• What Is Appalachia

  The Appalachian Mountains run roughly parallel to the Atlantic Coast and extend from Newfoundland to central Alabama. This mountain formation is what defines Appalachia geologically. Coal was a part of the Appalachians long before the mountains that now mark the region were raised. The area was a swampland hundreds of millions of years ago, and as prehistoric mosses and ferns grew and died coal began to form. Layer after layer of organic material stacked and settled. As pressure increased on the lower levels of the debris the deposits turned first to peat and then to coal. The process took eons, but the product was awesome: Appalachia now holds close to one hundred billion tons of coal. These mountains also contain large amounts of oil, gas, asbestos, limestone, marble, granite, iron ore, and other minerals.
  
  Next the swampland plain was heaved up, and while sliding faults quickly created taller ridges, it took millions of years of running water to carve the majority of the mountains out of the resulting plateau. On the surface heavy rainfall and moderate temperatures fostered plants and trees of a variety unequaled in the northern hemisphere. Below, except for the times when it was uncovered by streams or brought to the surface by the action of geologic faults, the coal, which had settled in seams much like layers of icing in a cake, remained hidden.
  
  Under President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” in the 1960s, a political definition of Appalachia was created, based on the existence of persistent poverty in counties throughout these mountains. An Appalachian Regional Commission was created (ARC) whose task it was to define the boundaries of this region and develop programs to end poverty. The ARC-defined region includes parts of 13 states stretching from New York to Alabama.
  
  The place people most often refer to when they use the term “Appalachia” is central Appalachia, the coalfields and mountainous areas that cover all of West Virginia and parts of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

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