Small town appalachia

Looking towards the small town of Matoaka, West Virginia from the embargoed Norfolk & Western Bluestone Branch we catch the headlights of an empty hopper train on the former Virginian Railway mainline to Mullens.

Old railroad tressle -- I thought it made for a nice shot.

Counties : Alleghany, Bath, Bland, Botetourt, Buchanan, Carroll, Craig, Dickenson, Floyd, Giles, Grayson, Henry, Highland, Lee, Montgomery, Patrick, Pulaski, Rockbridge, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, and Wythe. The following independent cities in Virginia are also within the Appalachian Region: Bristol, Buena Vista, Covington, Galax, Lexington, Martinsville, Norton, and Radford. Contributors : Sandy Berry, Katie Currid , Cameron Davidson , Cheylen Davis, Maury…

The author’s culprits for the plight of coal-country residents include local politicians, absentee landlords and Alexander Hamilton. Beth Macy reviews ‘Ramp Hollow’ by Steven Stoll.

A half-century after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared “war on poverty,” McDowell County, W.Va., is a sobering reminder of how much remains broken, in drearily familiar ways and utterly unexpected ones.

Sugar Hollow road south of Tunkhannock Pennsylvania.

The town of Nauvoo, Alabama, has a population of barely over 200 people. “If you blink, you would drive straight through it,” the photographer Devin Lunsford tells me. He’s been…

Atlanta

A new account challenges our notion of how the people of Appalachia “acquired civilization and then lost it.”

dorothy gale aesthetic wizard of oz judy garland

Walker Pickering (b. 1980) is an artist and photographer based in Austin, Texas. His work is primarily documentary in nature, using photography as a means to get access to people and places that mi…

Nearly everyone has forgotten about this tiny ghost town hiding in Pennsylvania. You won't believe how it's just sitting there.

mountain stream east of Williamsport, Pennsylvania