Johnny Hill Won the 1983 Pocahontas County Liar’s Contest With This Magical Tall Tale

Over Bonnie Mural in Marlinton

Pocahontas County artist Molly Must created the Over Bonnie mural in downtown Marlinton, an ode to the West Virginia poet laureate and Buckeye, W. Va.-born Louise McNeill. The mural illustrates the transformation of Appalachia in the 19th and 20th century from the writings of local G.D. McNeill and the poems of his daughter, Louise. Click […]

Marlinton Residents Try to Remain Optimistic this Christmas

Traditions are a big part of Appalachian culture. And for the people of Marlinton, W.Va. that means that not even a fire could keep them from a Christmas celebration. A fire devastated one block of Main Street Marlinton, West Virginia in November of last year. Kelly Taber with Allegheny Mountain Radio reports that the  town […]

Johnny Hill Won the 1983 Pocahontas County Liar’s Contest With This Magical Tall Tale

Now here’s something you don’t hear about everyday: A chicken that lays wooden eggs. It’s a tall tale told by a man named Johnny Hill, in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. Gibbs Kinderman brings us this archived recording of Johnny Hill’s magical story about some very peculiar hens. The above photo of the chickens was taken […]

Allegheny Echoes: Learning W. Va. Old Time Music at its Source

For one week each June, Marlinton, West Virginia lights up with the sound of fiddles and banjos. The weeklong workshop, Allegheny Echoes, attracts nearly 150 students each year to the mountains of Pocahontas County to play and learn traditional West Virginia old-time music. The epicenter of Allegheny Echoes is the Marlinton Motor Inn, where classes […]

Young Elkins Musicians Help Revive Old Time Music

photo of the Alleycats outside the Delmonte in Elkins, by Bill King. The Tribble’s house stands out from the street because of the solar panels on the roof, and because even from outside you can hear the sound of 16-year-old Walter King warming up his fiddle. Beside him stands Nevada Tribble, with long, straight red […]