We Southerners cherish our “characters” – eccentrics and outliers who intensify the spiciness of life. Take William Faulkner. To his neighbors in Oxford, Mississippi, Faulkner was “count no count,” a little bitty fellow who put on airs while sporting a limp and a cane and donning a cape for hisContinue Reading
Today, our journey begins in Appalachia’s Lawrence County, Alabama, where the mountains are more like hills, or, like a far-off friend reminding us, “I’m here.” Inside the county, the small town of Oakville boasts two outstanding parks and museums. One park is the Oakville Indian Mounds Park and Museum. TheContinue Reading
February is Black History Month. To honor that history, Appalachia Bare will endeavor to reveal the true tale of a Kingdom once nestled inside Appalachia’s beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. The story begins with a group of emancipated slaves who journeyed to find a place of their own and wound upContinue Reading
We’re continuing our ghostly series of Appalachian Hauntings. Enjoy the journey! Ohio Moonville Tunnel — Vinton County Background: Moonville was a mining town back in the day, located just near the Maryville and Cincinnati (M&C) Railroad. The town began after a man named Samuel Coe made a deal withContinue Reading
Earlier this year, Appalachia Bare’s Tom Anderson attended a bare-hands baseball game hosted by the Historic Ramsey House. He wrote an article about the experience you can find here. Subsequently, Ramsey House invited us to cover the Celtic and Appalachian Music Festival. We felt so honored to be there. TheContinue Reading
Appalachia Bare wishes a Happy Veterans Day to all our nation’s heroes and heroines. As a thank you, we would like to revisit some of our veteran-related posts. To access these writings, click on the images below. Kings Mountain World War IContinue Reading
New York Lily Dale – Chautauqua County Background: Lily Dale is a spiritualist community allegedly built on supernatural ground. The town was founded in 1879 by William Alden and his family who hosted spiritual picnics and small gatherings on the land.1)Fortmiller, Sandra P. 2006. “A ‘Dale’ By Any OtherContinue Reading
Welcome to our continuing series about Appalachian hauntings. In this post, we’ll be journeying to Georgia, Kentucky, and Mississippi. Enjoy the history and the goose bumps. Georgia Barnsley Gardens – Bartow County Background: Godfrey Barnsley (1805-1873) was an Englishman who came to America in 1824 and soon became one ofContinue Reading
Hauntings are everywhere in the Appalachian Mountains. Whether one believes in such things or not, a person cannot deny the shivers in the darkness when an owl hoots a soothing sound of wisdom, or the early morning sounds of a house “settling” as it pops and cracks at one endContinue Reading
Mary McKeehan Patton was a gunpowder maker for the American Revolutionary War, in particular, the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. Several monuments exist in East Tennessee that honor the Battle of Kings Mountain. A Veterans Monument in Elizabethton, Tennessee, mentions Mary Patton on a side of its obelisk-shaped tower.Continue Reading