pennsylvania. And ...
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The Great Appalachian Earthquake of 1897 from 2018-02-03T12:00
Think you're safe from earthquakes in Appalachia? Think again.
On May 31, 1897, the largest earthquake ever recorded in Virginia (and the second largest in the southeastern United States...
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Ira Jackson Seay from 2018-01-27T12:00
On today's episode of Stories, Steve and Rod sit back and listen as Ira Jackson Seay tells his own story of poverty, war, love, moonshining and racing.
Be sure to subscribe to Stories a...
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Daniel Boone, Part Three from 2018-01-20T12:00
Rod and Steve wraps up the story of Appalachian icon Daniel Boone with a look at his last days in Missouri.
You can subscribe to Stories at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Feedburner, or on t...
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Daniel Boone, Part Two from 2018-01-13T12:00
We continue with Part Two of the story of Appalachia's own Daniel Boone. This week we tell of his days in Kentucky, before civilization overtook him and forced him farther west.
You can s...
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Daniel Boone, Part One from 2018-01-06T12:00
Explorer, long hunter, pioneer, Appalachian icon. All these words describe America’s first national hero, Daniel Boone. Today, Steve and Rod begin telling his story in a three-part podcast ser...
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The Bombing at Bluefield from 2017-12-30T11:39:26
The 1960's were a time of radicalism, with protests, riots, and bombings at institutions of higher learning. And the colleges in Appalachia saw their share of these things, too.
There ha...
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Merry Christmas! from 2017-12-23T00:23:21
It's Christmas week, and on this episode of Stories, Rod and Steve continue a holiday tradition by going back in time to read some letters to Santa from both good and bad little boys and girls. ...
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John Paul Riddle from 2017-12-16T12:00
Today on Stories, Rod and Steve share the story of an eastern Kentucky barnstormer and aviation pioneer who went on to train military pilots in World War II, then co-found a world-renown aviatio...
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A Tale of Two Mountains from 2017-12-09T12:00
On today's episode, Rod and Steve tell the story of two 19th century western North Carolina explorers who got into a very public argument over the mountains that are now named after them.
The Great Flood of 1916 from 2017-12-02T12:00
1916 saw not one but two hurricanes hit the mountains of North Carolina at once, causing flooding, devastation and death in southern Appalachia. On today's episode, Steve and Rod tell the story...
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The Big Bull Tunnel from 2017-11-28T12:00:41
A new podcast episode, and new podcast theme music! On the Norfolk and Southern railroad line between St. Paul and Coeburn, Virginia, are three railroad tunnels drilled into the mountains so that t...
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The Baby Seller from 2017-11-25T11:00:52
This week, Steve and Rod tell the story of a Georgia doctor who decided that an acceptable alternative to the illegal abortions he was performing in the 1940’s and 50’s was the illegal sale of Appa...
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Encore: The Laurel Creek Murders from 2017-11-20T23:00:22
Today, we have an encore episode for you as we travel to the little town of Hurley, Virginia. There, in 1909, a widow sold the timber rights to her 150 acres of land for a tidy sum, making her a ta...
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The Fightin’ Blalocks from 2017-11-18T11:00:01
There have been many examples of women who dressed as men in order to fight in a war. But there was only one example of a woman who did so but also ended up serving on both sides. Today Rod and Ste...
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The Train Wreck from 2017-11-11T11:00:10
On September 26, 1936, a coal train and a passenger train derailed and crashed in separate incidents near Welch, West Virginia. On today’s podcast we tell you the story of those wrecks and what cau...
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The Woman In The Blue Polka Dot Dress from 2017-11-04T11:00:08
In 1924 a young married couple moved to Logan, West Virginia, from Kentucky. Jack Thurman got a job with the Logan police department, and Mamie Thurman started frequenting the Amour Club, a local s...
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Haints And Boogers from 2017-10-31T11:00:52
It’s that time of year, folks, and Rod and I have two short tales for you. First up, we tell the story of the Snallygaster, a Maryland monster that got a lot of attention back in the early part of ...
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The Fugitive from 2017-10-28T11:00:24
We’ve told lots of Stories over the last two years, but this one is special. We were contacted by a listener in Dickenson County, Virginia, with a family mystery that she hoped we could unravel....
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After The Feud from 2017-10-21T11:00:08
Did you know that Devil Anse Hatfield went on the vaudeville circuit early in the twentieth century? Today we tell you that story and more about the Hatfields and McCoys after the end of their famo...
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The Last Civil War Veteran In Scott County from 2017-10-14T11:00:34
Today Rod and Steve tell the story of John Salling of Scott County, Virginia. Mr. Salling was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest living Confederate veteran, until recor...
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Clifton Branham from 2017-10-07T11:34:17
At the turn of the twentieth century the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia were like the Old West, filled with outlaws. Among these was Clifton Branham, w...
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Boston Corbett from 2017-10-02T18:33:29
Photo by Mathew Brady, Library of Congress. A special episode of Stories for you today! As we’ve mentioned, we have a new podcast in which Steve Gilly and Gena Gilly tell stories of the history of ...
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The Esau System from 2017-09-30T11:00:44
THIS EPISODE IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR FOR SMALL CHILDREN. Whipple Company Store-West Virginia Historical Photographs Collection. We’ve all heard about the hardships miners and their families went th...
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Jack Daniel from 2017-09-23T11:00:03
On today’s episode, Steve and Rod tell the story of the founder of Tennessee’s preeminent whiskey maker: Jack Daniel’s Whiskey in Lynchburg. You can subscribe to the podcast on Stitcher, Apple Podc...
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Lynchings in Appalachia from 2017-09-09T11:00:52
On today’s episode, we look at a dark part of Appalachia’s history as we share three stories of racist mob violence and lynching in Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina that occurred early in the...
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The Case Of The Missing Appalachian Drug Smuggler from 2017-09-02T11:00:20
Just before Halloween, 1984, a small plane slammed into the side of Fancy Gap Mountain in Carroll County, Virginia, scattering a half-ton of pot across the mountainside. The discovery of the plane ...
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The Flatwoods Monster from 2017-08-26T11:00:42
Did some Braxton County, West Virginia, kids see a UFO back in 1952? Some folks thought so, especially after locals began exhibiting strange symptoms. Today Steve and Rod tell the tale of the Flatw...
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The Sodder Children from 2017-08-19T11:00:27
Early on Christmas Day, 1945, a fire broke out at the home of George and Jennie Sodder near Fayetteville, West Virginia, apparently taking the lives of their five younger children. I say apparently...
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Governor William Goebel of Kentucky from 2017-08-12T11:14:02
The 1899 election for Kentucky governor was probably the most partisan election in Appalachian history, with vote-stealing and accusations of voter fraud. The General Assembly itself even divided, ...
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George L. Carter from 2017-08-05T11:00:03
This week we continue our look at the men who built their Appalachian empires with the story of George L. Carter. Carter not only developed coal and iron mines in Southwest Virginia, he also founde...
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The Scottish Empire Builder from 2017-07-29T11:00:58
Alexander Arthur was born in Scotland and settled in America, where he saw the potential of timber, iron ore, and coal, all in abundant supply in Appalachia. And he was determined to build his empi...
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Colonel John Dils, Jr. from 2017-07-22T12:00:20
Colonel John Dils, Jr., was a Pike County, Kentucky, businessman, Union soldier during the Civil War, abolitionist, and the founder of a family cemetery in Pikeville that’s now on the National Regi...
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The Black Widow from 2017-07-15T10:00:37
It’s time for a crime story, and we have a doozy for you! Today, Steve and Rod tell the story of a woman who had the habit of finding men who, oddly enough, ended up dead. It’s the story of Alabama...
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The Black Hand from 2017-07-08T11:00:22
During the first boom in the Appalachian coalfields, there was such a labor shortage that the mine owners recruited workers from the millions of immigrants who were coming to America from Europe. A...
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July 4, 1900 from 2017-07-01T11:00:59
Nowadays, celebrating the Fourth of July usually means having a cookout then loading the family into the car or van and going to watch the fireworks. But in turn of the 20th century Appalachia, it ...
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All Hail The Cheese! from 2017-06-24T11:00:07
The first Appalachian president, Andrew Jackson, was the recipient of a rather, shall we say, noticeable gift. In fact, this gift was quite easily found by those around the White House simply by ta...
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Interview With Francis Gary Powers, Jr. from 2017-06-20T11:00:14
A few weeks ago, Rod caught up with the son of Pound, Virginia, native and U2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers, who has a new book out about his father. Todays podcast contains Rod’s interview w...
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Revolution! from 2017-06-17T11:00:38
During World War I, the Germans managed to get Russia out of the fighting by helping communist rebels seize power and overthrow the Russian czar. Did you know that Germany tried to do the same in A...
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Escape From Brushy from 2017-06-13T11:02:06
Forty years ago this week convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., James Earl Ray, along with several other men managed to break out of Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tennessee. Toda...
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The Kentucky Meat Shower from 2017-06-10T10:50:03
What would you do if, all of a sudden, flakes of animal flesh started to fall around you? That’s just what happened to an Eastern Kentucky family in 1876 when meat began raining out of the blue App...
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Rotherwood from 2017-06-06T10:54:45
Today we tell the story of Rotherwood Mansion in Kingsport, Tennessee, a story of the frontier, of love, of loss, of ghosts and a surprising connection to someone you might have heard of. You can s...
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Them Pills from 2017-05-30T11:00:44
Today we tell the sad story of the American opioid epidemic and how it got its start right here in Appalachia. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or on your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listenin...
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Stephen F. Austin from 2017-05-27T11:00:39
In the latter part of the 18th century a family settled along the New River in what’s now Wythe County, Virginia, and began to operate a lead mine there. The area to this day bears the name of that...
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The Story of Big Foot Spencer from 2017-05-23T11:00:17
The first settler in the Nashville area was a man from Appalachia who was one part historical figure and two parts legend. Thomas Spencer came over the Appalachian Mountains to Middle Tennessee dur...
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The Great Train Robbery from 2017-05-20T11:00:35
On March 9, 1949, two young men who were drinking in the bar of the Ambassador passenger train just outside Martinsburg, West Virginia, got into an argument with the bartender over their tab. One t...
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The Kentucky Cannibal from 2017-05-13T10:00:05
Today we tell the tale of Boone Helm. Helm was born in Kentucky and started out a life of murder with the killing of his cousin because he wouldn’t go west with him. And from there Boone Helm kille...
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The Mothman from 2017-05-06T11:00:17
(Photo by Source, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52598877) Back in the mid-1960s the area around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, was awash in strange tales of a giant man-like ...
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Hit’ll Tickle Yore Innards! from 2017-04-29T11:00:41
There are all kinds of soft drinks marketed in the United States, mostly under the Coca Cola or Pepsi companies. Of all the soft drinks out there, perhaps the best known of those to originate in Ap...
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The Devil Monkey from 2017-04-25T11:02:07
Every now and then we switch gears and tell about legends instead of straight up history. Today Rod and Steve have the story of a monster that’s been seen around these parts, as well as Louisiana a...
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Buffalo Creek from 2017-04-22T11:00:58
The winter of 1971-72 saw large amounts of rainfall throughout the central Appalachians. By February, 1972, the ground was saturated, and the rivers were overflowing. And a gob dam located on Buffa...
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The Story of Brandy Jack from 2017-04-18T11:00:42
A few weeks ago, our own Rod Mullins made an appearance before the Wise County Historical Society in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he shared the story of his own ancestor, Brandy Jack Mullins. Mul...
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The New Year’s Eve Blast from 2017-04-15T11:46:22
On New Year’s Eve, 1959, Spruce Pine, North Carolina was rocked by a massive explosion, leaving a crater in the town baseball field. What had happened? Listen to today’s podcast to find out. You ca...
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The Bunkers of Mt. Airy from 2017-04-11T11:00:37
Mt. Airy, North Carolina, is known as the model for Andy Griffith’s Mayberry, as depicted on his television show. But, a hundred years before, it was best known as the home of the first well-known ...
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The Feud, Part Five from 2017-04-08T11:00:09
The feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys comes to a head on New Years Day, 1888, with the bloody Hatfield attack on the McCoy farm. In this last chapter in our story of the feud, Rod and Steve...
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The Feud, Part Four from 2017-04-04T11:00:16
The election of 1882 in Pike County, Kentucky, started out like any other election, but ended in Ellison Hatfield dead and three McCoy brothers, Tolbert, Pharmer and Bud, lynched on the banks of th...
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The Feud, Part Three from 2017-04-01T11:00:36
We continue the story of the Hatfields and the McCoys with the tale of an Appalachian Romeo and Juliet. At least that’s how the newspapers of the time portrayed it. But was that really how it happe...
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The Feud, Part Two from 2017-03-28T11:00:04
Hello podcast listeners! If there’s one thing about the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys it’s that the whole thing started with a trial over a pig. And you’d be wrong. Today we tell the st...
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The Feud, Part One from 2017-03-25T11:00:29
Hello podcast fans! For the next several weeks Rod and I are going to be telling the story of the Hatfield and McCoy feud. This bit of Appalachian history is probably the most widely known, and the...
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A Star Faces Justice from 2017-03-21T11:00:19
The Loretta Lynn biopic “Coal Miner’s Daughter” was filmed in Eastern Kentucky and Southwest Virginia during the late 70’s, causing a ton of excitement for the residents of that area, including you...
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The White Caps of Sevier County from 2017-03-18T11:00:37
Around the turn of the twentieth century there was a vigilante group that operated in Sevier County, Tennessee, named the “White Caps” for the white hoods they wore. Starting out as a means to enfo...
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Encore: The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial from 2017-03-14T11:20:05
On this encore episode of the podcast, Steve and Rod tell a story of moonshining, bootlegging, corruption, and justice in Franklin County, Virginia, in the 1930’s. Thanks for listening!
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The Donelson Expedition from 2017-03-11T12:00:16
In the winter of 1779-1780, a group of settlers set out from the present site of Kingsport, Tennessee, sailing down the Holston River to establish a new settlement in the wilderness. They succeeded...
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The Melungeon Moonshiner from 2017-03-04T12:00:48
On today’s podcast, Rod and Steve tell the story of Mahala Mullins, renowned Melungeon maker of that sweet, sweet mountain nectar known as “moonshine.” Ms. Mullins, a resident of Newman’s Ridge in ...
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Jack Tales from 2017-02-25T12:09:38
A little change of pace on today’s podcast as Rod and Steve tell about the old Scots-Irish tradition of storytelling that was brought to the Appalachians by the first settlers. And they also take a...
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Parson Brownlow from 2017-02-21T11:00:59
If you think politics are nasty now, you should have lived in southern Appalachia in the middle of the nineteenth century. That’s where a Methodist circuit rider named Parson William Brownlow began...
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The Christmas Flood from 2017-02-18T13:08:32
Times were good in Saltville, Virginia, in 1924. It was Christmas Eve and people were wrapping up their shopping and getting ready for parties and family and gifts under the tree. Then disaster str...
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Juan Pardo from 2017-02-14T12:13:26
In the sixteenth century, Spanish conquistadors explored the Southern Appalachians, blazing trails for an expansion of the Spanish Empire. Captain Juan Pardo led one of these expeditions, which vis...
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The Stories of Abner Vance from 2017-02-11T12:00:52
Back in early 1800’s Abingdon, Virginia, lived a Baptist minister named Abner Vance, who had a daughter named Betty. Betty was done wrong romantically by a local doctor, and Vance took a shot at hi...
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Squeaky’s Run from 2017-02-04T12:00:01
On December 23, 1987, a prisoner escaped from the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, West Virginia. But this wasn’t just any prisoner, this was a member of the Manson Family, a group of hangers-on to...
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Encore: The Hermit from 2017-01-31T12:00:53
Early in the nineteenth century, a young man was jilted by the love of his life in Asheville, so he left the town to move to the top of a mountain on the Tennessee/North Carolina border, Big Bald M...
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A Pot Of Gold In Cocke County from 2017-01-28T12:00:30
Today’s story takes place in Cocke County, Tennessee, nearly a hundred years ago. It’s a story of greed, deception, and murder involving a non-existent pot of Spanish gold. We appreciate you listen...
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Glenn Roberts, Appalachian Basketball Superstar from 2017-01-24T12:00:55
On this episode of the podcast, we turn to the world of sports, as Rod tells the story of Pound, Virginia, native Glenn Roberts, the man who popularized the jump shot in the game of basketball. You...
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The Hanging of Frankie Silver from 2017-01-21T12:00:44
Frankie Silver was an Appalachian frontierswoman with a terrible secret. All those strange ashes in the fireplace? Turns out that was her husband. At least part of him. For you see, it appears that...
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The Grundy Christmas Fire of 1915 from 2017-01-17T11:00:08
On this episode of the podcast, Rod and Steve tell of the Great Fire of 1915 that destroyed the downtown of Grundy, county seat of Buchanan County, in Virginia. You can subscribe to the podcast on ...
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Mountain Tales, Volume 3 from 2017-01-10T12:00:22
Today, Rod and Steve take a look back at some interesting stories in old newspapers for the third and last time, as they share some “short stories” from Appalachia. You can subscribe on iTunes, Goo...
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The Independent State of Dade from 2017-01-03T12:00:48
During the Civil War, isolated Dade County, Georgia, decided to strike out on its own, declaring its independence from both the State of Georgia and the United States of America. And that’s how thi...
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The Coal Creek War from 2016-12-31T12:00:48
In the early 1890’s, miners working in the coal mines at Coal Creek in Anderson County, Tennessee, rose up against the mine operators over their jobs being taken by free convict labor. Things event...
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The Legend of Pilot Knob from 2016-12-27T12:00:48
On today’s episode, Steve and Rod tell an old Cherokee tale about a mysterious city inside Pilot Knob, in Western North Carolina, discovered by Tsuwe’nähï. You can subscribe to the podcast at iTune...
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Letters to Santa from 2016-12-24T12:00:52
Merry Christmas, y’all! On today’s Christmas Eve podcast, Steve and Rod take you back to the early 20th century as they read several letters to Santa Claus that were printed in newspapers in East T...
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Encore-Christmas Stories from 2016-12-20T12:00:34
Today, in a repeat of last Christmas’ podcast, Rod and Steve tell you about the traditions of Old Christmas as well as the Santa Train, which brings toys, food, and clothing to needy children from ...
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The Lights In The Sky from 2016-12-13T12:00:27
In 1859, a solar storm stronger than any other in recorded history hit the earth, bringing the northern lights all the way down to Cuba and causing massive interference in telegraph lines throughou...
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The Laurel Creek Murders from 2016-12-10T11:00:43
In the little town of Hurley, Virginia, in 1909, a widow sold the timber rights to her 150 acres of land for a tidy sum, making her a target for anyone wanting to take that money for himself. On Se...
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More Mountain Stories from 2016-12-06T11:00:53
A few weeks ago, Steve and Rod shared several short stories from Appalachian newspapers in 1891-92. This week, they’re back with a second set of these “short stories” for y’all! Thanks for listenin...
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The Kentucky Fried Chicken War from 2016-12-03T12:00:05
Hello folks! This week on the podcast, Rod and Steve tell the story of how a Corbin, Kentucky, gas station operator ended up cornering the market for gasoline in Corbin in a gun battle with his com...
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Lots For Sale In Appalachia, Virginia from 2016-11-29T12:00:04
No, folks, Rod and I haven’t gotten into the real estate business. What we have done is put together the story of how Bone Marrow Creek, West Virginia, became Appalachia, Virginia, in the eyes of C...
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Eko and Iko, The Ambassadors From Mars from 2016-11-26T12:00:15
In the early part of the twentieth century, two young African American albinos from Truevine, Virginia, made their way into a carnival sideshow, or freak show as it was sometimes called then, and d...
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The Robbery of the Bank of Huntington from 2016-11-22T12:00:55
In 1875, four men rode their horses into Huntington, West Virginia, and proceeded to rob the local bank. Two of them were later captured, one of whom died without revealing his identity, the other ...
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Thomas’ Legion from 2016-11-19T12:00:52
During the Civil War there were numerous local militias formed, but none quite like Thomas’ Legion. Composed of Cherokee Indians and local Western North Carolina men led by the only white man to be...
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Mountain Life in 1891 from 2016-11-15T12:00:03
In the course of researching the stories that we pass on to you, Rod and I have happened upon a ton of old newspaper stories that contain nuggets of a tale, but we just can’t find enough other info...
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Jenny Wiley from 2016-11-12T12:00:25
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Wiley family settled in what’s now Southwest Virginia, in the present Bland County. And that’s where they got caught up in the ongoing war between ...
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Helen Timmons Henderson from 2016-11-08T11:00:24
In the early part of the twentieth century, Helen Timmons Henderson came to Buchanan County, Virginia, to run the Buchanan Mission School with her husband. She did such an outstanding job of runnin...
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Sam Houston from 2016-11-05T11:00:47
On this episode of the podcast, Steve and Rod tell the story of the Maryville, Tennessee, youth who lived more lives than ten men. Sam Houston was adopted into the Cherokee nation as a teen, then g...
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Encore: Lloyd Ford’s Will from 2016-11-01T11:00:31
On today’s encore episode of the podcast, Steve and Rod tell the story of a Washington County, Tennessee, farmer who left his farm to his slaves prior to the Civil War. As you can imagine, that dec...
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Halloween Stories! from 2016-10-29T11:00:16
Happy Halloween, podcast listeners! On today’s episode, we have two stories for you. First up, Steve tells the story of the Wampus Cat, a Cherokee legend. Then Rod tells about the legend of the Maj...
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The Stories of Penn’s Cave and Blowing Rock from 2016-10-25T11:00:50
On this podcast we have two native American stories for you. First, Steve tells the story of Penn’s Cave, in Pennsylvania, where tragedy befell a man who fell in love with a chief’s daughter. Then ...
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St. Albans Sanatorium from 2016-10-22T11:00:18
With Halloween in the air, Rod and Steve tell the story of St. Albans Sanatorium near Radford, Virginia, site of some, well, not so nice “treatments” as well as a lot of paranormal activity. You ca...
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Encore-The Greenbrier Ghost from 2016-10-18T11:00:07
Halloween month rolls on, and today, in an encore presentation, Steve and Rod tell the story of the Greenbrier Ghost of West Virginia. Enjoy! Thanks for listening, and watch out for those ghosts!
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The Bombing of the Gouge House from 2016-10-15T11:00:12
On January 7, 1938, a blast rocked the little community of Hampton, Tennessee. After the smoke cleared, the home of Harmon and Pauline Gouge was in ruins, their three daughters lay dead, and Paulin...
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The Brown Mountain Lights from 2016-10-11T11:00:55
Halloween month continues with the story of the mysterious glowing orbs that can be seen on Brown Mountain, near the Linville Gorge in the high country of western North Carolina. Are they spirits? ...
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The Notorious Kinnie Wagner from 2016-10-08T11:00:40
In the early twentieth century, a young man from Scott County, Virginia, joined the circus as a trick shooter, probably one of the best to come out of Appalachia. And in another time, in another pl...
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Encore-Aunt Jane Dutton, Witch? from 2016-10-04T11:00:44
It’s October, folks, and that means Halloween is on the way. To celebrate October, we’re going to present encores of our spookiest, most mysterious podcasts, as well as new Halloween stories, every...
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The Bristol Water War from 2016-10-01T11:00:53
For over a hundred years, the states of Tennessee and Virginia tried to figure out their common border. It took a United States Supreme Court decision and a near war between Bristol, Tennessee, and...
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The Mysterious Lights of Holston Mountain from 2016-09-27T11:00:48
Holston Mountain is the tallest peak in East Tennessee, and the location of several television and radio towers. It’s also near the Tri City Airport, the air hub for the East Tennessee/Southwest Vi...
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Champ Ferguson from 2016-09-24T11:00:28
During the Civil War, there were guerrilla fighters on both the Union and Confederate sides. One of the most notorious was Appalachia’s Champ Ferguson. Ferguson was a violent man who roamed East Te...
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Encore-The Legend of Swift’s Lost Silver Mine from 2016-09-20T11:09:57
In this encore presentation, Rod tells the story of the legendary Swift’s Lost Silver Mine, thought by many to be located at the Breaks Interstate Park in Southwest Virginia. You can subscribe to t...
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Crime Stories from 2016-09-17T11:00:36
Today, Steve and Rod have not one story, not two stories, but THREE stories, along with a short story! This week is crime week, and on this podcast we tell the stories of two Scott County, Virginia...
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Encore-The Story of Mary the Elephant from 2016-09-13T11:21:04
One hundred years ago, in 1916, the circus came to Kingsport, Tennessee. The aftermath of the circus was the famous hanging of an elephant, Mary, in the railyards at Erwin, Tennessee. In this encor...
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The Night They Almost Nuked Big Savage Mountain. from 2016-09-10T11:00:01
In January, 1964, a crippled B-52 was on its way home from Massachusetts to an airbase in Georgia, when it ran into a heavy snowstorm. The plane’s vertical stabilizer (the tail) was ripped off, and...
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Encore-The Rye Cove Cyclone from 2016-09-06T11:08:24
On this encore episode, Rod and Steve present the story of the tornado that tore through the small Appalachian community of Rye Cove, Virginia, on May 2, 1929. This cyclone has been immortalized in...
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The Shootout in Clintwood, Virginia from 2016-09-03T11:00:38
In 1926, Prohibition was in full force, and the Commonwealth of Virginia had prohibition enforcement agents employed across the state, looking for illegal liquor. In Dickenson County, Virginia, tha...
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The French-Eversole Feud from 2016-08-27T11:00:41
In the last part of the nineteenth century, newspapers across America were obsessed with tales of blood feuds in Appalachia, the best known of which is the Hatfield-McCoy feud. At the time, however...
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The 1982 Knoxville Worlds Fair and the Butcher Brothers from 2016-08-20T11:00:03
In 1982, Knoxville, Tennessee, hosted a Worlds Fair. The fair was a success, breaking even, but it led to the downfall of the Butcher banking empire in East Tennessee. On this episode of the podcas...
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The Escape from 2016-08-13T11:00:57
The people who settled Appalachia were tough. They’d have to be to carve a home out of the forests and mountainsides of the area. In 1777, two girls, Polly Alley and Jane Whittaker, proved how toug...
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George Went Hensley, Snake Handling Preacher from 2016-08-06T11:00:16
In the early 20th century, there was an awakening across Appalachia, with Pentecostal churches coming into being across the area. One of the odder branches of Pentecostalism involved the handling o...
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The Swinging Bridge Collapse from 2016-08-02T11:00:53
Every year the Tri State Singing Convention would come to Big Stone Gap, Virginia, bringing together the most popular southern gospel groups in the world to play for a packed audience. At the Conve...
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Eric Robert Rudolph from 2016-07-30T11:00:22
On July 27th, 1996, the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games were rocked with an explosion which killed one person outright and led to a heart attack that killed another, as well as wounding many more. The...
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Ezekiel Pyles and the Confederados from 2016-07-26T11:00:56
On this episode of Stories, Steve and Rod tell the story of Civil War soldier and unrepentant Confederate Ezekial Pyles, who joined 20,000 other men and women in founding a colony in Brazil after t...
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The Integration of Clinton High School from 2016-07-23T11:00:05
After the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court, schools began preparing to integrate across the South, with the first school scheduled to be Clinton High School in the ...
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Baseball in Clintwood, Virginia in the 1940’s from 2016-07-19T10:55:56
Starting in the early part of the 20th century, coal operators discovered that forming baseball teams in each coal camp was a great way to promote unity among their workers, as well as give the men...
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The Hellfire of Centralia from 2016-07-16T11:00:23
Appalachia is a land of natural beauty combined with one of the largest deposits of coal on the planet. What happens when a large deposit of that coal catches fire? You get carbon monoxide, carbon ...
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The Letter from 2016-07-12T11:00:53
The 19th Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was passed by Congress in 1919. In order to become part of the Constitution, 36 states had to ratify it, and on August 18, 1920, Tennessee ...
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The Franklin County Moonshine Trial from 2016-07-09T11:00:10
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...
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The Southwest Virginia State Mental Hospital from 2016-07-04T01:49:51
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 favor...
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The Year Without a Summer from 2016-07-02T11:00:54
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 energ...
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Tarzan of Appalachia from 2016-06-28T11:00:41
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....
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The Birth of West Virginia from 2016-06-25T11:00:06
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 i...
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Christopher Gist from 2016-06-21T11:00:14
On this episode of Stories, Steve and Rod tell the story of 18th century explorer, surveyor, guide and Indian agent Christopher Gist. Thanks for listening!
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Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu (The Trail Where They Cried) from 2016-06-18T11:00:38
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 Mississi...
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The Wytheville Polio Epidemic from 2016-06-11T11:00:48
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 Wythevi...
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The Wilderness Road from 2016-06-04T11:00:58
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 se...
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The Flood of ’89 from 2016-05-31T11:00:54
There is little else worse than a flood in the Appalachian Mountains, due to the water being funneled down deep river valleys straight into towns and cities. What is worse is when that flood could ...
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Bloody Harlan from 2016-05-28T11:00:53
By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42629998 The 1930s saw the Great Depression come over America, and probably no place was harder hit than the coalfields o...
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Giants in the Earth from 2016-05-24T10:00:13
There are tales of strange creatures seen in the mines and caves of Appalachia. On this episode, Rod and Steve tell the story of the giants in the earth, on Stories. You can subscribe at iTunes, th...
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Clark Dyer’s Flying Machine from 2016-05-17T11:00:08
In the hills of North Georgia in the 19th century lived a farmer named Micajah Clark Dyer. Dyer wasn’t just a Georgia farmer, though. He was a self-taught inventor and tinkerer whose passion was fl...
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The Battle of Kings Mountain from 2016-05-14T11:00:38
In 1780, the Patriot cause was suffering from losses across the colonies. Then, a British commander threatened to cross the Appalachians and lay waste to the settlements established in what is now ...
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Buried Alive! from 2016-05-10T11:00:02
In the spring of 1891, wealthy Pikeville, Kentucky, businessman James Hatcher buried his young wife, Octavia, after she apparently died while giving birth to their baby boy, who also died. Unfortun...
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The Death of Edward Wentz from 2016-05-07T11:00:07
In 1903, the Wentz family of Philadelphia was in control of the Virginia Coal and Iron Company and Stonega Coal and Coke. In that year, young Edward Wentz came to the coalfields of Wise County, Vir...
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The Melungeon Trials from 2016-05-03T11:00:38
Starting in the mid-19th century, just before the Civil War, there were several Tennessee court cases that helped define the role of the mysterious people known as “Melungeons” in Appalachian socie...
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The Moon-Eyed People from 2016-04-30T11:00:27
There is a Cherokee legend about a war with a fair-skinned people with blue eyes and beards, who were extremely sensitive to light. One version of this legend has them responsible for pre-Columbian...
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The Duke of Asheville from 2016-04-26T11:00:12
In the fall of 1902, a sickly Englishman arrived in Asheville, North Carolina, from parts unknown. He passed away shortly thereafter and, over the next seven years, became a part of the fabric of t...
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The Deadly Harpes from 2016-04-23T11:00:24
On this week’s episode of Stories, Rod and Steve tell you the story of the Harpes, two men who, at the turn of the 19th century, led authorities on a horrific crime spree from North Carolina to Ill...
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The Strikes of ’29 from 2016-04-19T11:00:51
In 1929 a series of textile mill strikes hit the southeastern United States, starting in Elizabethton, Tennessee. On this episode, Rod and Steve tell the story of what happened in Elizabethton when...
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The Bluebeard of Quiet Dell from 2016-04-16T11:00:57
Sometimes love just isn’t enough. At least it wasn’t for Harry Powers of Quiet Dell, West Virginia. On today’s episode, we tell a story of murder in the singles ads in 1920’s West Virginia. You can...
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The Great Cholera Outbreak from 2016-04-12T11:00:49
In 1873, there was a world-wide cholera epidemic. One of the worst hit places in the Appalachian region was the East Tennessee town of Greeneville, which saw 90 percent of its population either die...
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The Greenbrier Ghost from 2016-04-09T11:00:01
In 1896, Elva Zona Heaster met and married Edward Shue, a drifter who had just arrived in Elva’s hometown of Greenbrier, West Virginia, to work as a blacksmith. In less than a year, she would be de...
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The Last Public Hanging in West Virginia from 2016-04-05T11:00:36
When there is a public execution, one expects a somber affair. That wasn’t the case with John Morgan of Ripley, whose hanging on December 16, 1897, for a grisly triple murder had more of a carnival...
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The Whiskey Rebellion from 2016-04-02T11:00:31
In the 1790s money was short on the Appalachian frontier, so most farmers would distill their corn into whiskey and use that as a medium of exchange. Then, the federal government, looking for ways ...
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John Brown from 2016-03-29T11:00:14
In the summer of 1859, as the country was rapidly coming apart over the issue of slavery, a man slipped into the Appalachian town of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia under an assumed name and began prepari...
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The Hermit of Big Bald Mountain from 2016-03-26T11:00:51
On today’s episode of Stories, Steve tells the story of David Grier, who spent his adult life atop Big Bald Mountain, just above Flag Pond, Tennessee on the North Carolina border. You might call hi...
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The English Doctor from 2016-03-22T11:00:24
Up until the end of the nineteenth century, most “doctoring” in the rural parts of Appalachia was done by folk healers or “granny-women,” who used old time roots and herbs and traditional treatment...
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The Dictator from 2016-03-19T11:00:19
In the mid-19th century, American “filibusters” descended on Latin America with an eye on extending the United States’ influence over the area. The most notorious of these men was William Walker of...
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The Blue Folk from 2016-03-15T13:00:04
In Eastern Kentucky, around Troublesome Creek, lived a group of families that were normal in all respects, but for one: many of them went through life with blue-tinged skin. On this episode of Stor...
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The Appalachian Trump from 2016-03-12T13:00:33
At one time, Buchanan County, Virginia, was the home of the largest number of millionaires in the Commonwealth of Virginia, due to the money to be made mining coal. Probably the best known of these...
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The Greenbrier Bunker from 2016-03-08T12:00:11
In the hills of West Virginia, at White Sulphur Springs, is a fine resort, the Greenbrier. There you can enjoy fine living and also take a tour of a Cold War relic: the underground nuclear bunker d...
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Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley from 2016-03-05T13:00:11
On this episode of Stories we have a tale of love and sex and murder in the mountains of North Carolina. Steve and Rod tell you the story of Tom Dula of Wilkes County, North Carolina, whose life ha...
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The POW From Cracker’s Neck from 2016-03-01T12:30:30
Corporal Edward Dickenson from the Cracker’s Neck section of Big Stone Gap, Virginia, was captured by the Chinese during the Korean War and was one of a handful of Americans who initially refused t...
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The Day The Eastman Exploded from 2016-02-27T13:00:16
On October 4, 1960, the lives of the residents of Kingsport, Tennessee, changed forever. It was on that date that a massive explosion occurred at the Tennessee Eastman Chemical Plant in the city, c...
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Francis Gary Powers from 2016-02-23T12:22:16
The world was in the middle of the Cold War on May 1, 1960, when a young Pound, Virginia, man set off on a U-2 flight from Pakistan which ended up making him part of the history of not only Appalac...
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Hank’s Last Ride from 2016-02-20T13:00:20
On New Years Eve, 1952, 17 year old Charlie Carr was on a mission to deliver country music star Hank Williams to a concert in Canton, Ohio, and ended up driving into Appalachian history. Despite Ch...
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The President’s Wife from 2016-02-16T12:44:23
On December 18th, 1915, widower and President, Woodrow Wilson, married Edith Galt, from Wytheville, Virginia. The new First Lady went on to help her husband through a stroke and, some say, actually...
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The Carroll County Courthouse Shootout from 2016-02-13T13:00:34
In 1912, Hillsville, Virginia, was the site of a deadly shootout in the Carroll County circuit courtroom that left the judge, a prosecutor, the sheriff and a witness dead, all because one man was i...
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The Story of Shifty Powers from 2016-02-09T13:00:08
On this episode of Stories, Rod tells the story of Dickenson County native Shifty Powers, World War II vet who was one of several men whose lives were portrayed in the HBO series, “Band of Brothers...
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Blair Mountain from 2016-02-06T13:00:01
This week we bring you the story of what happened after the massacre at Matewan, West Virginia, when striking coal miners set off the largest and bloodiest labor revolt in American history. It’s th...
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The Great Appalachian Storm of 1950 from 2016-02-02T13:00:03
On this episode of the podcast, we tell you about one of the worst winter storms to ever hit the Appalachian region. Over Thanksgiving weekend of 1950, Pennsylvania and New York saw record flooding...
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The State of Franklin from 2016-01-30T13:00:37
On this episode of Stories, Steve tells the story of the state that might have been, the State of Franklin. Consisting of the current East Tennessee counties of Washington, Sullivan, Greene, Unicoi...
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Bad John Wright from 2016-01-26T13:02:17
Eastern Kentucky lawman, U.S. marshall, Confederate and Union soldier, circus performer, bigamist, model for John Fox, Jr.’s Devil Jud Tolliver, and legend. Today we tell the story of Bad John Wrig...
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The Bristol Sessions from 2016-01-23T13:00:59
On this episode of Stories, Steve and Rod tell you the story of the birth of country music in what has been called “The Big Bang of country music.” It’s the story of how a New York record engineer ...
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The Ghost of the Tavern Tart from 2016-01-19T14:00:25
On this episode of Stories, Rod tells a ghost story, about a “haint” at the Tavern in Abingdon, Virginia, who just might pinch your behind! Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @storyappalac...
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The Rye Cove Cyclone from 2016-01-16T13:00:36
In 1929 there was an outbreak of deadly tornadoes in the eastern U.S., including Appalachia. One of the worst hit places was in Rye Cove, Virginia, where the twister destroyed a school. On this epi...
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The Walton War from 2016-01-12T13:00:57
On this episode of the podcast, Steve tells the story of how a 12 mile wide strip of land led to a war between North Carolina and Georgia in the early 19th century. You can subscribe to the podcast...
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The Red Jacket Mine Explosion from 2016-01-09T13:00:03
On this episode of Stories, Steve and Rod tell the story of what is possibly the worst mining disaster in the history of Virginia. Forty-five men lost their lives in 1938 when an explosion tore thr...
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Lloyd Ford’s Will from 2016-01-05T13:00:03
On this episode, we tell the story of a will left by Lloyd Ford, of Washington County, Tennessee. This will was the subject of a pre-Civil War court battle in Jonesborough between Mr. Ford’s childr...
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The Travels of Gabriel Arthur from 2015-12-29T13:00:14
Today Steve tells the story of Gabriel Arthur, 17th century fur trader and explorer who was adopted into the Cherokee tribe and who was the first English colonist to travel through the Cumberland G...
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Witchy Woman? from 2015-12-26T13:00:16
This is the story of a witch. Not a real witch, but an elderly lady by the name of Jane Dutton who was accused of being a witch by her neighbor. Aunt Jane, as she was known, didn’t take that insult...
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Christmas Stories from 2015-12-22T13:00:04
It’s only three days til Christmas…or is it fifteen? This week, Steve lets you know which when he tells the story of Old Christmas in the mountains. Then Rod tells you about the Santa Train, which ...
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The 1919 Knoxville Race Riot from 2015-12-19T14:00:35
The summer of 1919 was known as “Red Summer,” due to the spreading influence of communism around the world after World War I. Race riots were occurring around the United States, and the unrest came...
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The Story of Condy Dabney from 2015-12-15T17:00:52
In this week’s podcast Steve tells the story of Condy Dabney of Harlan County, Kentucky, who, in 1925, was convicted of murdering a young girl. But…did he do it? You can subscribe to Stories on iTu...
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The Petticoat Government in Clintwood, Virginia from 2015-12-12T13:00:36
In this episode, Rod tells the story of the election of an all-woman town council and mayor in the town of Clintwood, Virginia, in the late 1940’s. This was so unusual, it made national and interna...
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William Dudley Pelley, Asheville Fascist from 2015-12-08T17:00:58
Prior to gaining power in Europe, both Hitler with his brownshirts and Mussolini with his blackshirts set the stage for gaining power as fascists in Germany and Italy. Other fascist movements arose...
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The Pound Gap Massacre from 2015-12-05T13:00:34
“Doc” Marshall Benton Taylor On this episode of the podcast, Steve and Rod tell a story of violence, murder, revenge and justice in Wise County, Virginia, in the 1890’s. It’s the story of Doc Taylo...
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The Battle of Athens, Tennessee from 2015-12-01T16:00:12
Listen as Steve and Rod tell you the story of an armed uprising against the political machine running McMinn County, Tennessee, in the late 1940’s, led by returning World War II GIs. You can subscr...
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The Trials of Edith Maxwell from 2015-11-28T13:30:23
On this episode of Stories, we have a true mountain crime story, as Rod tells of a young Pound, Virginia, schoolteacher who was twice convicted of killing her father in 1935. Subscribe by clicking ...
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The Day The Circus Came To Kingsport from 2015-11-23T21:03:52
This week’s story is a well-known story about the Sparks’ World-Famous Circus and its visit to Kingsport, Tennessee, 99 years ago. The day’s festivities turned deadly, and the rest is, as they say,...
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Swift’s Lost Silver Mine from 2015-11-18T13:00:07
On this week’s podcast, Rod Mullins tells us the story of the legend of Swift’s Lost Silver Mine, supposedly located somewhere in the hills of Southwest Virginia. Rod also shares a personal connect...
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John Randolph Neal, Jr., East Tennessee Advocate from 2015-11-14T16:51:30
Today, I’m sharing the story of John Randolph Neal, Jr., whose life revolved around the law. Neal was a rather eccentric law professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law in the 1920’s wh...
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Mickey Ray Hendricks, All American Redhead from 2015-11-10T14:00:09
We have a sports-related podcast this week as Steve and Rod tell you the story of a woman from Scott County, Virginia, who traveled the country playing professional women’s basketball in the 1960’s...
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Chief Benge’s Last Raid from 2015-11-05T02:57:25
This week on the podcast, Steve and Rod go back to the 1790’s to tell you the story of the last raid of the Cherokee warrior Bob Benge against the settlers of Scott, Lee and Wise Counties in Southw...
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The Norton Braves from 2015-10-31T02:30:38
This week, Steve and Rod tell you the story of one of Southwest Virginia’s minor league baseball teams, the Norton Braves. Thanks for listening! View image | gettyimages.com
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Andrew Jackson, East Tennessee Lawyer from 2015-10-31T02:16:11
In 1788, a brash 21 year-old came over the mountains from North Carolina to the frontier,seeking fame and fortune as a lawyer. Andrew Jackson began a long and illustrious career in what’s now Jones...
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Alfred Dean Slack, Kingsport Spy from 2015-10-31T01:54:57
Welcome to our new podcast, Stories, A History of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Each week we’ll take a look at the history of the area, one story at a time. This week, it’s the story of t...
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