Why A Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest?

What makes a town or small community a place where people want to live? Where strangers want to move to? WMMT reports on the Great Mountain Mural Mega Fest organized by the Southeast Kentucky Revitalization Project, which is coordinated by the Appalachian Studies Program at Harlan County’s Southeast Community and Technical College. The goal of […]

Taking Flight: Will Drones Bring Jobs

Student teams from across the eastern Kentucky coalfields came together at the Knott County Sportsplex, bringing with them drones that they themselves had built. It was time for the climax of this year-long project supported by the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC). The Ohio Valley has been a leader in aerospace engineering. Now there’s a […]

Derek Akal’s Struggle to Stay

Derek Akal, 22, grew up in the famed coalfields of Harlan County, Kentucky. He’s a bit over six feet tall, he’s black, and he has an athlete’s build. Like many young people in central Appalachia, he is torn between a desire to find work at home where he can be close to family and the […]

Western Front Hotel: Model Remodel

Can a boutique hotel and restaurant in a former downtown department store spark an economic revival in and around St. Paul, a coalfields town located on the Clinch River in southwestern Virginia? The newly opened Western Front Hotel and Milton’s Restaurant grew from community-wide efforts begun over 15 years ago to plan the place residents […]