Mining Communities in Times of Change

In the 1960s Anthropologist Helen Lewis established one of the first Appalachian Studies programs in the country, at what was then Clinch Valley College in Wise County, Virginia.  Here Helen joins one of her former undergraduate students, lawyer and community leader Frank Kilgore of St. Paul, Virginia, at the site of the new Dominion energy […]

A Safe Haven for Injured Birds of Prey

Letcher County is now home to the only raptor rehabilitation center in southeastern Kentucky.  The new facility opened last month at the Letcher County Extension Office, and will serve as a home for injured and recovering birds of prey rescued throughout the region.  At the ribbon cutting ceremony in early March, Letcher countians got to […]

Mountain Talk – School Consolidation in the County

Letcher County parents, students and officials joined host Sylvia Ryerson and engineer Brett Ratliff in an hour-long discussion of a proposal to consolidate the county’s elementary school system into three middle schools. In this program we hear from concerned citizens about what small schools mean for their children and their community’s survival. [wpdm_file id=38]  

“Citizens Against Consolidation” Organize to Keep Community Schools Open

On Monday, November 7, over one hundred people gathered at the Letcher County courthouse to protest a possible redistricting plan that would close two Letcher County elementary schools and consolidate the entire system into three middle schools.  Calling themselves “Citizens Against Consolidation,”  the group marched from the Courthouse to City Hall, and then back to the […]