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West Virginia's Rails
The Mountain
State has a bit of a reputation for being, well, backwards.
Everyone's heard the jokes about hillbillies and gun racks and
outhouses. The truth is, there is some truth to those old jokes. But
West Virginia is slowly catching up with civilization. Tourism is
now just as important as coal mining. An Applebee's or a
Mickey-D's is just as easy to find as a hardware store or a honkey-tonk.
Motels crowd interstate exits, and cars with out-of-state tags fill
their parking lots.
A century ago, there was only one
practical way to travel into the Appalachian Mountains, and only one way
to haul out all the coal that was being pulled from inside those
mountains. Rail lines cut through the wilderness: most followed
the path already cut by rivers and streams. Communities sprung up
beside them. Boom towns boomed.
Of course, almost no one rides the rails
anymore (although Amtrak still services parts of the state). Four
lane freeways cruise over the mountain tops, and bridges pass high above
the small communities in the hollows. Those tiny communities now
crumble and rust, while a few isolated residents cling to what remains.
This is why I believe one of the best ways to
discover West Virginia's wild and wonderful, rough and tumble back
country, is to follow the rails. In 2003 I had the chance to explore
several communities that still allow you to sample the state, the way it
was. And yes, you probably will see a few outhouses along the way.
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