Stories of Appalachia
Welcome to "Stories of Appalachia," the podcast where hosts Steve Gilly and Rod Mullins have been unraveling the captivating history and folklore of the Appalachian region since 2015. Join them as they guide you through mist-covered mountains and winding rivers, exploring the stories that define the heart and soul of Appalachia.
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 12 minutes
- Episodes
- 557
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2025
The French-Eversole Feud
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, …
00:15:55 |
Sat 27 Aug 2016
The 1982 Knoxville Worlds Fair and the Butcher Brothers
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 podcast,…
00:11:15 |
Sat 20 Aug 2016
The Escape
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 tough …
00:08:02 |
Sat 13 Aug 2016
George Went Hensley, Snake Handling Preacher
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 of …
00:14:15 |
Sat 06 Aug 2016
The Swinging Bridge Collapse
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 Convent…
00:06:27 |
Tue 02 Aug 2016
Eric Robert Rudolph
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 m…
00:12:28 |
Sat 30 Jul 2016
Ezekiel Pyles and the Confederados
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 the…
00:09:04 |
Tue 26 Jul 2016
The Integration of Clinton High School
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 Ea…
00:12:15 |
Sat 23 Jul 2016
Baseball in Clintwood, Virginia in the 1940’s
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 s…
00:10:17 |
Tue 19 Jul 2016
The Hellfire of Centralia
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 di…
00:14:06 |
Sat 16 Jul 2016
The Letter
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 be…
00:09:27 |
Tue 12 Jul 2016
The Franklin County Moonshine Trial
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 c…
00:12:14 |
Sat 09 Jul 2016
The Southwest Virginia State Mental Hospital
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 favorit…
00:09:43 |
Mon 04 Jul 2016
The Year Without a Summer
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 energy …
00:09:58 |
Sat 02 Jul 2016
Tarzan of Appalachia
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. T…
00:08:19 |
Tue 28 Jun 2016
The Birth of West Virginia
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 iTu…
00:16:22 |
Sat 25 Jun 2016
Christopher Gist
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!
00:09:33 |
Tue 21 Jun 2016
Nu-No-Du-Na-Tlo-Hi-Lu (The Trail Where They Cried)
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 Mississipp…
00:11:47 |
Sat 18 Jun 2016
The Wytheville Polio Epidemic
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 Wythevill…
00:13:38 |
Sat 11 Jun 2016
The Wilderness Road
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 sett…
00:10:46 |
Sat 04 Jun 2016
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