I recently visited the State of West Virginia, in particular the Capitol City of Charleston and Clay County. There I met many people who were friendly and willing to talk - especially talk. They had many stories to tell me about their state and their lives. The citizens of West Virginia, the Mountain State, are fiercely proud of their heritage. Oral history and storytelling still play a vital role in their daily life even though the state is rapidly evolving into the Information Age.
The mountains of West Virginia are part of the "Appalachian Chain" that stretches Georgia and Alabama to Quebec. They are home to a unique mixture of people who settled in this region and their descendants still live today. The cultural heritage of indigenous Native and African Americans have mingled with the Scotch/Irish traditions, resulting in a mixture that is rich in the oral tradition and encompassing a love of storytelling. Much family and community history is preserved in stories still told around the dinner table and in front of the fireplace as well as at community gatherings. It is still possible to hear a story about a bear, or a flood, or a union strike in the area. The residents of West Virginia, and the rest of Appalachia are also known to be especially adept, or prone some would say, at telling tall tales about mysterious caves, conspiracies, ghost and hairy man-like creatures in their wild hills.
Talk to locals in Athens and you will hear all about the horror on the Ridges and local cemeteries' locations that supposedly form a pentagram when you join them on a map. The good citizens of Point Pleasant and Gallipolis still tell about the Curse of Chief Cornstalk. Then there are the old standbys, the milk snake which climb the legs of cows to drink them dry, or the hoop snake that bite its tail and roll like a wheel.
Approximately three thousand Native Americans live in West Virginia and many citizens have Native American blood in their family history. The Native American traditions are still strong and storytelling is one. Presentations of their traditions including storytelling are given locally at festivals, schools and powwows.
The Black American tradition is also strong in West Virginia. Perhaps the most famous story told in the Black American storytelling tradition is that of John Henry, who was a real person. John Henry was one of the many Black Americans who worked on the nation's railroads. As a steel-driving hammerman he worked on the Big Bend railway tunnel in Summers County, WV. The story goes that he challenged a new fan-dangled steel laying machine to a contest and won. He died from the exertion at the finish line but not before showing that a man of character and strength beat any old machine by a country mile. His story is commemorated in ballads and songs. A statue of John Henry still stands in Summers County.
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