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What is Appalachia
What do people mean when they say Appalachian region? Where are they from when they say that they are from Appalachia? What is the political background of many Appalachians? When people hear that someone is an Appalachian, what are some of the stereotypes that are associated with that person? These are a few of the questions that will be looked at.
To say the that a person is from the Appalachian region is a pretty broad statement, it does not reveal as much about where that person is from then one might think. Although the Appalachian Regional Commission defines the Appalachian region as a 200,000-square mile area that runs along the spine of the Appalachian Mountains, the actual region is somewhat ambiguous (www.post-gazette.com). Its borders are not clearly laid out on a map. According to an article in the post-gazette, the Appalachian region includes all of West Virginia, which is the only state that is located entirely inside the Appalachian region, as well as parts of twelve other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia (www.post-gazette.com).
There are about twenty-two million people who live in Appalachia. These people cover a very vast four hundred and six counties that make up the region. Of this territory, much of it, forty-two percent, is made up of rural area. The national average is only about twenty percent (www.post-gazette.com). This may help give an idea of just how spread out the region is. As a native West Virginian, I can remember that it was not at all uncommon for someone to have to ride a bus over an hour one way just to get to school.
The Appalachian region is very beautiful. The terrain is very mountainous, and is very rich with wild life. My home state of West Virginia is largely dominated by woodland, and has many Georges and rivers. The extreme nature of the terrain creates a lively tourist industry that has seen a hay day in the past ten to twelve years. The Appalachian region also has many natural resources, the two major resources being coal and timber. According to the DNR, the state of Ohio alone, which is located in the northern portion of the Appalachian Coal Basin, contains over 11.8 billion tons of recoverable coal (http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/mineral/coal/c3.html).
Unfortunately due to poor management of the regions resources in the past, much of the Appalachian region does not realize the benefit of the resources it possesses. Many out-of-state corporations have dominated the harvest and use Appalachia’s natural resources. Sadly munch of the wealth has been transported outside of the region, leaving its inhabitants with a very small amount to show for it. As a result there is a very high poverty rate. Recently, however, there have been many government programs designed to improve these conditions. As stated [next page]