I appreciate the sentiment, Jono. I'm a proud West Virginian, born n' raised, and you're right, it is beautiful. West Virginia is the only state in the union, that lies entirely within the Appalachian mountain range, and despite our economic problems, here you'll find some of the friendliest, most hospitable, proud and hard-working people, in the world. Our main industries used to be coal, steel, and lumber, but more recently has been tourism. It's the kind of place that you, specifically, would love. It's mostly wilderness, with some of the most beautiful scenery, you'll ever see. It's a setting, perfect for camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, whitewater rafting, photography, and not to mention the Hatfield-McCoy trails, which is a trail network popular with off-road enthusiasts, worldwide. And contrary to the title of this video, many, many people care about Appalachia.

@davidpressley3451

2 ай бұрын

From East Tennessee here also proud to be Appalachian and we do have the friendliest people.

@Justme_1221

2 ай бұрын

Hey y’all. Proud West Virginian here, born and raised. It’s beautiful here Im proud to be from here. Can’t find friendlier people.

@odemusvonkilhausen

2 ай бұрын

@@Justme_1221 Whereabouts you from?

@Justme_1221

2 ай бұрын

@@odemusvonkilhausen Born and raised in Wayne County but currently live in Putnam County.

@odemusvonkilhausen

2 ай бұрын

@@Justme_1221 Small world. I was born in Jackson County, but I was raised in Putnam, and currently live in Nitro.

Peter Santenello has a great series about central Appalachia.

Appalachia isn't a farming area. It was the center of coal mining in the US. Now that most of the mines have either closed, or cut back their operations drastically, unemployment is skyrocketing.

My folks came from Appalachia, West Virginia. If you'd like to do a deep dive into the region may I suggest Peter Santenello's channel. He spends time talking to locals, usually after just showing up someplace. At about 40 minutes each there's around eight hours, more or less. Man's been everywhere just talking to everyday folk. Great way to pass some time when ya have to.

My father was raised in WV, on a farm in the mountains. The place is called Brandywine and it's one of the most beautiful places in America.

Jono, I'm glad you're looking into this situation, I live in southwestern Virginia and when business shut down and moved to places like China it really hurt the area. A business investor could purchase these abandoned buildings cheap, and the people here are skilled in industrial maintenance and wood working, but nobody either cares or isn't aware for any number of reasons.

I live in West Virginia and i love it this is my home beautiful much love from West Virginia what a beautiful family you have ❤❤❤❤❤

From watching your videos, I think your family would like The Smokies. Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg have the attractions and shopping they want and the ability to disappear into nature with ease, you would love.

@nunyalastname-ej8vl

5 ай бұрын

Beutiful,country for sure. I grew up outside PGH. Ozarks are like there, ut not much snow and milder winters. I miss snowy winters. Its cold so at least nnow to play in. Yes i still play in snow. I favore New England . The food is the best.

@katherinedinwiddie4526

5 ай бұрын

Absolutely

@tamienglish6828

5 ай бұрын

East Tennessee here...I think the girls would enjoy the shopping and the kids would enjoy all the theme parks and stuff to do...and Jono would really enjoy the hiking and camping there!

@ZeroTolerance-tk9ce

4 ай бұрын

Gatlinburg is one of my favorite places. The drive through the Smokies is beautiful.

We moved from Texas my home state to my husband’s state of NY. We then moved for awhile to S. Carolina for a bit over a year. From there we moved to Virginia. My husband worked in the airplane industry and had a chance to move to West Virginia. We hopped on board to escape the high prices involved in living outside of Wash. D.C. We have been here for 27 years and are happy. The nicest people live in West Virginia. When coal and logging were under attack the state was hit hard. They are trying to bring more jobs here and improving as best as they can.

To add onto what others have said, Huntsville and Knoxville also have a high density of people who have a STEM PhD due to nuclear and aerospace. Normal people may not care about the region much, but they have military significance. That small subset also makes significantly more than the video's quoted median income for the area.

5:05 Jono, that 26 million population is in an area 10 times the size of Slovakia. Slovakia is around 49,000 km2 Appalachia is around 530,000 km2 Slovakia actually has twice the population density (5.5 million people). If the population density was the same, Appalachia (26 million) would have 55 million people. So think of how much wilderness Slovakia has, and multiply it by 20, that's how rural Appalachia is.

Im from northern apalacha in Pennsylvania by Wilkes barre and over 80% of the locals are at or below the poverty mark

Huntsville is very nice. It's also home to the US Space and Rocket center. Huntsville has ties to NASA and rocketry that you'd be interested in. It's one of the places some of the Nazi scientists ended up after the war in Operation Paperclip. Dr. Von Braun and his crew were moved there after their brief time in New Mexico after the Los Alamos project. It's quite interesting. Peter Santello has a decent video to watch about it or you can look up something more historical.

Appalachian mountains are God's country. Beautiful, wholesome friendly people

I'm from Kentucky. Very glad you're looking into this. The narrator pronounces it wrong. It's app-uh-latch-uh, not laytch-uh. Losing the coal mines has devastated the region. It's complicated when it comes to the mines. They're awful, but they provide jobs. Double edged sword situation. I think you and your family would love the Appalachian Trail which runs from the top of the states to the south. Hiking the deep woods with all kinds of wildlife and plant life. Many people include hiking the whole trail on their bucket list. Maybe you can look at Stephen Frye In America episode two. If you react to it, which I would love, break it up into two or three reactions. Gives a good look at my area. Love you and your family!!!!

@odemusvonkilhausen

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for the pronunciation correction. I was gonna add it in my comment, but I thought it was long-winded enough, as is.

Bet your bottom dollar when things hit the fan Appalachia is the place to be

There's lots of us that didn't all this. I was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky (even though the border of Ky & TN went thru the base), and the land there was beautiful, but, if I can be frank for just a second, it got colder than a witch's hits in a brass brassiere there in winter. However, you never saw much, if any, snow. People who live in snowy areas will appreciate this. The weather called for 2-3 inches of snow and everything closed! Schools, government buildings, you name it! On base it was essential personnel only schools closed the base stores/ exchanges stayed open but people closed early. We who are born with snow, all know that 2-3 inches of snow doesn't get you a delayed opening and everything is a normal day. Now where I live, in the Fort Walton Beach area it gets cold but we don't get the snow and if we do it makes the roads look gray instead of black and doesn't last long.

For a regional perspective, I grew up and have lived off and on in the greater Pittsburgh area in Western Pennsylvania. When people here say Appalachia, they mean that WV, Kentucky area. For the most part, they don't consider themselves part of "troubled Appalachia" despite being located in the mountain range. For example, local churches from places like Pittsburgh say that they are going on missionary trips to build homes "in Appalachia". People know that doesn't mean up the road, they mean that specific West Virginia, Kentucky, etc area. Pittsburgh is considered an anomaly in the so called Rust Belt of former coal and steel cities that struggled as those industries faltered. Because of their being a city of many universities, hospitals, and now tech, it's managed to hang on significantly better than other cities in the region and is relatively prosperous.

@paulbagby2803

5 ай бұрын

Any cancers? My wife is a ‘Burger and she and her 4 siblings and mother have all had cancers. We go annually to see the Steelers but I won’t drink the water. In ATL

@lane6866

5 ай бұрын

@@paulbagby2803 Nothing anomalous to my knowledge.

I live in the area they refer to as central Appalachia, approximately 60 miles northeast of Knoxville and 15 miles from the Kentucky state line. I live in a small town of around 2500 people. In the 70s when I was growing up things were pretty good. The economy was mostly based on Tobacco farming. In the 80s manufacturing moved into the area with furniture factories, sewing factories and mobile home factories; which improved the economy even more. As 2000 grew closer the trend of manufacturing being moved overseas saw most of the factories close down. The Tobacco buyout program also started in the early 2000s.Tobacco prices were reduced to the point it was barely profitable then the government started paying farmers to stop growing tobacco. They gave farmers a yearly payment of a few hundred to around a thousand dollars a year for a period of 3 or 4 years to sell their rights to grow tobacco. Tobacco farming is completely gone now. This devastated the economy. Now the best option for employment is a 60 to 75 mile commute one way outside the area to find decent jobs with wages of $15 to $20 an hour. Otherwise it's minimum wage jobs at restaurants and retail places like WalMart. These local jobs don't make health insurance available. A large portion of the population is on some form of government assistance, with most of them living on less than $1000 dollars per month. Drug use is extremely high among the younger (18-35) generations. Property crimes such as theft are fairly high as well due to these people trying to fund their drug habits, but violent crime is very low. Our biggest source of income is from hunting and fishing tourism, which is largely in the summer and doesn't bring that much money to the area. It's a beautiful place, with a fairly low cost of living but there is little else to attract people. It's a decent area to retire to but retirees don't improve the economy very much. I love my hometown and can't see myself ever leaving but it is a bittersweet existence, there's not much else to say about it.

I'm right in the heart of that region. There's alot of us who live far back in the foothills and forest. I'm 5 miles from pavement and 20 miles from the closest traffic light. Lol So commuting is usually what it takes to find work. All the poorest counties in every state are in rural areas. Not cities. I don't want any more development or city folks buying land or cutting forest. so I'll get by and not complain.

I’m from eastern Kentucky. We’ve been getting the short end from the start.

There are some great YT videos on the region, particularly the core of WV and Eastern KY. Before I ended up down around Atlanta (the metro area is situated on a thousand foot high plateau just below the Appalachians) I grew up in the hills and mountains where TN, GA, NC meet. Spent a lot of time living off the land, hunting, fishing and in the garden. You'd probably like it, to this day still a lot of beautiful places hidden away from the world up there. You might try looking up the West Virginia Mine Wars - particularly the Battle of Blair Mountain from 1921 (always thought it would make a killer novel or movie) to get a sense of how the coal companies treated people back then.

Can't say that I agree with a lot of what he has to say other than there are some areas where the living conditions are probably considered to be sub standard but most of these folks know how to get by and do pretty well for themselves. I'm sure that the coal mining areas have been hit hard over the years. I live in Asheville also and find this area to be more than just beautiful. There are so many things one can get out and do as well as see. Diverse cultures, traditions, music, arts and crafts. I, for one, thoroughly enjoy trout fishing in this area and get to see some of the most beautiful rivers and streams you can imagine. Guess I could write a book about this area so, thanks for the review Jono. You need to visit with us when you get to the US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I live in Asheville North Carolina

@ghstdnsr

5 ай бұрын

Used to work in Weaverville until I retired for the final time and moved up to Boone for awhile, love that whole area.

You are right Jono, there are small towns all over the country that are just drying up. I'm from an east central Indiana town that was booming 100 years ago. I think at one time our population was close to 4,000 and now we are lucky to have1,100. Times change and not always for the better. It used to be you could graduate,get a job, get married, buy a house ,have kids and be perfectly content and successful in your hometown but not these days. School consolidation, loss of businesses, people have to move to live the life they want or dream of. But as of late I see the hope and resurrection of some of the small towns around here, people are trying. A lot of the time, big city life isn't what they thought it was going to be and for sure it is way safer and cheaper in the small towns. We just have to adapt. I'm 60 now and I've never moved from here but if I had it to do over....🙄 who knows! I really enjoy your videos, you have a great family! Peace and love

They seem to always leave out the fact that you can live off of a fraction that costs in more urban areas.

Appreciate the nice reaction 🤓 I am born and bred, and extremely proud of where I come from; we are indeed the “forgotten” part of America. While in this age of uberpolitical correctness, holding ‘mountain folk’ up to ridicule, is still Open Season with US elites, politicians,academia and Our entertainment culture, we are stoic against this bigotry and in a way….keeps us strong. Southern West Virginia has some of the poorest counties in our nation, yet are completely forgotten by DC politicians. Yet we remain. Considering what all is against our region, we still have some of the friendliest, welcoming and giving people to be found. I have lived in more populated areas, but WV is my home, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Blessings to you and yours from southern West Virginia 🤠

@westridgerunner

5 ай бұрын

BTW, Appalachia is pronounced APP-A-LATCHA, like I threw an apple atcha. The way the narrator is pronouncing it, is the way we can tell you are an outsider 😉

I live in the blue ridge mountains in western North Carolina. It is beautiful here. All of the mountains of Appalachia is beautiful. I live in a log cabin and cook in a Dutch oven outside. I fish, hunt and gather to live. I still have to buy some things. I don't do cities 😂

I heard that the Appalachian mountains so old that they were once the size of the Rocky mountains but have been eroded down to their present size

@kokomo9764

5 ай бұрын

That is true. They are millions of years older.

@BeerCloud9

5 ай бұрын

It's one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world, they theorize that it might of had peaks higher than what Everest has now, pretty wild

appalachian mountains run from maine to georgia. they're some of the oldest mountains in the world. they first started forming before animals developed bones and most things lived in the ocean.

Watch the classic movie "Deliverance". It was released in the early 70's and is an all-time classic!!

The expanded metro Atlanta area has a population more than Slovakia. If you know where to look, you can find just about every worldwide culture represented here.

Add to this the great American Chestnut blight. Sent you a KZread about it

Some people prefer the rural areas to cities. They might not make as much money, but the cost of living is usually cheaper and people are happy. I'll take rural over a city any day.

@bethduclaux7615

4 ай бұрын

I want both! A rural area near a city. I'm a city girl, but I am also an animal girl and I would love a farm with rescued farm animals and chickens and a flock of Valais Blacknose sheep and alpaca. Then when I need restaurants, muséums, and theaters, I have them near at hand. I need to win the lottery!

Hello from southern West Virginia. Yeah......we've been wearing shoes for years now. While we certainly do have our problems, I'm a bit disappointed such a video about central Appalachia exists, as we aren't looking for exposure of our world. We like the distinct four seasons, the inky black sky at night, the lazy gurgle sounds of our creeks and rivers, the morning chirping birds, and the relaxed peace and quiet. Shhhh.....don't tell anyone, please.

Old mountains, they were old when the rockies were obnoxious kids. Breathtaking views. I grew up in PA damn nice country. Pity it's a toxic waste dump

@jishani1

5 ай бұрын

yeah, shame about the steelers. 🤣

While they may technically be in the Appalachian region, I can tell you no one who lives on the shores of the Great Lakes in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York thinks of themselves as Appalachian. If you polled people from Cleveland, Erie, or Buffalo they’d either say they’re from the Great Lakes region or maybe the “rust belt”.

I grew up in the Southwest region of Virginia. This video doesn't address its own title. The issue is geo-political, and this issue is too large to discuss here. Consider this: If you live in far southwest Virginia, there are 7 state capitals closer to you than Virginia's capital of Richmond. Throughout history, the governing elite in Virginia have ignored this region in favor of their more prosperous areas. Hint: Norfolk/Tidewater has its huge naval and military bases while northern Virginia has the overflow from a bloated federal government in Washington. This started 400 years ago and continues today.

Yo Jono, Appalachia does not have an "sh" in it nor does it get pronounced that way - not here in the Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains anyway. 👍 Try pronouncing it with a hard "CH" sound like this: Appa-latch-uh. I lived in Corbin, KY, Princeton, Oak Hill and Huntington, WV, and my home is in southwestern VA... and NONE of us call it Appalashia. LOL! Hey, tell Kat and the kids they've been doing a great job with the family channel! Yall take care ❤

I was born and raised in West Virginia. We were poor in a way that's hard to describe. I got out of there as soon as I could drive a car. Beautiful state but hard to make a living.

Born in Appalachia, I was happier when no one knew it was there.

Missouri, tho not in appalachia has many appachaians living there. has some of the best farmland. You buy in one of the valleys of the Ozark foothills, you;ll get some of the best bottom land around,

Some people choose to live that way, they live off the land

This guy has the Appalachian Mountain range in correct. The Mountain range goes from Maine to Alabama. The range is over 2,000 miles and encompasses many US states.the Appalachian trail which runs thru all 14 states which includes all of the North eastern US al the way to the southern us. This guy needs to do more research.

Eastern Kentucky has a lot of corruption and the few affluent families in these small town and cities isolate and don't let new businesses and other things come in and Kentucky police are not required to have body cameras

One of these days you should look up videos about the state of New York. I know your common law wife would like to be close to New York City for shopping as well as your daughter, and you prefer the countryside of being able to fish and hunt. New York City is only a very small part of the state of New York the rest of New York is very rural, and has tons of fishing and hunting. Please check out some videos that explore the state of New York for everyone's enjoyment. I'm not pushing New York like I'm from New York. I'm actually originally from Ohio and I live as an expat in Panama. Also I too love Texas for the same reasons you do. But check out the state of New York when you have time.

Most people who don't live here pronounce it wrong, but if I hear appa-lay-cha again, I'm gonna throw an apple atcha. I'm kind of joking, but it's appa-latch-uh. I'm not sure exactly how to write pronunciation properly, but that should be about right. It's derived from the word apalachee, which is, oddly enough, the name of a native tribe that didn't even live in appalachia, but northern Florida.

There is a bunch wrong with this video. For starters the Appalachian trail runs from Maine to Georgia. It runs through Maryland. In fact it runs through Washington Monument State Park in Maryland and actually was the first and original monument to George Washington. Btw It is considered a right of passage to spend time on the Appalachian trail and most Boy Scouts hike on the closest part of the trail in there state. I have actually taken Boy Scouts from Washington Monument State Park to Harper’s Ferry West Virginia. The Appalachian mountain region also unfortunately is Coal Country. The most dangerous profession of all. The corporations took advantage of the residents and they now live with contaminated water, Black Lung Disease and a host of other ailments. The terrain makes new construction almost impossible because of cost. Not to mention that Maryland, Va, Wva and Pa have to deal with Historic landmarks and Battlefields that can’t be touched under any circumstances. Due to the ground contamination you can’t grow any crops. I wouldn’t eat the fish or drink the water near coal mining towns.

Poverty will happen anywhere you push your job market, industry and economy towards one resource, coal in this case.

@kennethswartz8252

5 ай бұрын

Plus all the pain clinics that handed out opioids for people to get addicted like candy on Halloween. Now it's heroin, fentanyl and meth since they can't get their pain pills anymore.

This video is highly misleading and takes a whole lot of social and economic into the realm of propaganda and forcing an entire way of life into gentrification compliance. These studies just assume that higher education and technology are a commonly desired goal to be obtained, when the truth of the matter is that mountain people just want to be left alone to live in a simple, uncomplicated, unsophisticated, fashion where snooty city folk stay out and mind their own business. However, because we have no interest in big fancy houses, no interest in thinking, speaking and behaving like everyone else, don't believe that "education" is the key to happiness, and that 'wealth" is subjective, urban people mock because they can't imagine a world where their government masters don't provide a clean little gilded cage, with daily step by step instructions on what to wear, what to eat, what to think, what to say, what to drive, what to like and dislike, what is entertaining...... it terrifies city people that us mountain folk view them as caged animals in a zoo that they all fought to create. Now they are trapped there, not know of any other way to exist.

Wow, this video is so wrong. So is Wikipedia! People in Pittsburgh and Knoxville do not consider themselves to be in Appalachia. Having lived in Tennessee, I can assure you that people there do not even remotely consider themselves to be in Appalachia. By the way, Knoxville is in the Smoky Mountains, not the Blue Ridge Mountains. This guy's video was too aggravating to watch after that. But you got a "like" from me anyway!

Kentucy and WV both share the same problem-lack of education. This is particularly true in the hardest hit parts of the states. If you were to look at the high-school graduation rates in Western Kentucky and Eastern West Virgina you will see a stark difference with the rest of the country. A huge problem for the future is that the industry (Coal) is a dying industry, with no future. I have no solutions to offer, just observations.