A Newspaper Born in the Fire of Bloody Harlan In early May 1931 thousands of miners in Harlan and neighboring Bell County, Kentucky, walked off the job to protest brutal conditions and another round of wage cuts. Their walk-out erupted into gunfire at the Battle of Evarts on 5 May, a fifteen-minute exchange that left four men dead and carried “Bloody Harlan” onto front pages nationwide.

Nestled in the hills of Wise County, Virginia, stands an abandoned orphanage, its concrete façade half-swallowed by trees and briars. Built early in the 20 ^th century, in an era before modern foster care, county orphanages typically provided shelter, education, and basic necessities to local children in need.

A Center Sparked by Two Lifelong Educators When Dr. Edsel T. Godbey arrived in Cumberland in 1959 as the first president of what would become Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College (SKCTC), he saw more than a campus-in-waiting tucked against Black Mountain’s northern flank. He saw a chance to give Harlan County’s coalfield youth the same break that a scholarship had once given a Casey County farm boy named Edsel Godbey.

This is the Fifth in a series exploring once-thriving Appalachian towns left behind by shifting energy markets and changing times. A Mid‑Century Push for Modern Utilities In the years after World War II, small cities across the southern Appalachian coalfields raced to install the public works that bigger towns already took for granted.

This is the Second installment in the Appalachian History series, which delves into the rich, complex past of the Appalachian region—exploring the people, events, and forces that have shaped its identity over generations. On a sweltering July dawn in 1973, the sleepy hamlet of Brookside woke to the rumble of coal trucks and the sight of cardboard signs nailed to wooden

This is the first installment in the Appalachian History series, which delves into the rich, complex past of the Appalachian region—exploring the people, events, and forces that have shaped its identity over generations. On a gray Tuesday morning—May 5, 1931—a handful of laid‑off coal miners shouldered rifles along the Poor Fork Road just east of Evarts, Kentucky.

This is the First in the Repurpose Appalachia series, highlighting the transformation and revitalization of Appalachian mountain communities. ​ Being perched between 4,100 and 4,223 feet on the rugged spine of Stone Mountain, the modern High Knob Observation Tower greets each sunrise with a gleam of galvanized steel on sandstone.

This is the First in the Forgotten Appalachia series exploring the stories and places lost to time in Appalachian mountain communities. Tucked away in downtown Harlan, Kentucky, an unassuming patch of grassy ground at 206 East Clover Street conceals one of the county’s oldest and most intriguing burial grounds.

This is the Fourth in a series exploring once-thriving Appalachian towns left behind by shifting energy markets and changing times. One of the most telling monuments to the evolution of education in Eastern Kentucky is the old M.C. Napier High School, perched by the North Fork of the Kentucky River in Hazard.

This is the First in a series exploring once-thriving Appalachian towns left behind by shifting energy markets and changing times. Perched along U.S. Highway 421 near the north end of Harlan, Kentucky, the Jones Motel once beckoned travelers with a neon sign, a small hillside swimming pool, and the promise of a cozy night’s rest according to several posts in the ‘I Grew Up in Harlan’ facebook group.

This is the Second in a series exploring once-thriving Appalachian towns left behind by shifting energy markets and changing times. High on Pine Mountain’s crest in eastern Kentucky, a rusted steel skeleton stands watch over the ridges: the Beschman Lookout Tower, better known by its local name — the Putney Fire Tower.