History UsefulNotes / Appalachia

* ''Rocket Boys'': The original title of the memoir of NASA engineer Homer Hickam, upon which the film ''October Sky'' was based. (Note that all editions published since the film came out have been titled ''October Sky''.)

* ''Literature/HillbillyElegy'': A 2016 memoir by J.D. Vance, a venture capitalist from southwestern Ohio's Appalachian disapora who examined the relation between Appalachian values and the social problems he saw during his formative years. Now being adapted into a film set for a 2020 release.

* ''Hillbilly Elegy'': A 2016 memoir by J.D. Vance, a venture capitalist from southwestern Ohio's Appalachian disapora who examined the relation between Appalachian values and the social problems he saw during his formative years. Now being adapted into a film set for a 2020 release.

* ''A Walk In The Woods'' by Creator/BillBryson deals with an attempt to hike the trail.

* Literature/TheEducationOfLittleTree (written, oddly enough, by a former Klansman with no Cherokee ancestors) is set in Appalachia, and while it's not a reliable source for Cherokee culture, the values in the book are very Appalachian-like.
* 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!

* ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'' is an [[AdventureGame adventure]] [[PlatformGame platformer]] that takes place in Possum Springs, a town populated entirely by PettingZooPeople based on the mining communities of Northern Pennsylvania. The narrative explores many contemporary issues, such as poverty and depression in Appalachia.

* 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. Nowadays, various brands of legal moonshine are sold in liquor stores in the region, though rural folk will scoff at the "store-bought shit" in favor of the real thing.

** Even more recently, opioids (i.e., painkillers) have become a problem at least as great as meth, if not more so. While they've become an issue throughout the country, Appalachia has often been viewed, rightly or wrongly, as "ground zero" for the opioid epidemic. The problem began with doctors overprescribing painkillers, but got much worse once drug cartels, especially from Mexico, flooded the region with cheaper and easier-to-get heroin. And then came synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, so potent that police and first responders have overdosed simply from touching or inhaling tiny amounts while responding to an emergency call.

* ''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.

* ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'' is an [[AdventureGame adventure]] [[PlatformGame platformer]] that takes place in Possum Springs, a town populated entirely by PettingZooPeople based on the mining communities of Northern Pennsylvania. The narrative explores many contemporary issues, such as poverty and depression in Appalachia.

** Other major cities border the region, such as [[UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC Washington]], UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Louisville. Many Appalachians seeking the urban life will relocate to one of these cities. Important smaller cities in the region include Huntington, Wheeling, and Charleston in West Virginia; Knoxville, Chattanooga, and the "Tri-Cities"[[note]]Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol[[/note]] in Tennessee; Asheville, North Carolina; Huntsville, Alabama; and the Roanoke-Blacksburg-Christiansburg area in Virginia.

** The isolation created by the mountains sometimes has its upsides: thus the National Radio-Quiet Zone and the Green Bank Telescope, in the heart of the Appalachian plateau in West Virginia.
* UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} is the largest city in Appalachia proper, with a metro area of over 2 million, and is quite notorious for its distinctive geography. Next is "The Upstate" of South Carolina (Greenville–Spartanburg), with about 1.4 million population. [[note]]The Appalachian Regional Commission's definition of "Appalachia" does not include all of The Upstate, but the counties that are home to Greenville and Spartanburg are within it.[[/note]]; last is Birmingham, Alabama with about 1.2 million.

** Even more recently, opioids (i.e., painkillers) have become a problem at least as great as meth, if not more so. While they've become an issue throughout the country, Appalachia has often been viewed, rightly or wrongly, as "ground zero" for the opioid epidemic. While the problem began with doctors overprescribing painkillers, it got much worse once drug cartels, especially from Mexico, flooded the region with cheaper and easier-to-get heroin. And then came synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, so potent that police and first responders have overdosed simply from touching or inhaling tiny amounts while responding to an emergency call.

* 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.
* And if you don't feel like walking, there's always the Blue Ridge Parkway, a 496 mile stretch of uninterrupted two-lane roadway that reaches from Rockfish Gap, Virginia to Swain County, North Carolina. It goes near many of the major features, cities, and towns in the Great Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains, and boasts spectacular views almost any time of year. It's also the most visited feature of the United States National Park System anywhere in the U.S.[[note]]The parkway itself is not a National Park, but the National Park Service is responsible for the land on either side of it[[/note]]; however, since it is involved with the Park System, the speed limit is maxed out at 45 miles per hour. As the boys from ''Series/TopGear'' and many others have found out, drivers craving speed instead of scenery are best served elsewhere.

* ''Film/HarlanCountyUSA'' is a famous 1976 documentary about a coal miners' strike in Harlan County, KY, and the vicious repressive tactics employed by the mine owners in an effort to break the strike.

* ''Film/LoganLucky'' is largely set in southern West Virginia, though the heist that makes up the climax is set in Charlotte, NC.

* 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!)

* A romanticized view is found in Music/JohnDenver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," which in 2014 was made one of West Virginia's official state songs.

* ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'' is an [[AdventureGame adventure]] [[PlatformGame platformer]] that takes place in Possum Springs, an old mining community based on towns in Northern Pennsylvania, and is populated entirely by PettingZooPeople. The narrative explores many of the region's contemporary issues, such as poverty and depression in Appalachia.

* ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'' is an [[AdventureGame adventure]] [[PlatformGame platformer]] takes place in Possum Springs, an old mining community based on towns in Northern Pennsylvania populated entirely by [[PettingZooPeople anthropomorphic animals]].

* ''VideoGame/KentuckyRouteZero'', an AdventureGame taking place in Kentucky that draws inspiration from local folklore (especially, again, the aforementioned ghost stories), music, and contemporary issues.

* UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} is the largest city in Appalachia proper, with a metro area of over 2 million, and is quite notorious for its hilly terrain. Next is "The Upstate" of South Carolina (Greenville–Spartanburg), with about 1.4 million population. [[note]]The Appalachian Regional Commission's definition of "Appalachia" does not include all of The Upstate, but the counties that are home to Greenville and Spartanburg are within it.[[/note]]; last is Birmingham, Alabama with about 1.2 million.

* UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}} is the largest city in Appalachia proper, with a metro area of over 2 million. Next is "The Upstate" of South Carolina (Greenville–Spartanburg), with about 1.4 million population. [[note]]The Appalachian Regional Commission's definition of "Appalachia" does not include all of The Upstate, but the counties that are home to Greenville and Spartanburg are within it.[[/note]]; last is Birmingham, Alabama with about 1.2 million.

* 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. Nowadays, various brands of legal moonshine can be found in liquor stores, though rural folk will scoff at the "store-bought shit" in favor of the "real" thing.

** Environmental controversies are a constant in the region: Appalachia is full of beautiful wooded mountains and fossil fuels, but it's not exactly full of jobs. The great ecological issue of the early 2000s was [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin mountaintop removal]], which involved blowing off the tops of mountains to allow strip-mining of their coal (a much safer practice than following seams underground). The controversy of the 2010s is "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing: blasting high-pressure water into oil-bearing shale, allowing its oil and natural gas to be pumped out. Fracking brings valuable jobs to impoverished areas, at the cost of severe water pollution, unknown atmospheric health hazards, and man-made earthquakes.

* The Guthrie family from Comicbook/{{X-Men}} 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.

* In the ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'' prequel, ''The Kill Order'', the protagonists set up a small village in the Appalachians after a tsunami devastated New York City. [[DoomedHometown It doesn't last long]].