Abandoned Appalachia Series A school in the bend of Beaver Creek Wayland sits in the hills of Floyd County, Kentucky, a coal town whose footprint shows up neatly on the U.S. Geological Survey’s 7.5-minute Wayland quadrangle. The quadrangle places the school site and gym in the narrow valley bottom, with the town hemmed in by steep ridges that channeled community life toward the schoolhouse and its court.

Appalachian Figures Few figures connect Kentucky’s small-town gyms to the college game quite like Robert G. “Bob” Wright. He captained Marshall as a player, molded Ashland’s Tomcats into a state champion, then steered Morehead State to the top of the OVC before finishing his public-school career as a principal in Pike County.

Appalachian Figures A Kentucky start with a global reach Peter Ault Tinsley was born in Pikeville, Kentucky, on January 21, 1939. He earned a B.A. from Hobart and William Smith in 1961, completed a Ph.D. in economics at Princeton in 1966, and joined the staff of the Federal Reserve Board while finishing his doctorate. After a three decade career in Washington he later taught at the University of Cambridge and at Birkbeck, University of London.

Appalachian Figures Jack Hatfield Smith came out of Pikeville, Kentucky, worked his way through the Dodgers’ farm system, and for three late seasons in the early 1960s took the ball in some awfully big moments.

Appalachian Figures Pikeville beginnings John Paul Riddle was born in Pikeville in 1901 and came of age while aviation was still a dare. He graduated from Pikeville College Academy in 1920, a few years before airplanes became a common sight over the Big Sandy.

Appalachian Figures A Pike County racer who took Daytona Thomas Ferrel Harris grew up to be a stock car lifer with deep eastern Kentucky roots and a talent for high-speed drafting. He was born on October 8, 1940, in Seale, Alabama, and spent his adult life in Pike County, Kentucky.

Appalachian History Series A curious death in Greenbrier County In late January 1897 a Lewisburg weekly carried a short notice about a young wife’s death. The Greenbrier Independent identified her only as “Mrs. Shue,” reported the date, and moved on. Few readers could guess that Elva Zona Heaster Shue’s passing would become one of Appalachia’s most retold stories. Local memory says a ghost pointed the finger at a killer.

Appalachian History Series April 5, 2010 Just after three in the afternoon at Montcoal, West Virginia, a methane ignition inside the Upper Big Branch South mine became an explosion that swept through the workings. Twenty nine miners were killed, and two survived with injuries. Federal investigators later said the disaster was preventable. What investigators found Federal and state teams reconstructed the blast and its causes.

Appalachian History Series A November evening that changed a town On November 14, 1970, a chartered Southern Airways DC-9 carrying the Marshall University football team, coaches, staff, boosters, and crew struck trees on approach to Tri-State Airport near Huntington, West Virginia. All 75 aboard were killed.

Appalachian Figures A strike comes to Brookside In the summer of 1973 miners at the Eastover Coal Company’s Brookside mine in Harlan County voted to affiliate with the United Mine Workers of America. When the company refused to sign a contract that matched area standards and included a meaningful right to strike, the miners walked out and set up pickets.

Appalachian Figures A Harlan County beginning Elbert Benjamin “E. B.” Smith was born in Benham, Kentucky, on May 1, 1921, the son of Elbert and Gladys Smith. Benham was a young company town in Harlan County when Smith arrived, and like many Appalachian families of his generation his early years unfolded in a landscape shaped by coal and community churches.