OUR MOUNTAIN HOME
A BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR RESILIENT LAND AND PEOPLE
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Historically, wood was not just a resource in Appalachia - it meant life or death. The rugged, mountainous terrain naturally presented some large-scale obstacles to society "progress"; it prevented large-scale industry and economy from proliferating, restricting trade and transfer of goods between areas; it localized quality farming land to sporadic sections across
the area. There was poor access to societal infrastructure like education and medicine. All of these things made life in Appalachia hard fought and nothing was easy. BUT WE SURVIVED. The people who lived here had to be very resilient and strong to survive, especially relying on their woods as an integral part of that survival. Thanks to that same inaccessible terrain, Appalachia, and West Virginia in particular, remained largely as it was for millennia until the mid-nineteenth century, when the steam locomotive, the commercial band mill, and large-scale coal mining came into the region. Large stands of native old growth oak, sycamore, beech, yellow poplar, chestnut, cherry, walnut, and maple trees that stood for 500 hundred years were gone in a single human lifetime. As they always had before, the people and land subsisted and persisted through those toughest times. BUT WE SURVIVED. We are proud to step in the shoes of these great people that have come before us and pay homage to them and their legacies of hard work and responsible stewardship of the land and use of its resources for all; the land that they cared for with their very lives. |
THE GIVING TREE
Image Copyright © 2019 Mountain Home Woods
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Despite massive natural resource depletion on a massive scale starting before the Civil War and going into the beginning of the 20th Century, Appalachia, much like "The Giving Tree" By Shel Silverstein, keeps on giving. The people as it turns out, aren't all that is resilient and strong about Appalachia. To this day, West Virginia is the third most heavily forested state in US, with forests covering over 78% of the state's 15.4 million acres. West Virginia is also the second leading hardwood growing stock state in the nation. (WV Dept. of Commerce)
Beyond the statistics, Appalachia remains one of the linchpins of our nation's expanding cultural fabric. The region's identity, while seemingly more muted in today's online world, still echoes with the ghosts of our forefathers and their ways and values. Their struggle to survive in the land of opportunity embodies the pride and spirit of Appalachia and our country and is as relevant today as it was back then. |