History UsefulNotes / Appalachia

* ''Film/TheMothmanProphecies'', as well as the book it was based off of, takes place in and around Point Pleasant, West Virginia and [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory dramatizes reports and events that occurred in the area during the 1960's.]]
* ''Film/HarlanCountyUSA'' is a famous 1976 documentary about a coal miners' strike in Harlan County, Kentucky, and the vicious repressive tactics employed by the mine owners in an effort to break the strike.
* The first part of ''Film/CoalMinersDaughter'', before Loretta Lynn moves away with her new husband, is set in a rural Kentucky town where there's not much to do besides dig for coal and drink moonshine.

* ''Film/LoganLucky'' is largely set in southern West Virginia, though the heist that makes up the climax is set in Charlotte, North Carolina (which in recent decades has become a popular destination for West Virginia transplants).
* ''Film/{{Lawless}}'' is a movie about a family of {{Hillbilly Moonshiner}}s in 1920s Virginia.

[[AC: Comics]]
* "The Crooked Man" story within the ''ComicBook/{{Hellboy}}'' series takes place in rural western Virginia in the late 1950's and deals with common ghost stories and folklore of the area.
* The Guthrie family from Comicbook/XMen are from eastern Kentucky. Best-known members are eldest son Cannonball and eldest daughter Husk, though most of the younger kids are mutants as well, and mother Lucinda is a staunch ally.
* Eric Powell's ''ComicBook/{{Hillbilly}}'' is a SwordAndSorcery story set in a ConstructedWorld heavily based on Appalachian culture and folklore. It follows a wandering MountainMan as he gets into strange misadventures and battles fearsome monsters.

* ''Literature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'' owes a number of its stories to Appalachian folklore and ghost stories.
** As you might have guessed from ''Film/TheMothmanProphecies'' and ''Hellboy'' borrowing from this tradition as mentioned on this page, this area of the country has a ''long'' tradition of scary campfire stories, hauntings and witch tales, another by-product of its long isolation from outside modernization and communication.
* ''Literature/{{Pondovadia}}'' is an ongoing story that takes place mostly in West Virginia (specifically an alternate universe version of Morgantown).
* ''A Walk in the Woods'' by Creator/BillBryson deals with an attempt to hike the trail.
* District 12 in ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' is explicitly stated to be in "what was known as Appalachia." It is poor and its main industry is coal mining.

* ''Literature/TheTrailOfTheLonesomePine''. (One interesting thing about the book: its Northeastern focal character casually scorns Appalachian flintlock muskets. Admittedly, they were very obsolete weapons by 1900 or so, when the book is set; but they're beautiful weapons, often crafted to world-class levels of quality. One of the Foxfire Books relates an incident where a German expert looked at a pistol crafted by an Appalachian master gunsmith, and confidently dated the weapon to Bavaria in the 1770s; he had to be shown the fresh wood under the firing assembly before he would accept that it was contemporary!
* Creator/ManlyWadeWellman's ''Literature/SilverJohn'' dark-fantasy stories are set in this region. Wellman was an expert when it came to the folktales and music of the area, and it shows in his work.

* ''Literature/HillbillyElegy'': A 2016 memoir by J.D. Vance, a venture capitalist (and later US Senator) from southwestern Ohio's Appalachian diaspora who examined the relation between Appalachian values and the social problems he saw during his formative years. It was also adapted as a movie for Creator/{{Netflix}}.
* The premise of the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series involves a Appalachian mining town from 2000 being taken back in time into central Germany in the middle of the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout76'', an online multiplayer survival SpinOff of the ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'' series that takes place in West Virginia and the surrounding region. Among recognizable landmarks and areas are the New River Gorge Bridge, the Charleston Capitol Building, and Camden Park.

* Appalachia is stereotypically characterized by rural isolation, poverty, and coal mining. Inbreeding was a major problem historically; the [[http://abcnews.go.com/Health/blue-skinned-people-kentucky-reveal-todays-genetic-lesson/story?id=15759819 "blue people" of Kentucky]] are a famous case of a recessive gene showing up due to this. Nowadays, inbreeding isn't much of a problem anymore, but various other health issues arise due to mining hazards, abysmal poverty, diabetes, and rampant drug abuse. The New Deal brought electricity to the region in the 1930s-1950s, and so TV and radio broke the region's isolation somewhat -- although the hilly terrain makes transmission and reception difficult. The construction of Interstates 64, 77, and 79 (the former only completed in 1988) also opened up the barely-touched interior of West Virginia to the masses, and various rural-development efforts are ongoing throughout the region today.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout76'', an online multiplayer survival SpinOff of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series that takes place in West Virginia and the surrounding region. Among recognizable landmarks and areas are the New River Gorge Bridge, the Charleston Capitol Building, and Camden Park.

* TheMothman: A mysterious cryptid that was reportedly seen by dozens in people in the West Virginia town of Point Pleasant between 1966 and 1967.

* BadadsDriver: A trait stereotypically associated with the Hillbilly Moonshiners and their Cool Cars. After all, you need to be able to handle that souped-up hot rod on bad roads to outrun the law.

* BadAssDriver: A trait stereotypically associated with the Hillbilly Moonshiners and their Cool Cars. After all, you need to be able to handle that souped-up hot rod on bad roads to outrun the law.

Appalachia is a cultural region in the United States that stretches from western New York down to central Alabama. It is named for the Appalachian Mountains, which technically includes most of New England and a tiny bit of eastern Canada as well, but "Appalachia" commonly refers to the central and southern portions of the mountain range. The region is stereotyped as the DeepSouth's hilly cousin,[[note]]Pedantically speaking, "hillbilly" is a slur for someone specifically from this region and not southerners/rural folk in general, hence the "hill" part.[[/note]] but it has a few peculiarities of its own, as explained below.

* Moonshine has been an Appalachian tradition ever since the ancestors of the Appalachian people picked it up from the Irish in Ulster. (Like Irish whiskey, and unlike its Scotch counterpart, Appalachian moonshine isn't aged.) Strictly speaking, moonshine is any alcohol produced illegally, without government inspection or payment of excise taxes. But in Appalachia, "moonshine" or "white lightning" has come to mean a particular type of clear corn liquor, normally above 50% alcohol by volume, which has a flavor both fiery and very mild. This has led to some InsistentTerminology among moonshine enthusiasts, as many liquor stores in the region sell "moonshine" that's simply commercial corn whiskey in a mason jar, as legally-regulated as any other hard liquor on the shelves.

* Moonshine has been an Appalachian tradition ever since the ancestors of the Appalachian people picked it up from the Irish in Ulster. (Like Irish whiskey, and unlike its Scotch counterpart, Appalachian moonshine isn't aged.) Strictly speaking, moonshine is any alcohol produced illegally, without government inspection or payment of excise taxes. But in Appalachia, "moonshine" or "white lightning" has come to mean a particular type of clear corn liquor, normally above 50% alcohol by volume, which has a flavor both fiery and very mild. This has led to some InsistentTerminology among moonshine enthusiasts, as many liquor stores in the region sell "moonshine" that's really just corn whiskey in a mason jar, but is otherwise legally-regulated liquor.

Appalachia is a cultural region in the United States that stretches from western New York down to central Alabama. It is named for the Appalachian Mountains, which technically includes most of New England and a tiny bit of eastern Canada as well, but "Appalachia" commonly refers to the central and southern portions of the mountain range. The region is stereotyped as the DeepSouth's hilly cousin,[[note]]Pedantically speaking, "hillbilly" is a slur for someone specifically from this region and not southerners in general, hence the "hill" part.[[/note]] but it has a few peculiarities of its own, as explained below.

* One very popular reason for visiting is to hike the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, usually simply referred to as the Appalachian Trail. The Trail is a 2,200-mile hiking and camping route that stretches from Maine to Georgia. Most hikers simply enjoy parts of the trail, as hiking the entire thing is a months-long ordeal.