But when the entire state relied on coal for so long and so heavily, it is not a surprise that their senator is a representative of the industry so many there are involved in.
@@pavuk357 It's not surprising insofar as American politicians tend to all be representatives of the upper class rather than working class, but a senator that was a coal miner would act far differently from a mine owner.
It has nothing to do with the Senator. There is just no financial incentive to transition. There is market demand for coal, and so coal shall be supplied. No amount of policy can change that. WV could elect Bernie Sanders and it'll still be selling coal, so long as it can do so cost-competitively with other States.
@@2x2is22 It kinda does have something to do with the senator. It's the senator that can obstruct bills until green energy initiatives are removed and more fossil fuel subsidies are added.
There are some odd country comparisons here. Slovakia isn't amazing but it's a fairly decent place to live. Panama's income is taken out of context. Panama is one of the best countries to live in Central America, and $14000 there goes much farther than in the US. McDowell County adjusted for US cost of living is more similar to Tanzania than Panama.
I agree. There are also some mistakes/misleading information here. West Virginia wasn't even a state till 1863, yet this video presents it as one as far back as 1854? (Using modern borders as well...) West Virginia became a state during the Civil War. A lot of critical information and context are very carelessly left out, not just regarding borders. Using those contrived comparisons to other countries is just the tip of the iceberg regarding all the things wrong with this video.
Hey, mentioning Panama without missing the cost-of-living erases serious nuance. Bet those West Virginians aren't paying Panama prices but are paying Dollar General prices.
As a West Virginian, when I first saw this video title I was worried. Often media about our state is reductive and sometimes cruel. You handled it with care and candor. Thank you
This is why my professor had us read The Road to Wigan Pier in my college British history class. It was about another coal-dominated region and how poverty stricken the areas became (northern parts of England). We’re in KY which is another big coal economy. The parallels between England’s coal country and our Appalachian coal country are impeccable.
In Australia the paradox is if you are right now a coal miner you are probably well paid, but former coal towns from decades ago tend to be very poor and filled with welfare dependent people and social problems
@@radicallyrethinkingrailwaysina That's mostly because of the type of mine being used. QLD and WA today are predominately open cut mines using FIFO camps and workers, supported by regional centres. The older mines were underground and typically had mining towns attached to them, when the mines stopped being viable the workers moved on and the towns died. But if you look at the sort of building materials used for the town, it was corrugated iron and plasterboard. Not exactly made to last forever, and never really made for those places to be called home (especially because the gender ratios meant nobody settled their family there).
Bluefield native here. You said it, this was the most clear-cut explanation I've ever heard. It's so sad to see the continued suffering of our home state. I hope that one day things will change for the better.
Another reason West Virginia has it so rough is severe brain drain. They encourage their kids to go get a college education, but when the kids graduate, unless they're going into teaching, there's little to no places in West Virginia for them to make a top notch living in their chosen field of study. I grew up in Ohio but spent several years at Marshall University in Huntington WV. My best friend at Marshall studied architecture. After getting his undergrad in West Virginia and then going to grad school at Ohio State, he found very little opportunity for architects in the WV. He chose to stay in Columbus where he now makes really good money working for one of the biggest and alway expanding hospital systems in the region. A majority of my Marshall friends have done the same, living and working in places like Chicago, Cincinnati, Seattle, Dallas, Charlotte, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington DC. The industries don't exist to keep the brightest West Virginians at home and in turn, those bright minds cannot contribute to growing those industries in their home state, which would help to grow the economy. It's a vicious cycle all around.
I think it really would be an unprecedented reality, for any major company to chose the rugged landscape of this mountain region, over far cheaper logistics. You would in fact have to not only build factories but entire cities to make it a worthwhile longterm play @@Lenioogami
@@johnwalker5622 Umm... one. Wren Baker is the highest paid employee at 7.1 million. Followed by Neal Brown at 3.98 mill. Then Josh Eilert at 1.5 million. After that we get into administrators. Clay Marsh is just over a million and Gee is at 800 thousand. Then it's a bunch of coaches and administrators. Kellogg is the highest paid headcoach at 550 and Mazey at around 500. The football team has some assistants though that are in the 700 range.
My grandfather was a coal miner. He was medically retired in his 50s because he only had a half lung left due to the coal dust. My grandparents moved to Florida and never looked back. My parents left for California when my dad entered the Navy. We wound up in Texas. My dad used to say, “honey we couldn’t afford to send you to college but at least you weren’t raised in W. Va
@@NA-tu7ntthere are some benefits you can get but a far cry from free college. Really only the person in the military can sometimes get subsidenced college
as a lifelong west virginian, this is the most informative and sensitive way to present our issues. thank you. i have friends from all over the US, and they cannot even remotely comprehend appalachian poverty. i appreciate you covering this subject
I didn't understand it until I saw it with my own eyes. There's plenty of poverty in Oregon & California that I had seen. Then I traveled through WV on a grant-funded trip to study history and culture of the region and realized that WV poverty is really on an entirely different level.
@@christiangrand1625 I didn't have quite as thorough of an exposure to it, but I had to drive from Virginia through the entire width of West Virginia to get a friend out of a really shitty situation in Parkersburg (on the WV side). I was used to the Rust Belt poverty of upstate New York, I was used to the immigrant poverty of El Paso, TX, I was used to the rural poverty of the poor neighborhoods sandwiched between government contractor estates in Virginia. I was not prepared for West Virginia. Even Parkersburg felt less like Rome or Trenton and more like a someone trying to dramatize a movie about some abandoned Detroit suburb or some cartel-owned city in Mexico. Some of the hollows leading up to Paw Paw were really hard to see. It's part of why the "let's fix WV by merging it with another state" videos both make a lot of sense to me and rub me the wrong way tbh
back in 1996 i drove truck cross country. i drove through west virginia and i thought it was the most beautiful place in the entire U.S. . i've mentioned to people over the years that i would love to go there and maybe settle down and people tell me i'm crazy. i'm watching this video just because i remember how beautiful it was. i live in vegas and the desert is just.. HOT. i've long thought about west virginia.
@@christheisgen it’s a beautiful life here most of the time. i recommend the eastern panhandle. i used to live in the middle of west virginia and it is just so isolated. the eastern panhandle is wonderful. we are so close to big cities and beaches that rural wv rarely gets to experience.
i've lived in West Virginia for many years; as another commenter mentioned, the borders are oddly-drawn and each part of the state is different and is economically connected to it's bordering states. There isn't a one-fix solution to the whole state. The Morgantown area and the eastern panhandle near DC are seeing growth but the rest is with a few exceptions either stagnant or declining. The Huntington-Charleston area, as well as Parkersburg and Wheeling are connected to the 'Ohio Valley' region, sitting on the river between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. These cities are small but surprisingly urban for their size because of topography, and architecturally are their own unique flavors of the "Ohio Valley" style (Huntington's vernacular has spectacularly large front porches) and the metro areas have held their population better than coal-dependent counties, but suffer from 'general rust belt problems', some of this decline is connected to the coal industry but also the general decline of manufacturing. Huntington isn't declining as much because it's a college town; Charleston is declining because it's manufacturing sector is continually shrinking. Wheeling is declining slowly but has a more promising future held up by its gorgeous architecture and proximity to Pittsburgh, while Parkersburg is more isolated and declines because it offers little culturally and economically compared to other West Virginia cities. Places like McDowell County with the worst rural poverty often suffer from being inaccessible; the only way in or out is windy 2-lane roads. While old coal mines can be attractive places to redevelop for manufacturing, the infrastructure is not conducive to locating such things in such places, and southern West Virginia has some of the last outstanding unbuilt portions of the Appalachian Development Highway System. In the northern part of the state, Clarksburg suffers from some of the worst suburbanization I've ever seen; while there is an FBI facility nearby and spillover high-paying jobs, as well as proximity to Morgantown and WVU, architecturally-stunning central Clarksburg has largely de-camped to the suburbs, especially Bridgeport, leaving a strangely empty city in a county that hasn't declined in population as much as you may expect. The eastern half of the state is less urbanized and has more elevation change; this is where tourism has started to take hold more. While this may hold promise for the smaller towns in the higher mountains, it won't directly affect the bulk of the state's population in the more urbanized west. Possibly the worst thing holding the state back is simply the stigma. Residents of Richmond, DC, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati and Lexington; all within a few hours of most of West Virginia, will think of the state as a mythical land where (insert ridiculous stereotype) exists; and never give the state a second thought. The few that do visit find the people are laid-back, the natural landscape is gorgeous and the nicer cities and small towns still have some cultural vibrance and lots of beautiful old architecture from their heyday.
Wheeling is declining... but it has a promising future held up by its gorgeous architecture? Wait - are you serious? Or are you just writing nonsense to demonstrate your vast knowledge of the different characteristics of the cities of West Virginia? I'm genuinely curious how the gorgeous architecture of Wheeling (presumably "spectacularly large front porches" or something similar) is making Wheeling's decline likely to magically turn around into a promising future.
@@juggernautAA12 I find the regionality is often overlooked, as West Virginia is quite sparsely populated, it's assumed similar throughout, since it's a blank spot on everyone's mental map anyway. There's a north-south divide (Morgantown/Clarksburg/Wheeling/Martinsburg vs Huntington/Charleston/Beckley/Bluefield), an east-west divide (long mountain ridges and rural vs steep tight valleys and urban), and an urban-rural divide, with the rural areas divided again, into patches of either 'farm country' or 'coal country'. I find it telling that everybody focuses on McDowell County, Anthony Bourdain went there, whenever there's a long-form media piece about West Virginia poverty, its seemingly focused on Welch. Most of West Virginia isn't quite like Welch, it's so remote even by WV standards. Welch needs the King Coal Highway complete, better flood control infrastructure, and a re-establishment of literally any well-paying jobs and civic institutions. Welch has no grocery store. This is different from, say, Clarksburg, which has sufficient grocery stores but needs a healthy dose of civic pride and it's upper class to re-invest in it's downtown; or the state's true economic powerhouse, the Charleston and Huntington areas, which need to grow from their current stagnation by doubling down on their existing thriving industries in healthcare and education, connecting to surrounding regions by improving rail connections on the Amtrak Cardinal between Cincinnati and DC (which also runs directly through New River Gorge National Park with 3 stops in or next to park lands) and establishing themselves as a regional business center with a lower cost of living than Pittsburgh or Cincinnati (and better east coast connections than Cincinnati) as they have a ready supply of qualified Marshall, WVSU and UofC graduates who would love to stay in the area and establish themselves but leave simply because jobs are more plentiful elsewhere.
I can’t express how much this hurt my heart. My mom grew up in Welch. I was raised in Oceana. As a child in the 90s my coal mining father made it feel like we had it all, except… I never got to see him. Ever. I spent my childhood in poverty And practically without a dad. Now his mind is gone and a state I loved that was so beautiful is full of trash and dead wildlife. I loved it here. I was so proud. Now I’m a conservation biologist. I have multiple degrees and experience in many Biological fields. The state just slashed scientific funding by 3/4s. They are stripping the will and drive of us who want to make things better away. I loved West Virginia. The green mountains and clear water streams. But that West Virginia isn’t here anymore. Wildlife is reduced by half. Those same clear streams are poisoned brown. The trees are thinner and dying. My childhood, my memories of every thing I loved. It’s all gone. And my poor poor aging parents…. Are stuck here. Even as I do all I can to escape.
Your comment helped me understand a conservationist biologist position I saw within the last month based out of WV. It focused on deer and their health. I was taken aback a little by the posting. Cab you explain to me what is going on with the wildlife as I am currently job searching and would like to understand WV more in this sector?
I thought that the worst landscape degradation was years ago. I understand that clearcutting and other deforestation had by the 1950's caused the rivers to become overloaded with erosion enhanced runoff such that floods frequently happened on the Kanawha and the Ohio. A floodwall was built around part of Huntington,I have heard that it is rarely closed anymore. Although some of the flood reduction is artificial,due to dams on the upper Ohio sources and a couple large flood control dams on the Kanawha "new" and Gauley a tributary of the Kanawha. I think the Kanawha is the largest of the Ohio tributaries,I suspect it is larger than either the Monongahela or the Allegheny (by themselves,individually,when they combine and added with Beaver "River" (Creek) the total is bigger than the Kanawha. At one time supposedly coal was dumped in masse into the Kanawha in order to allow the river to push it downstream where it was dredged and recovered. Cheap shipping? @@aredape
I can only say that growing up in West Virginia (I too had to leave the state for career reasons) I miss my home greatly. There is something special about my home. It’s like a place where everyone knows you and your family and people love to talk. I miss that friendliness and slower time. I am very fond of my hard working ancestors from this beautiful country life. When people mock my West Virginia it hurts my soul because they genuinely haven’t experienced it’s beauty the way I have.
I feel that. I got a remote job not to long ago and bought land in wv in my hometown and we move back in October. It's just home there's no place like it.
As someone who grew up in rural Iowa and moved to WV to go to Marshall U in Huntington, then stayed here after graduating, this feels like one of the most sensitive and informative looks at West Virginia that I've seen in a while. Thank you, Sam. The folks here are trying their best, but they're disadvantaged based on the decisions made by people at the top - coal CEOs lobbying state government NOT to pivot and our governor who profits off of the tourism that will barely bring income to WV natives and will serve to push them out down the road. Lack of funding and lack of education leads to folks getting taken advantage of because they don't have practice thinking through long term problems and can vote against their own interests. Not to mention, companies who do root here take FULL advantage of the economic vulnerability of people. I know entire families with 3-4 generations who live(d) on the Ohio River that have absolutely 0 people who haven't had one cancer or another after the Dupont incident.
My fiancee is from Huntington too and its such a gorgeous state. She says the same thing, the politicians are all 80 years old and corrupt with no concern for their constituents but they somehow keep getting elected
I feel like a large problem in our area is that people don't treat it like a viable, real metropolitan area. From Portsmouth, Ohio to Ashland, KY to Huntington,WV there are hundreds of thousands of people. We need Interstate 73/74 to be completed so we have a direct route to Cincinnati or Columbus. I live in Ashland, KY and I see how the confluence of the three state area isn't just rural backwoods but a population center. Our local governments and entities need more cooperation and working together. If we could get interstate connection to the bigger metros near us and more crossing across the Ohio River it would help economically.
I have literally ZERO sympathy. You get what you vote for. Hillary tried to tell you all this and you voted in Trump who promised you all nonsense. Reap what you sow.
I'm from Massachusetts, but I studied economics and geography at WVU for both my BS/MS; it's a state very near to my heart my wife and grandfather are from WV. You did a wonderful job on this video, Sam.
being from massachusetts you know Raytheon is big company. when people come from states like California, Florida, other states outside of northeast they get a different thought of here. I live east of Central massachusetts its 2nd wealthiest state. and construction development everywhere.
Any channel that provides their own subtitles is just *chefs kiss*. Even though I'm not hard of hearing, reading subtitles helps me understand what was actually said.
Yeah, but he willingly skips over details that go against the climate narrative. For example: he goes on about solar being better than coal, but ignores the fact that it takes more coal to produce a solar panel than it would to just burn coal for power over that panel’s life.
My mom was born in WV and went to Marshall. Then she left for the West and never went back. I spent my summers there as a kid staying with my grandparents and have fond memories of the beautiful landscapes. Mountain mama, I love WV and glad I have some connection there.
This shows remarkable parallels with the Welsh Valleys in the UK. Economically deprived, ex coal mining area, long and thin towns allong narrow roads, lack of good agricultural land. But still a rugged and beautiful place. I guess it's a story that is repeated time and time again of an area and it's people being exploited for natural resources and then abandoned as soon as they are no longer required.
I was literally thinking the same. I have worked all over the Rhondda, Cynon and Merthyr Valleys and the similarities in terms of history but also geographic economic consequences is striking!
Believe it or not, the Appalachians are so old that those *are* the same mountains as the ones in West Virginia. The Appalachians formed on Pangea and separated as the plates did. The Atlas Mountains in Africa are also the same range.
A quick question, were these places populated before the economic incentive of coal. I know that the company town model comes from somewhere in the UK. A part of what allowed these West Virginia towns to even get established was the company currency of scripts which effectively lock them into the town, whereas a natural labor flow would probably leave the companies short on labor or have to pay much higher rates as coal would be saying as a job you do for a couple years save up money and go back to common society. The way they set it up led to multi-generational dependency and eventually you get my daddy was a coal miner, and his daddy and his daddy before him. We all just try and figure out how to exist in this world and a lot of times we follow the models that show themselves to be successful but the model never broke and just slowly withered. It's kind of like boiling a frog.
@@jinxtacy Yes, many towns in WV were founded before coal. Most of the earliest ones were founded as forts. There was also a great deal of logging before coal. But the area was very sparsely populated, as farming and accessing the regions were difficult (and still are). And you’re correct in your comment on company towns and scrip.
As a real West Virginian, the biggest problem with the state is the corruption. The jails are privatized, gambling is on every corner, it was one of the last places to take away smoking in public 2007-8. the state has notoriously taken advantage of its residents for generations, chemical spills in the city waterways, it's literally just a toxic place out to kill you if you get sucked into it
Because you allowed your voters to be militantly turned against a political party by the current ruling political party, so there’s no longer any competition for votes. It’s no different than what happens in the ghetto, except you’re white people.
They don't. WV is 98% demonrat, has been for decades. The corruption is from the left and they still vote for it for welfair. without welfair the state would starve to death. The left has WV trapped and keep them trapped.@@treflips2158
My dad is from Welch WVa. , this past summer we visited his childhood hometown. The amount of abandoned homes and stores along the “hollers” is just mind blowing.Thoughts of walking dead and apocalypse came to mind , granted not to that full extent yet honestly not far. Places like the schools or even churches that he went to were all abandoned. We had gone there to clean up my grandparents gravesite because no surprise here again the cemetery had been abandoned and relied on relatives of those laid to rest there to do whatever they could to maintain the road in and cut paths thru the chest height thicket to headstones. The mountains were beautiful and we drank from a spring that my dad collected water from when he was a child and visted with some family still in the area. I don’t know what it would take to bring life back to that area , but if your into the outdoors WVa. has a lot to offer. Wild and Wonderful West Virginia
At least WV is better than living in one of the western states. People from your area have get more Real any any person I’ve ever met who happened to fly 500 miles from home to talk to me
@@mevans4953 I have no idea what this sentence says. And yet it still makes it pretty clear that you have no idea what you are talking about either, both in general and specifically regarding the west.
Here's a new idea: make it the new center for the film industry, concentrating on post-apocalyptic, dystopian genres. No need to build sets, you just get out and film.
Ive done volunteer work (home repairs) in McDowell county, and its heartbreaking to see how decayed the area is. Elderly people living in literally rotting homes, empty storefronts everywhere.
People really just don’t care, it’s terrible. So many thousands of people barely scraping by to no fault of their own and everyone just goes “damn, sucks to be them lol just move”
I remember an article from Vox or Vice asking the question, "Why don't these people just leave?" You can't just put all of your possessions onto a vehicle and travel to a different location hoping you will find both a new job and a new home ala "Grapes of Wrath". And both states and federal governments have done very little to help people find jobs in the first place.
@@TheFarix2723 There are McDonald's everywhere, starting wages are between $13-$15 an hour. Stop making excuses. If a person is living like this, they aren't too good to work at McDonald's.
As a person from Merthyr - South Wales valleys, it parallels West Virginia almost exactly. It was the world centre point of coal and steel and where the train was invented. Now it’s the poorest county of the uk
A lot of Scottish and Northern English towns too. The town I'm in used to have a huge Scotch whisky distillery, world famous but the owner moved it away some years back. Carpets manufactured here were on the Titanic, they were that high quality. Likewise with a lot of heavy engineering and train stuff, mostly all gone now.
makes me fear the region i live in in Australia's coal country (hunter valley). Being anti-renewable and against anything that will lose their jobs as coal mines. We can see what happened in other countries coal areas and yet we aren't doing anything to stop it
Southern WV native here. Bravo. Well researched, nuanced, and insightful, if depressing. What you didn’t touch on enough is why people stay. It gets in your blood and has a pull on people from an emotional standpoint that is incomprehensible to outsiders.
Lifelong resident of WV, work for Procter & Gamble in the eastern panhandle. This business choosing to develop a plant here was like a literal bar of gold falling out of the sky and into my back yard. And I have every intention of using this career as a vehicle to move away from WV. It’s sad, the state is beautiful and I respect and admire the history of our miners. But. This area, even the comparatively rapidly urbanizing panhandle doesn’t offer much for a guy digging his way out of a less than wealthy family.
You have to recognise the irony. A company moving to a place no one else seems to want to, helping the state and it's people. And the first thing you want to do is to use it to get out of there.
I’m coming out Tabler Station for an internship on-site, not sure if I want to go yet but this all gave me a lot to think about. Thanks for sharing your story.
@@Jeffcrocodile Actually, when companies place hubs in low-income areas, they do it primarily to help themselves by saving on labor costs. Same reason why Elon placed Tesla in the poorest county in California.
I lived in the Eastern Panhandle for a long time. I remember when US-340 was just a clogged two lane road going into Charles Town. My family moved to the panhandle from Loudoun County because it got way too expensive to live there. It's been wild seeing the panhandle grow over the last few decades. Farmland got taken out for highways and housing developments. Schools popped up all over Jefferson County to accommodate the influx of people moving there, and even a few more popped up after I graduated. But as soon as you go west from the panhandle and past Berkeley Springs, it's like I drove into a whole other country. It's astounding how much geography changes things. I never really considered myself an actual West Virginian because I never lived in what I would consider somewhat of a no-man's land. But I wonder what will happen in another twenty years. Property values keep climbing, and soon we might have another Loudoun Country situation where people are pushed further west. Or they could all just flood into Martinsburg. No offense to anyone living there, but that place is a shithole.
As a lifelong West Virginian and a historian, I noticed that this video failed to address the enormous impact of absentee landownership on our economy. Two-thirds of land in West Virginia is owned by people who do not live there, and in half of our counties, the majority of land is owned by out-of-state corporate interests. This goes back to settler colonialism, when West Virginia was the western frontier, and the British governor of Virginia gave parcels of land to his wealthy friends so that Native Americans could not live there anymore, just in case any wealth might be extracted here in the future. Our dependence on coal is not some magical consequence of geography nor the invisible hand of the "free market." It was DESIGNED this way by a handful of millionaires and billionaires inside offices in Chicago, New York, and D.C. And I firmly believe that the politicians keeping us in poverty do not represent the will of the people. The majority of eligible voters in West Virginia do not vote, because they are too busy fighting for their mere survival, and they are disillusioned by the deep corruption in this state's political system. Our "leaders" have blocked reforms aiming to create a fairer political system in this state so many times throughout history.
Trying to blame even some of the problems of West Virginia on land ownership 250 years ago is pushing things a bit too far. But I guess blaming Britain is far easier from confronting problems caused by what happened in more recent centuries.
As a resident of Japan, a country that is 3/4 mountainous, with no natural resources, on one of the world's most active volcanic rifts, I would caution you against blaming geography for a region's ills. West Virginia is poor because of the resource curse: coal was extracted, profits were kept by investors and the stable middle-class society that could have been built with the resources available never materialized. By all account, West Virginia should be the New Hampshire of the mid-Atlantic: a state that leverages its mountains, lakes, and other natural scenery to rake in vacation money from its wealthy neighbors, then turns their dollars into the high quality of life that attracts and retains young, educated people.
Japan is also surrounded by ocean and therefore has an easy out route to manufacturing exports. In addition, one thing this video didn't go over is how tied the state government has been to out of state coal industry and gambling throughout the years. In the 70s, where the writing was on the wall about coal, had a sober mind laid out a long term plan similar to that of Pittsburgh, it might be different. New Hampshire was not a one resource state either. In addition, WV is larger and not as accessible by richer states. Flying in is a pain too. This place is more remote than you think
Context is everything though: the US is genuinely blessed with geography and natural resources, so everywhere that *isn't* WV is would probably have a better place to build / grow a city, business, tourist destination, major university, etc etc Plus Japan's cities are mostly coastal (ish), and/or built around navigable rivers and water features whereas WV is absolutely not. Also you can iirc see the same exact issues in rural japanese towns now that are also depopulating, particularly mountainous inland and comparatively inaccessible areas with little to no economic opportunities like WV. The issues aren't as severe due to a way better social safety net, and a more collectivist culture in general, but there absolutely are japanese towns that are disappearing / depopulating for the same reasons that's driving mass poverty in WV. The critical difference, probably, is that many WV families are effectively stuck with paid off property / houses, that can't be sold (or has had severely depreciated property values) due to no demand, and so ergo can't easily sell / relocate elsewhere in the US (and have ties to the local community, families, etc etc). Comparatively cheap housing (that's NOT investment-driven) is one thing that Japan does comparatively well at (albeit with its own costs / downsides), and it's far, far easier to relocate easily (and without losing your entire life's savings, such as they are - and ability to eventually retire!!) in japan than it is in the US - particularly given that japan generally has far higher population density and ergo far, far better public transit / transportation, and ergo the ability to continue seeing friends and family on a (somewhat) regular basis even if you move around a fair bit. Overall very unfair to compare WV with japan, a country roughly the size of california and with over 3x the population (and thus productivity potential) in that same area. Nevermind that it was even on a trajectory to catch up with the _entire US_ GDP in the 1980s (however short lived), and with a _smaller_ / higher productivity population, to boot. Overall having tons of natural resources (or more specifically a *single* resource extraction based economy) tends to be much more of a curse than a blessing (or at least when autocrats and/or capitalists are involved), and WV is kind of a perfect case in point w/ that. Overall, the fact that its geography, infrastructure, and population is just... not great for building / pivoting to anything else might be a sad, but accurate observation w/r why WV is so cursed. Good news ofc is that it's maybe less cursed in the long run with climate change (ie. will have a climate that's not totally uninhabitable and/or catastrophically underwater both literally and financially w/r its property + infrastructure investments), but that's a pretty small consolation. It is at least a truly beautiful state - outside of mass poverty (and problematic / limited infrastructure), it certainly does have that going for it. Ditto rural japan. That said, yes, fully agreed that you can 100% blame WV's current economic state on capitalism + wealth inequality / wealth / ownership inequity - although coal mining has been an increasingly low margin industry and WV is genuinely uncompetitive at this point (albeit for some not terrible, and not really its fault reasons), so it's probably important to not overstate this point too much. Much of the whole problem now, obviously, is that WV coal mining families genuinely did do fairly well for themselves and every generation up until the last few were able to have fully paid off houses, et al - which was great until the bottom (gradually) fell out of the coal industry, and the house you now own + have paid off is comparatively worthless if no one wants to buy it
@vxathos I didn't compare WV to Japan, I compared it to NH. I used Japan to explain why geography isn't destiny. Rural Japan is depopulated for the same reason that WV is: failed social policies. The policies are different, but the effect is similar: there is little incentive to live in inconvenient areas unless something compensates for that. Unlike rural WV, which I've hiked through, the Japanese countryside has been carved up into tiny little plots (1/8 acre is a big piece of land, even in the countryside). That makes it difficult to recreate what north Americans would consider "a space of my own." High population doesn't equate to productivity. References: Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, etc.
@@ichifishIt’s not just social policy. Rural areas are inherently going to have less economic opportunities and and amenities. You simply can’t support them with such a small population. But you can support and anchor those areas with large cities that generate tax revenue and such, which WV doesn’t have.
@@ichifish There's a cultural aspect in WV too. WV is unique in that although it is quite red in opinion, it is very much a welfare state. One of the best explanations I've heard to talk about the perplexing combination of entitlements and independent spirit is "people here were taken care of by the coal mines that now left them, so they have a distrustful sense of entitlement." Every Governor does not touch entitlements, yet won't move past coal and gambling. Even someone pro business or with a heavy sense of social planning will find this state hard to solve. There are just no headquarters there. There's no economic run off from major manufacturing. It's just the state, some growing tourism, and some outside companies. Pre college education is a mess. There's a church every other block, half of which are probably laundering money. I would continue to assert that it is a state that has a deceptively unique situation. NH geographically might look similar, but WV has a lot of unlisted ingredients. Kudos to you for hiking through.
I'm a native West Virginian living in Colorado now. I really would love to see WV move into more sustainable tourism. For example, Red Rocks brought $700 million to the Denver community last year. With so many gorgeous areas in West Virginia, I ponder what opportunities could be made outside of the oil rig industry.
@@waldronaviation7725 The Appalachian mountains are much older than the rockies, so more time has weathered them to be not as striking visually as something like taking a drive through rocky mountain national park. BUT areas in wv like Dolly Sods, Summersville, New River Gorge, and much more have so much beauty unique to west virginia, I could totally see open air venues coming in an making a killer. Especially for niche markets like blue grass and the folk circut. There is a lot of beautiful nature that remains unseen to many in the US that WV has to offer :)
As an Ohioan, I visited Red River Gorge (Kentucky), southern Ohio, WV (a few areas) and Colorado multiples times in the past few years. It's absolutely stunning that with the natural resources of WV and its close proximity to those major cities but insanely lacking to take advantage of the natural resources in the form of tourism. While a bagel sandwich in Colorado Springs is $10, and $15 in Aspen, I can spend $9 in WV and get dinner. The whole mountain of Spruce Knob have like 5 cabins. While rentals at every other corner in mountains in Colorado and RRG. WV is trying so hard not to benefit from it's amazing nature.
Pristine in the sense of very few humans, yes, but a lot of it is still young growth forest. A hundred years ago, the lumber industry cut down forests in damn near the entire state, some mountains were essentially barren moonscapes. Forests grow back, but we lose the old growth in the process.
As a resident of West Virginia. I genuinely appreciate you at least giving some story about the state. I have often found that most people believe that West Virginia is Western Virginia and don't even realize it is a separate state. Much appreciated for the distinction.
@atkaschaThe problem is that those states you have listed HAVE had people try to give them compassion. Time changes and industry changes. People have tried to bring trainings, education, etc, in order to help displaced workers pivot into more modern jobs. That and they continuously vote against utterly anything that helps them get out of the hole. Instead voting for a political party that wants to keep their “glory days” which just isn’t feasible in the 21st century. It’s really an epidemic of stupidity.
Writing this from France; I used to go to WV every summer as a kid going to summer camp in Pocahontas County. I was always shocked even as a kid how poor the region is compared to my other experiences in the US. However, I do know some people that live there full-time. Although they're economically struggling, they don't want to leave because of how simple and beautiful their life is there. Snowshoe is a good example but there are so many places that are unique in WV in how beautiful and fairly untouched they are
That's a big reason I'd find it hard to leave, if I'd lived in the area growing up. I spent a lot time in the Shenandoah Valley, which is similar (at least in my family's town), and I used to think that if I could find remote work, I'd be happy to move there. The beauty is almost worth it.
Stan, that is a fair assessment. We don't want the place to be Lodoun County. If it were we would have to leave. Also, there a more people who struggle in cities than in WV, simply because there are many thousands more of them. We have 1.8 million people. We have peace, woods and lakes and rivers and mountains. We don't want it to be Charlotte NC, or Pittsburgh, or DC, or Jacksonville or anywhere else we can name. I'm and the 3rd of 7 children. All of us graduated from college and all of us stayed in WV. Teacher, Doctor, Park Ranger, Accountant, Forester, Counselor, Engineer. All of us do fine. There are struggles everywhere. There are trade offs depending on where you go. WV was used as an extraction colony for generations. Coal operators imported people, made their money, then left. They left the empty holes and the miners and their families with few opportunities. Many of the small towns in WV should not and would not exist if not for people set up to mine coal. The towns justifiably should have been torn down when those mines played out and the people relocated elsewhere. After WV coal helped to power the industrial revolution, producing untold billions of wealth for a few, there were no crumbs left for the workers.
Harpers Ferry is a great small town that’s now a historical site. Breathtaking views of the Potomac and Shenandoah along hiking trails and tons of civil War and B&O history. It has a nearly identical geographic challenge to Welch but I guess was close enough to DC to has enough history to attract more tourists
I'm from West Virginia. The confluence of industry, geography, economics, history, and politics make for a far more complex series of interconnected problems than you could possibly cover in a twenty minute video. You could do a whole series of videos on West Virginia. It's a beautiful, bittersweet place
The political corruption alone would fill volumes. And then there’s the literal labor wars tied to that. I think Logan holds the world record for corruption per capita
And John Denver’s “County Roads” is probably more about west(ern) Virginia more than it is West Virginia. Despite practically being West Virginia’s state anthem. Logic being the lyrics of “(…)Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River” are far more synonymous with Virginia than West Virginia. As WV proudly considers itself part of Appalachia, not the Blue Ridge (which is the glorified hill range between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean).
One of the saddest things about West Virginia is the key indicator of the level of opioid addiction. The number of cheap flights from Huntington, WV to Orlando, St. Pete, Destin. Due to quirks in ease of obtaining prescriptions in Florida, it was a major pipeline of moving illegal opioids to WVa. So sad.
I remember Washington Post mentioned that a few years ago back when opioids was becoming a national issue not just a regional issue like it only happens in major cities like San Diego, Los Angeles, Inland Empire, San Francisco and Sacramento areas.
when the communist takeover occurs, they will allow american patriots to be poisoned, while replacing them with cheap labor by means of border cessation. sound familiar? and while i do not agree with the tactics of Reagans "war on drugs", he was correct in the fact that we cannot allow ourselves to kill ourselves to the chagrin of the communist infiltrator.
WV native here! An interesting fact, Bramwell, WV (in Mercer County, adjacent to McDowell) once held the highest number of millionaires per capita in the country. Times have certainly changed!
I am merely a visitor to West Virginia, but have been several times over the last 10 years or so. There is just something about it that is haunting and beautiful. The landscape can be both breathtaking and heartbreaking as you can see in this video. Even Welch, which has been less and less "alive" if you will each time, is somehow still fascinating to visit and I know we will go back again, if only to capture what remains.
This state reminds me so much of Wales. Large industries and cities attempting to support formerly industrial mining towns located in difficult to develop geography. Couple this with the small scale of the agriculture, also a fiercely community focussed society. The tourism picture is also interest when you look at Pembrokeshire and Eryri National Park.
And as someone who grew up in a Welsh mining valley I found visiting West Virginia in the 1970-80's very familiar. Friendly communities, the declining mining industry and the narrow river valleys . One big difference though. The W.V. hills were tree-covered, those in Wales are comparatively bare. W.V.-- A great state and a great people who have come through a lot of hardships.@@thelight3112
Looks like an absolutely gorgeous place, despite its economic troubles. I can now easily see why people in the area felt culturally distinct enough from Virginians to secede after the former state seceded from the Union; small valleys connected by rivers and hollows would certainly lend to a distinct local flavor and it sounds lovely
It is lovely. The sad thing though is the same. Isolation means that new ideas are not very welcome here so people continue to vote against their own best interests because it's the way that things have always been done. I live in West Virginia now and have lived here since 2013 and I'm determined to stay here
Not just culturally distinct we are also a bit ethnically distinct as well. Lot of Scottish and Irish settled in the western part of Virginia, the English settled the east and the coast. There was always going to be some clashing on culture and ethnicity. West Virginia is pretty unique culturally, the dialect spoken is distinctly different than to that of the more aristocratic southern accent or the broadly southern that is used as the stereotypical southern accent, there’s even a bit of a sub language that is a bit like Gaelic and some Welsh although it’s largely gone away some phrases and pronunciations still exist from the “mountain speak” or what I like to call “appalachianese”. More strangely is the cultural cuisines, they are heavily Italian based as many Italians migrated here a lot of the stone buildings that have been erected had been constructed by Italian stone masons. The biggest reason why many remain is because it is beautiful and it’s our home and homeland, many of us are from the mountains and valleys of Scotland, if you trace a line from the Scottish highlands to the US it’ll connect to the Appalachians. Ancestors stayed here because it reminded them of home and despite what is commonly believed we never had serious interactions with the Native Americans, the Clan structure of the Cherokee and Shawnee were shockingly similar to the Clan culture of the Scots and disputes were handled accordingly, while we might be a salt of the earth people and not looking for trouble and don’t start fights, it doesn’t mean we don’t end them, West Virginia fought the closest thing to a 2nd civil war in the US in the 1920s over the fight for the creation of the labor movement, it was “Rednecks” that made the US government reform wages and working hours in the US. I hope you visit and enjoy the beauty of the state
I noticed that the video left out the episode in West Virginia history of the mine wars,Mother Jones,the bombing of the coal workers' camp,the Baldwin mine guards,Governor Hatfield,Sidney Hatfield and his murder. @@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606
McDowell county having a life expectancy of 70 years and a per capita of $14k is crazy. That’s literally on the level of countries here in Africa 😭 and this is a US COUNTY??
time to wake up and see what the US is really like. take the high earning areas out of the equation and the rest of the country is beyond 3rd world. the disparity is shocking
I worked just outside Charleston as a raft guide. Having come from new mexico, itself a very poor state, it always amazed me the state of decay that the whole of WV is in. And i was in the "nice part of state. " and new river valley is gorgeous but when raft guides are some best paying jobs around then you have a issue.
We are not only landlocked, 2/3rds of our land is locked up by out of state owners and corporations. Even rental homes. I blame the spineless, self-serving old suits in Charleston that allows it. That land should be taxed at a higher rate, and locally owned taxed at a lower rate.
As an European, its somewhat interesting to see such documentaries about the US. As someone, who havent been in the US, I always forget that the mightiest country doesn't only consist of California, New York, Florida and Texas. People, at least in Europe, tend to romanticize the US, everyone is wealthy, lives in huge houses drives huge cars, but infact the US has poor places too. You can read that the US Gov spend billions of dollars on ships, guns and other military equipments, but having such desparete places.
West Virginia receives at least $25 Billion per year federal funding, nearly 40% of WV state revenues. I'm encouraged by the posts of those getting an education and successful jobs elsewhere. I left my own home state for better jobs also. What many do for themselves and their families. If some choose to stay as small farmers and shop keepers, etc. well, that is their dream and more power to them.
There are tons of places of desperation poverty in the US, ironic as LA in CA presented in media as glamour and glitz has a MASSIVE poverty/homeless issue. Granted W Virginia is very bad but there are many pockets nationwide: Gary Indiana or some areas of Detroit/Baltimore/Chicago/DC/NYC etc
@@lijohnyoutube101it's increasing. Look anywhere and you can see poverty taking hold My local city has a poverty rate of 33%, it's not quite as bad as Gary but it's still bad. People only pay attention to the worst without paying attention who don't make the 10 poorest cities list. Just cause they aren't like Gary doesn't mean they don't have a bad poverty issue
its not a silver bullet but improving passenger rail to DC would help greatly. Currently the only train that runs through the middle of the state, Amtrak's Cardinal, only runs three times per week, runs at about 50 mph, and is very frequently delayed.
Average train brain comment. Something as insignificant as passenger rail which would only be used by wealthier people commuting to white collar jobs in DC would do next to nothing for the West Virginian economy.
@@jon-michaelsampson1120it would also open up an entire market of better paying jobs to the locals. Right now they've got just about fuck all opportunity wise. Obviously transit isn't free though, and not everyone could/would be able to/want to commute. So no, it's not train brain, just basic understanding that better public transit leads to better job markets. You can look at most of Europe if you don't believe it.
I don’t know how well that would work. WV has a lot of very small towns that are hard to access on foot. A line to Charleston may work, but that isn’t the area of the state that needs development.
Yup. My parents grew up in WV, but moved to Ohio before I was born because there's very few employment opportunities in WV. I honestly think WV could do great if they embraced the tech sector. I'm a computer programmer and I would totally move to WV if they had a good amount of decent paying computer/software jobs. And programmers tend to be outdoor lovers in their free time due to spending all their time indoors whilst working, and the nature of West Virginia is perfect for that, so many good places to go hiking or kayaking or fishing or (insert more outdoor activities here).
The state is trying to court tech companies to build facilities in WV. Bill Gates just got to build a nuclear reactor in the state, and a state politicians have visited Seattle to visit Amazon, Microsoft, etc. I think it's a hard sell, though, when the majority of the state lacks the infrastructure (high speed internet, decent roads, etc) and skilled workers needed to support major tech developments. If anything I could see them settling in the eastern or northern panhandles since they're close to larger metropolitan areas, but that will hardly help the rest of the state.
people don't want to admit what we all know: cities drive innovation and jobs, that is a fact, mining and such don't provide a steady job environment, WV is unfortunately stuck in a bad cycle, there's no real industry for other jobs
@@greenhouseghostie Debatable as there are many remtoe workers who don't seem to see the benefits. May have been true for some time when in Silicon Valley they had combined both the Data Center and HQ but now they are scattered across entire US for latency and each office building is being tested.
In my experience I have to say. The people that I visited. They were the kindest and most generous people that I have ever known. Upon arrival, the father got up and turned the television off. Then we were offered home made beer and the cards came out. We talked for a while and they were actually interested in my life. We had arrived after dinner but the mother made us a nice meal. We talked about so many things. But no one watched television while we were there. The ultimate in manners, dignity and so much kindness. I'll never forget that family in West Virginia, that turned off the television and me feel welcome in their home. They are not poor in the things that matter.
Since you mentioned Slovakia, I see some more parallels. There is a region where coal mining was the thing over decades. For the last decade, coal production and power generation in a power plant built in the region is a net loss operation. The state has to pay subsidies in order to make coal mining and electricity production viable. But this time is also coming to an end. Currently 5 nuclear reactors run at full power and provide the majority of electricity in Slovakia (60%), with a 6th reactor under construction (the rest is 15% hydro, then other sources and only about 3% brown coal from the region I talk about). The region of upper Nitra slowly but steadily gets away from coal mining (and burning in the power plant) and the last mines are about to be shut down soon, if already not closed as I write this comment. Finally. It was economically bad, but the state could not let the people become unemployed and create what happened in West Virginia, as it would cause even bigger problems in the long run. Ecologically, it was a bad thing from the start, but back then nobody knew the full scale of impacts that come with burning brown coal. The region is striving with redevelopment but I hold my fingers crossed it will manage to get on track to prosperity. State subsidies, once for coal mining and burning for electricity, have shifted to create something other.
Slovakia won’t go anywhere if it keeps electing leaders who want to tie Slovakia’s fate to declining pariahs like Russia. The future is to the west, not the east
@@blankityblankblank2321 It is only a small part of Slovakia and we have worse off regions in the central southern part of Slovakia than the upper Nitra region, where things are improving, contrary to those "hunger valleys" as we call them - mostly Rimavská Sobota and Revúca, where unemployment is around 20%. Those regions are hard to develop, there is nothing besides hills, but not as great hills as other hills (little tourism potential). Infrastructure is poor as well.
Thank You Wendover for doing a video of my home state and educating people of the problem of it has. I’ve been a long time viewer of your channel and this is simply amazing. The people here are proud to live here but the decay of the state makes it hard to stay. On one hand you have the most beautiful landscape and plenty of outdoor activities, but on the other, no major industry to carry the supporting industry. I hope the people watching this video get interested in learning more about West Virginia and its rich history and culture. And maybe attract more people that are up to the challenge of helping to turn this state around.
If you've ever seen the movie October Sky; I highly recommend Homer Hickham's book "Rocket Boys". It takes place in Coalwood/McDowell county in the 50's. He was the son of an Olga foreman and even at that time the writing was on the wall for kids that the coal industry was collapsing. One of my favorite books to revisit.
I'm still mad they made the wife want to leave him in the movie. In the book, she said she wanted him to quit the mine because it was killing him. When he said where would we live if I had no job, she said I'll live under a tree if if means I get to stay with you. In the movie, she was mad and threatened to leave him. He said, oh yeah, where you gonna live? She replies, I'll live under a tree to get away from you. They took a pronouncement of love and fidelity and turned it into a hurtful shrew epithet.
And this is why I scroll comments. I was trying for the life of me to figure out where I’d heard McDowell County WV before. That would be it. Homer Hickham & October Sky. GREAT movie!
I was born in WV and lived there for 21 years before moving to VA and, finally, NC. When I was born in 1980, it was already well on its decline. Nearly everyone I went to school with left as soon as they graduated high school. Very few have ever returned and that trend continues. As stated in the video, there just aren't enough decent paying jobs that aren't somehow connected to coal. It's a sad state of affairs for sure, and I hope that something will eventually change to allow the state to get back up on its feet. It's such a stunning place, full of some of the most loving people you will ever encounter. They certainly deserve a better life.
I am a WV native that followed economic opportunity to NC. I’ve traveled all over the state and know exactly where most of the scenes were. I lived in the housing development my senior year of college right below the Milan picture you used. All my life, I’ve heard that WV’s most precious resource is it’s young people. Lost to drugs or greater opportunity elsewhere, it’s increasingly true as I grow older. The state and other public institutions (WVU in Morgantown) have been growing incentives for people to stay or move back. In addition to this, I meet someone with WV ties multiple times a week and often our conversation goes back to we wish we could move back but can’t do it feasibly. Probably a good story somewhere in there with someone who has a great solution to this problem.
The real problem isn’t so much that the economic incentive went away, it’s that a) the people stayed there after it left instead of moving to places that had work, and b) Nothing else replaced it because the government of WV didn’t use the tax revenue from all the coal mining to build a decent education system or good infrastructure. You can’t just sit around and expect somebody to drop high-paying jobs in your lap. Businesses are businesses, not charities. They don’t just show up and give away money. There has to be a reason for them to create those jobs. And low skilled employees are never going to command high wages for long, because they’re easy to replace with machines. So if you want sustainable prosperity, you need high-skill employees. The people most at fault for West Virginia’s poverty are the elected leaders of West Virginia. They didn’t bother to fund a good education system and kept telling the voters that coal would last forever and would always be an infinite source of good jobs for people with no skills.
It behooves the politicians to keep people dependent upon coal. They'd have to provide better to attract other in than they do people who are desperate to maintain their home and family.
Amazingly well presented! I could watch an hour of these on each American state! I see you've covered other states as well, but goddamn I wanna binge watch this. It's so relaxing, calming, yet informative. I'm supposed to go out, but I'm way too cosy now.
Thank you for this video - It blew me away! I'm from Amsterdam The Netherlands, and I currrently live in rural Eastern Poland. I'm utterly fascinated by the huge difference in economy in these two places, and your video give a lot of clues how such differences may happen. I especially liked your remark, that e.g., mountains can play such a role!
I live in Maryland but have to commute to Winchester, VA twice a week. That means driving through the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The nature and physical terrain is truly beautiful. The way the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers carve through this region is just breathtaking. But the unfortunate reality is that few people want to live where there are few opportunities and resources. The tax base is simply not there to turn the state around for the better.
For several years during the mid-90's, I worked at a major bank. I was responsible for collecting delinquent mortgages and car loans for the entire WV portfolio. Having been raised in NE Ohio and having my entire maternal family line born and raised in WV still didn't prepare me for the extent of the state's poverty levels. Lack of work due to closing mines and business pulling out of the state just blew my mind. Eventually the bank sold off the entire portfolio, but I've never forgotten how lucky I am to have been raised where I was. Appalachia has historically been dirt poor, but I've never realized how poor until just recently. No wonder that drugs are such an issue, there's nothing to do and no future to look forward to. We need to do better and help rehabilitate these areas by bringing viable jobs to the state. Give people a valid reason not to do drugs or of depression or sheer boredom. Offer educational programs and child care, so people can get on their feet and better themselves and their families/descendants.
Alternatively, dissolve the area as a State. Create a huge national park(s) from the unused mountainous areas. Bordering States could annex populated border towns.
I feel like WV is a diamond in the rough. It has dense towns that could be connected by passenger rail and isnt sprawling suburbs. There's opportunity to redevelop the land. Imagine offices on the river banks and then walking to them and after work mtn biking, hiking, white water rafting. It could be redevloped into a paradise.
Yeah there is definitely a lot of untapped potential here. I don't see why vineyards/wineries wouldn't do well in WV. Beekeeping and mushroom farming could probably do well too. And I don't see why some theme parks couldn't be built there too. (Especially with Disney coming under a lot of public ire the past few years). Entrepreneurs could seize upon the opportunity to try new theme park concepts. And WV's small, dense cities would be great to experiment with vertical city-building rather than suburban sprawl. Abandoned/dilapidated buildings & vacant land could be sold for dirt cheap to developers who want to build supertall skyscrapers. The WV government could also reform the marriage laws in the state to protect men from getting screwed over by the divorce courts, and use those laws to attract weddings to the state. Also, human cloning is legal in WV. With some 30% of young men being single, once that technology becomes more sophisticated, they could create such a surplus of attractive women there that even the bottom-of-the-barrel nerds can get laid. Embracing *that* technology could make them far richer than coal ever did.
if it was that simple, every rural state would be developed, like Wyoming, I think the main problem is WV is too far off the path from the major suburban areas, unless you build right near the border areas, the geography is its own biggest drawback, most major areas are near a river or highway, that's the unfortunate hard truth
I worked near 10 years in coal mining in wyoming. The coal out there has less sulphur, which is a big reason why it boomed compared to coal in the east. Coal in the east is mostly bituminous, which burns hotter than the sun-bituminous coal of our west in wyoming, but burns cleaner mostly. It also burns waaaaaay cleaner than the lignite coal in the south like in texas. Much higher ash and lower carbon content. The highest carbon content coal in us is anthracite which is mined mainly in Pennsylvania and is utilized mostly for home heating. High carbon content and low ash content, plus very high btu levels. Good for home heating.
Thank you for presenting this informative and sensitive video on the Appalachian economy. It helps us to understand the human costs of transitioning to cleaner energy sources.
If you haven't done anything on it yet, I'd love to see your take on Hawai'i and it's import/reclamation/conservation culture. One of the interesting stories we ran into while on Maui was all the abandoned cars and it got me thinking about how isolated Hawai'i is from everything and how self reliant it has to be. Maui just instituted a scrap metal program this year and with the fires earlier and its recovery, maybe it'd be a good episode.
I didn't expect to see a video dedicated to the state I've lived in most of my life, nor the background footage of my area, but this is a pretty good synopsis of some of the many issues facing the state. However, while it highlights the problems with transitioning from the coal boom, it misses the part where coal is still propped up as the savior of the state. Politicians run on platforms to "bring back coal." Trump's repetition of the statement is one of the reasons this is a state he was most popular in. There's a healthy portion of people here who pine for those glory days when a coal mining job, however unsavory the experience, brought in significant wages. Even our governor, one of the richest people in the state, made his fortune owning coal mines. We have one of the oldest population averages in the country, and as long as that voting population tries to return to those glory days, West Virginia will continue to languish. The only thing I think that will change it is that generation dying from old age. Yet, even then, the majority of people who are willing to stay here aren't the educated and skilled workforce that would be necessary to attract the businesses and industry of the future. At this point, we're essentially just an easily influenced set of seats in the Senate.
Isn't this the oldest political/populist schtick in the book? 'I'll bring back the good old days!' Anyone thinking about it know the good old days (however good or bad they actually were) ain't coming back. But it's such an appealing 'lie' to give you hope when things otherwise seem hopeless that it's even understandable why people prefer the lie.
I agree with this comment. People in the renewables world are pursuing Just Transition, but politicians with both political and economic interests in coal are blocking progress.
Always pleased when WV is discussed, there is a LOT of potential here...hopefully more things that can take advantage of the unique terrain can help soon.
Gotta respect Sam the narrator for learning so many words just by reading, otherwise we wouldn't get to enjoy things like his pronunciation of "harbinger" at 17:19
@0:15 how funny. I used to work at Loudoun Co. Hospital in the Operating Room when the hospital was in the old location on Market Street. That was some decades ago. Right after I got out of the Air Force. I lived in Frederick, MD at the time.
For people interested in a more personal look at what West Virigina looks like, I recomment Peter Santanello's documentary video "Poorest Region of America - What It Really Looks Like".
It's funny, many West Virginians are of Scottish decent, and historically Scotland has had very similar problems due to its own wild hilly/mountainous geography. I hope things improve for our long lost cousins 🙏
Yeah, a lot of Scottish towns were set up to service the coal mining industry and various other heavy manufacturing. It's all gone and is a wasteland now.
@@veeeks2938 yeah, there’s parts of Appalachia that I’ve been to that remind me of the pictures I’ve seen of the highlands. It’s my favorite part of Appalachia.
One thing that really strikes me is that having to build along river courses in deep valleys means that most of the urbanized areas are terribly susceptible to flooding when exceptional rainstorms occur. There's nowhere to escape to in a flash flood.
As a Data Engineering Consultant, Starlink has changed everything for us. We've been looking at West Virginia to relocate. My clients rarely require on site visits so even the lack of good commercial airports isn't much of a problem. With the savings on cost of living, I can even afford a small plane of my own for regional trips.
West Virginians elected politicians that sold residents out to Frontier, effectively leaving the state economy to wither in the digital age. Could’ve had reliable, high speed municipal internet access long ago.
@@lizardjoel They have it now if you go with the non-mobile RV option. Not as good as Starlink’s full residential but still leagues better than Frontier or HughesNet.
@@ScoutSniperMC nice. I really like West MD which juts into and culturally plus economically is very similar to WV except weed just got legal to homegrow. I hope WV legalizes recreational weed and homegrow I would very much consider moving there buying a house and paying taxes etc if they don't I'll buy a place in West MD or Western VA instead all good.
As a life long West Virginian I feel like you missed the fact that all the major employers even the small ones like snowshoe are owned by out of state interests, usually the children of the founders that have moved out of state, and they never reinvest anything in the state. Businesses that have been around for decades just close the first time a major expense arises for the owners. Even the utility companies where people spend the bulk of their income are owned by out of state interests. I've been seeing a lot of videos about West Virginia recently and I'm glad people are taking an interest but I feel like most of them are lacking a local perspective and just talk about us like we are a failing African nation and not one of the fifty states in the USA.
I'm sorry that's been your experience. I can only speak to the Canaan Valley, but the outsiders run Whitegrass and Timberline -- which are great and getting better (weather-permitting). Meanwhile the state-owned Canaan Valley Resort seems to be falling apart.
@@mikesmith2057 Snowshoe is doing well too but that's because they are profitable and pull out of state dollars. I was thinking about other businesses that people use all the time like stores, gas stations, and restaurants. I wasn't arguing for state control either. The government leaders we have are so corrupt they don't even hide what they're doing. The governor gave the lady that makes the biscuits at his local Hardee's a truck with pandemic funds and tried to say it was random luck she won. They are more concerned with cutting their own taxes then they are about running the state. The whole thing is broken and people can't seem to see that they are electing people who don't care about them or what is good for the state.
loudon feels like that one episode when squidward went to ro the squid town. Rows of the same house. Fairfax and Arlington basically have the same jobs but it actually feels alive
untill about 8 months ago, i lived right on the border of farifax county and loudon, it is as boujey and rich as you would think, we were not rich, but we BARELY managed to pay 2500 dollars a month for 900 sqft townhome, it was awful. we now live in a raleigh suburb and pay the same amount for 2900 sqft and everything is cheaper and honestly its so much nicer
I moved to West Virginia last year because I could buy 50 acres with a decent house for 150k. I work mainly online doing Cybersecurity and would not be able to without starlink, which is a fairly recent thing and even more recent in this area. I make 70k doing that and while not rich it goes so much further here than where I moved from in PA. I've set up a few cabins and tent sites using Airbnb and such and just in a few months made a decent amount, already made up for the down payment for the property. That will slow down in the winter though. The goal is to transition to part-time online work and the rest from money made from the property in various ways.
Well bully for you....what's your point? Should we give you a pat on your back for being so "clever "? How does that help and contribute ANYTHING of value to your community??? But of course you got yours and that my dear Watson is what matters
@@almabraun3799The people staying in his cabins and tent sites will fill their tanks at local gas stations, eat in local restaurants, shop in local grocery stores, possibly even hire guides for their adventures. The OP is stimulating the local economy.
I grew up in WV and moved to the Carolina's almost 30 years ago after college. Over that period I have tried several times to make the case for WV to not keep repeating the same mistake of trying to build manufacturing and service jobs. But instead to focus on Tourism, Technology and a strategic "planned" transition. Tourism can provide seasonal low to mid level jobs that will once again help the owner class and to some extent the general population of WV but not all that much. Technology on the other hand has better paying jobs and most firms can operate out of facilities that are smaller in foot print and more flexible in layout than manufacturing. One of the most disheartening periods for me was during the community discussions around permitting for the large pipelines crossing the state in the last few years. I suggested several times in those discussions that rather than fight the pipelines (which I saw as a loosing battle) to instead negotiate with the pipeline companies and state legislature to include right of way access for the development of a high speed gigabit internet backbone that could cover large portions of the state. Then partner with large tech companies to develop and implement that backbone. The other partnership that is needed for WV in my mind is between coal, real estate developers, state economic development, and technology corporations. So that going forward every mine reclamation project is not geared toward returning the land back to nature (which is a fallacy anyhow since it is never the same) but prepping it for future development. Essentially harness the vast earth moving resources of mine operations to transition the areas into spaces for corporate offices, corporate facilities, service business's, housing, and mixed use communities as a plan part of their reclamation duty. WV I think "could" become the next Silicon Valley and in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Where tourism can be used as the opportunity to advertise the benefits of relocating to the area to fill the tech jobs. Imagine working remote in the mountains but only a short drive to your office when needed, with good pay, benefits, and several high profile employers to choose from. But it will take visionary leadership to make it happen which is what is lacking in WV and has for decades.
West Virginia values coal as a cultural thing more than as an actually vital economic sector. The coal mines have reduced the amount of miners they employ, and they're not coming back. However, black lung is coming back as the state tries to protect coal from legal liability.
Coal isnt a bad thing, and suggesting that it is is just deceitful, uneducated, evil, and wrong... Getting rid of coal isnt helping anyone. Yes, there are bad practices, and thats a separate issue all together, but coal mining and burning is good, and getting rid of coal is a big big problem
@@tandava-089Burning coal is not good for anyone or anything. Suggestions that it is only paint ulterior motives. There are cheaper, more productive, and safer ways to generate electricity and heat.
@@pootispiker2866 Burning coal isn't a big deal either. There's many technologies to make it cleaner. Nobody got off coal because it was ineffective or expensive. People got rid of coal because everyone is crybaby scaredy cat bitches who were dumb enough to take losers like al gore seriously.... How many years ago were the coasts all supposed to be underwater already? Coal has never been a problem for anything. Y'all are just dumb and easily convinced of things
My family is from Logan, West Virginia, my grandpa was a coal miner for 33 years at the westmoreland coal mines, from 1953-1986 great grandpa was one as well, pretty scary stories grandpa would tell about working in there
I visited WV from NYC once and I was so fascinated by what a unique place it is. The towns are all so unique, and the people are so kind! It’s just a very different world
West Virginia is top 10 in my favorite US states. It’s a beautiful state with mountains and open wilderness. Most West Virginians are super kind and down to earth too.
We try to be! We enjoy the tourism so long as you respect our landscape and our towns and cities of course! If you ever find yourself in West Virginia again I suggest coming to the panhandle and visiting Harpers Ferry!
I live in western Maryland, 10 mins from the WV border. A lot of people who used to live here have relocated across the border to WV for the cheaper living and they seem to love it. I’m thinking of doing the same myself. Maryland is suffocating to live in and doesn’t have enough things to do to justify the high cost of living.
I am a CA resident, but what I love about the US is peacing out for a vacation to the eastern states. I went to WV one year and my favorite thing was the nature. The sheer unconquered nature as well as all the amazing bridges that unite these massive mountains. I love CA for its weather. But WV has this very memorable rural nature scenes. I swear, there’s not a place in the world like it. Another thing that always made me question the state’s existence. How the hell did WV get those boarders?! But when ya look into it, it’s some pretty wild history. Those bridges though, I swear they insane! Would visit again 13/10. I also liked this video, I wouldn’t mind if Wendover did more videos on US states like this. Give each state a video!
The best part where I am near Charleston is the totally not miserable humidity with no wind except in storms. But you are right, this state’s natural beauty is breathtaking and for that my family calls it the best kept secret in America
WV borders are the result of the Civil War. WV and VA used to be one state, but after VA became part of the Confederacy, the US promptly moved to invade VA and, though it couldn’t take the whole state, it was able to hold the northern Appalachia region. In the middle of the war, that area broke away from VA to become WV and thus added to the US. WV’s borders were defined by war. Given how expensive state governments can be to run, an argument can be made to consolidate states to save bureaucratic costs and save taxpayers money.
West Virginia is absolutely beautiful, but depressing. I discovered recently that there wasn't a single whole foods in West Virginia. I'm not saying whole foods is the greatest and any place without one stinks, but I found it surprising and telling that Amazon hasn't identified a single town in West Virginia that could economically support one. I've stayed in Charleston, Hinton, hurricane, Harper's ferry and I've hiked the dolly sods, new river gorge, and coppers rock. I really hope the region recovers and more people get to enjoy it's beauty
Building wealth from nothing involves consistent saving, disciplined spending, and strategic investments. Begin by creating a budget to track expenses and identify areas for savings. Prioritize paying off high-interest debt and establishing an emergency fund. As you build a foundation, start investing in low-cost options like index funds, and focus on continuous learning and improving your skills for better income opportunities.
This is really a story that plays out around the world Companies go in, exploit an area for resources, and unless clever and methodical moves were made to move up the value chain, the area stays stagnant, and then broke when the company leaves
Resource curse. Oftentimes resource less nations end up doing better due to human capital. Take a look at japan and Hong Kong for example. Should have planned for the future when coal was going to reach it's peak. Currently oil rich nations are investing in other projects for the same damn reason. I would say the blame goes to local government in power for not seeing this coming. Blaming businesses for even providing jobs as "exploitation" is easy to say and simply shifting the blame instead of owning it.
I suppose the issue is the infrastructure of getting goods to market. You can have the best grass fed cattle and sheep in the US but if the roads and rail connections make it unviable to sell, you're stuffed.
1. Can't help but think back to Hilary Clinton's outreach to WV during her 2016 Presidential campaign. She accurately pointed out the need to transition the region to green energy and jobs in better paying sectors, but was mocked for it. 2. Currently reading American Nations, a book about the major cultural regions of America. This video can apply to many other Appalachian regions in other states, where the Scots-Irish immigrant populations were purposely neglected by the governments based in coastal/ urban regions away from the mountains.
Even with green energy it's an uphill battle, literally. The US has lots of windswept plains in the midwest and west where wind turbines can be easily installed, no need to cart things up a hill in the middle of a forest. Even then wind turbines don't provide nearly as much steady employment after installation, you need a handful of maintenance crews but that's it. The harsh reality is that the state cannot economically support the number of people who live there, only a few farmers and associated businesses plus tourism. But no politician is going to tell people they should abandon their home and move somewhere more economically productive, like a city, because they would obviously hate that.
2:28 Having a per capita income comparable to Panama actually means the average West Virginian in this area is far poorer than the average Panamanian, as the cost of living is so much lower in Panama.
Apparently because of the beautiful landscape and geography Off Roading tourism is becoming big in West Virginia. I’ve even heard of a bar or something on a scenic outlook with no road to it, you have to off-road to it and that sounds so cool!
hopefully they got stories to tell and information on the local fauna and flora which would make it worth every penny. maybe befriend the people while we at it.
As a West Virginian, we've had no help from our state government for ages and carpetbaggers have been able to gain political bases here while they have 0 understanding of our state. I recall when a UN ambassador or official (i don't remember) came here and described our state as "similar to a third world country"
Heh, not lying there. Both of our representatives are from prominent out-of-state political families. Carol Miller is Sam Devine's daughter from Ohio and Mooney probably hasn't spent more than a night or two in the state. When he realized he couldn't win office in Maryland, he bought a house in Charlestown and said he was West Virginian and voters bought it.
@@alexwilsonpottery3733 I'll give you that one. They try really hard to mask it. And say that hospitals provide "advanced" care. But it's basically run like a for-profit business. If you're already established in life, it's easier. But if someone isn't: They still get the full bill. They just pretend like inequality doesn't exist. And continue to make their demands. Our country literally encourages it. While calling it "friendly competition."
I’m watching this from Wyoming county wv. Very well done video. I like to feel wv will make a comeback in my lifetime. Growing up here is rough and very different. I’ve traveled to every state trucking and seen what else there is and West Virginia is still such a beautiful place to live
The terrain disadvantage is a real thing, the Indians didn’t even maintain permanent settlement in most of the state. We’re destined to return to our pre-coal population distribution as the seams get mined out, with a few population centers along major transportation routes with a largely uninhabited, wild interior. If your industry requires moving physical goods you’re starting out a step behind here. This all sounds bad but it’s a massive advantage if your concern isn’t economic growth, but physical security in a WROL scenario..
I don't know what WROL stands for, and I'm not interested enough to look it up. I work in an industry that is packed full of acronyms and I HATE ACRONYMS. I think we use them to confuse people in the break room that come from other departments. We want to make our work processes sound complicated.
"WROL stands for Without Rule of Law, doomsday prepper lingo for the complete breakdown of governance after a major environmental or other disaster." Well... it sucks to live here but whenever everything else goes to shit, living where noone else used to want to live make your odds better. Also we need to supply ourselves to make ends meet so we are prepared...
@@stevechance150 Society Without Rule of Law - it’s not necessarily an industry specific acronym but definitely an obscure one, and your point definitely applies, you could just as easily call it doomsday or collapse of government.
And just outside West Virginia there are a lot of areas with flat lands and rivers that are basically perfect for cities and agriculture. A lot of West Virginians left the state and got jobs in cities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia where there have been much better opportunities.
To be fair to West Virginia, the part bordering Loudoun County is doing quite well, and the part of Virginia in Appalachia near McDowell is also very poor... It's partly a geography thing. The state line doesn't make all the difference.
![Would You Fall for It? [ST08]](/img/n.gif)
When one of your senators is a coal mine owner, the failure to transition off coal is probably not purely a coincidence.
But when the entire state relied on coal for so long and so heavily, it is not a surprise that their senator is a representative of the industry so many there are involved in.
@@pavuk357 It's not surprising insofar as American politicians tend to all be representatives of the upper class rather than working class, but a senator that was a coal miner would act far differently from a mine owner.
It has nothing to do with the Senator. There is just no financial incentive to transition. There is market demand for coal, and so coal shall be supplied. No amount of policy can change that. WV could elect Bernie Sanders and it'll still be selling coal, so long as it can do so cost-competitively with other States.
@@2x2is22 It kinda does have something to do with the senator.
It's the senator that can obstruct bills until green energy initiatives are removed and more fossil fuel subsidies are added.
Make that Senator and Governor
There are some odd country comparisons here. Slovakia isn't amazing but it's a fairly decent place to live. Panama's income is taken out of context. Panama is one of the best countries to live in Central America, and $14000 there goes much farther than in the US. McDowell County adjusted for US cost of living is more similar to Tanzania than Panama.
Yeah I was way more surprised that Slovakias life expectancy was as low as WVs than the reverse.
I agree. There are also some mistakes/misleading information here. West Virginia wasn't even a state till 1863, yet this video presents it as one as far back as 1854? (Using modern borders as well...) West Virginia became a state during the Civil War. A lot of critical information and context are very carelessly left out, not just regarding borders. Using those contrived comparisons to other countries is just the tip of the iceberg regarding all the things wrong with this video.
Its not its a bit higher in słowakia 79 i think i live in Poland
Hey, mentioning Panama without missing the cost-of-living erases serious nuance. Bet those West Virginians aren't paying Panama prices but are paying Dollar General prices.
A PPP adjusted figure would have been more appropriate there.
As a West Virginian, when I first saw this video title I was worried. Often media about our state is reductive and sometimes cruel. You handled it with care and candor. Thank you
lol "I was worried".
I’m from Florida, I understand completely.
@@joesickler5888I just moved from massachusetts to florida. I love being a florida man
California Nipple
I agree with you.
This is why my professor had us read The Road to Wigan Pier in my college British history class. It was about another coal-dominated region and how poverty stricken the areas became (northern parts of England). We’re in KY which is another big coal economy. The parallels between England’s coal country and our Appalachian coal country are impeccable.
Kentucky relies less on coal economy than west virginia.
The resource Curse. Or Dutch disease is so real
In Australia the paradox is if you are right now a coal miner you are probably well paid, but former coal towns from decades ago tend to be very poor and filled with welfare dependent people and social problems
why invest in humans when you can make more money by abandonment?
@@radicallyrethinkingrailwaysina That's mostly because of the type of mine being used. QLD and WA today are predominately open cut mines using FIFO camps and workers, supported by regional centres. The older mines were underground and typically had mining towns attached to them, when the mines stopped being viable the workers moved on and the towns died. But if you look at the sort of building materials used for the town, it was corrugated iron and plasterboard. Not exactly made to last forever, and never really made for those places to be called home (especially because the gender ratios meant nobody settled their family there).
I’m a WV native and this is the most informative piece of media about the struggles of our state I have ever seen. Very well done!
Nah this guy is stupid fool, WV is richer than UK, and there is a reason for that .
Bluefield native here. You said it, this was the most clear-cut explanation I've ever heard. It's so sad to see the continued suffering of our home state. I hope that one day things will change for the better.
Where the FRENCHIE funny club was created ❤
my mom is from WV in Kanawha and ive been there a thousand and one times it really is sad to see all the poverty
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@@nobodyliaru
Another reason West Virginia has it so rough is severe brain drain. They encourage their kids to go get a college education, but when the kids graduate, unless they're going into teaching, there's little to no places in West Virginia for them to make a top notch living in their chosen field of study. I grew up in Ohio but spent several years at Marshall University in Huntington WV. My best friend at Marshall studied architecture. After getting his undergrad in West Virginia and then going to grad school at Ohio State, he found very little opportunity for architects in the WV. He chose to stay in Columbus where he now makes really good money working for one of the biggest and alway expanding hospital systems in the region. A majority of my Marshall friends have done the same, living and working in places like Chicago, Cincinnati, Seattle, Dallas, Charlotte, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington DC. The industries don't exist to keep the brightest West Virginians at home and in turn, those bright minds cannot contribute to growing those industries in their home state, which would help to grow the economy. It's a vicious cycle all around.
They could and should invest in other business sectors rather than coal mining. They could try to become silicon valley if they choose to.
Well said. I'm from Nebraska and we have the same problems. I personally have done it myself, had to do what I had too.
I think it really would be an unprecedented reality, for any major company to chose the rugged landscape of this mountain region, over far cheaper logistics. You would in fact have to not only build factories but entire cities to make it a worthwhile longterm play @@Lenioogami
Thats because the colleges in WV make a ton of money. Look up how many WVU staff make well over 5 million a year.
@@johnwalker5622 Umm... one. Wren Baker is the highest paid employee at 7.1 million. Followed by Neal Brown at 3.98 mill. Then Josh Eilert at 1.5 million. After that we get into administrators. Clay Marsh is just over a million and Gee is at 800 thousand. Then it's a bunch of coaches and administrators. Kellogg is the highest paid headcoach at 550 and Mazey at around 500. The football team has some assistants though that are in the 700 range.
My grandfather was a coal miner. He was medically retired in his 50s because he only had a half lung left due to the coal dust. My grandparents moved to Florida and never looked back. My parents left for California when my dad entered the Navy. We wound up in Texas. My dad used to say, “honey we couldn’t afford to send you to college but at least you weren’t raised in W. Va
don't you get free college from your dad's military benefit? I thought dependents of veterans get free college?
@@NA-tu7nti wish that was the case
@@NA-tu7ntthere are some benefits you can get but a far cry from free college. Really only the person in the military can sometimes get subsidenced college
My grandfather was from Wales, he joined the British Navy for WW1 then migrated to Australia. He didn't want to go into the mines.
@@Joe__M I looked it up, in California it says they do, and 150 credits in Texas, maybe these programs werent around back then.
as a lifelong west virginian, this is the most informative and sensitive way to present our issues. thank you.
i have friends from all over the US, and they cannot even remotely comprehend appalachian poverty. i appreciate you covering this subject
I didn't understand it until I saw it with my own eyes. There's plenty of poverty in Oregon & California that I had seen. Then I traveled through WV on a grant-funded trip to study history and culture of the region and realized that WV poverty is really on an entirely different level.
@@christiangrand1625 I didn't have quite as thorough of an exposure to it, but I had to drive from Virginia through the entire width of West Virginia to get a friend out of a really shitty situation in Parkersburg (on the WV side). I was used to the Rust Belt poverty of upstate New York, I was used to the immigrant poverty of El Paso, TX, I was used to the rural poverty of the poor neighborhoods sandwiched between government contractor estates in Virginia.
I was not prepared for West Virginia. Even Parkersburg felt less like Rome or Trenton and more like a someone trying to dramatize a movie about some abandoned Detroit suburb or some cartel-owned city in Mexico. Some of the hollows leading up to Paw Paw were really hard to see. It's part of why the "let's fix WV by merging it with another state" videos both make a lot of sense to me and rub me the wrong way tbh
@@bailswalker West Virginia is by far the best place to live, great people and most beautiful state!!!
back in 1996 i drove truck cross country. i drove through west virginia and i thought it was the most beautiful place in the entire U.S. . i've mentioned to people over the years that i would love to go there and maybe settle down and people tell me i'm crazy. i'm watching this video just because i remember how beautiful it was. i live in vegas and the desert is just.. HOT. i've long thought about west virginia.
@@christheisgen it’s a beautiful life here most of the time. i recommend the eastern panhandle. i used to live in the middle of west virginia and it is just so isolated. the eastern panhandle is wonderful. we are so close to big cities and beaches that rural wv rarely gets to experience.
Much appreciated for the distinction.
Hiii
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i've lived in West Virginia for many years; as another commenter mentioned, the borders are oddly-drawn and each part of the state is different and is economically connected to it's bordering states. There isn't a one-fix solution to the whole state. The Morgantown area and the eastern panhandle near DC are seeing growth but the rest is with a few exceptions either stagnant or declining. The Huntington-Charleston area, as well as Parkersburg and Wheeling are connected to the 'Ohio Valley' region, sitting on the river between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. These cities are small but surprisingly urban for their size because of topography, and architecturally are their own unique flavors of the "Ohio Valley" style (Huntington's vernacular has spectacularly large front porches) and the metro areas have held their population better than coal-dependent counties, but suffer from 'general rust belt problems', some of this decline is connected to the coal industry but also the general decline of manufacturing. Huntington isn't declining as much because it's a college town; Charleston is declining because it's manufacturing sector is continually shrinking. Wheeling is declining slowly but has a more promising future held up by its gorgeous architecture and proximity to Pittsburgh, while Parkersburg is more isolated and declines because it offers little culturally and economically compared to other West Virginia cities.
Places like McDowell County with the worst rural poverty often suffer from being inaccessible; the only way in or out is windy 2-lane roads. While old coal mines can be attractive places to redevelop for manufacturing, the infrastructure is not conducive to locating such things in such places, and southern West Virginia has some of the last outstanding unbuilt portions of the Appalachian Development Highway System.
In the northern part of the state, Clarksburg suffers from some of the worst suburbanization I've ever seen; while there is an FBI facility nearby and spillover high-paying jobs, as well as proximity to Morgantown and WVU, architecturally-stunning central Clarksburg has largely de-camped to the suburbs, especially Bridgeport, leaving a strangely empty city in a county that hasn't declined in population as much as you may expect.
The eastern half of the state is less urbanized and has more elevation change; this is where tourism has started to take hold more. While this may hold promise for the smaller towns in the higher mountains, it won't directly affect the bulk of the state's population in the more urbanized west.
Possibly the worst thing holding the state back is simply the stigma. Residents of Richmond, DC, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Cincinnati and Lexington; all within a few hours of most of West Virginia, will think of the state as a mythical land where (insert ridiculous stereotype) exists; and never give the state a second thought. The few that do visit find the people are laid-back, the natural landscape is gorgeous and the nicer cities and small towns still have some cultural vibrance and lots of beautiful old architecture from their heyday.
This may be the best context anybody has added in the comments. the problems are more regional than he could cover in this video
Bruh I ain't readin allat
@@im_bad_at_picking_a_nameyour fault then. This is very well written context that is important to fully understanding this topic.
Wheeling is declining... but it has a promising future held up by its gorgeous architecture?
Wait - are you serious? Or are you just writing nonsense to demonstrate your vast knowledge of the different characteristics of the cities of West Virginia? I'm genuinely curious how the gorgeous architecture of Wheeling (presumably "spectacularly large front porches" or something similar) is making Wheeling's decline likely to magically turn around into a promising future.
@@juggernautAA12 I find the regionality is often overlooked, as West Virginia is quite sparsely populated, it's assumed similar throughout, since it's a blank spot on everyone's mental map anyway. There's a north-south divide (Morgantown/Clarksburg/Wheeling/Martinsburg vs Huntington/Charleston/Beckley/Bluefield), an east-west divide (long mountain ridges and rural vs steep tight valleys and urban), and an urban-rural divide, with the rural areas divided again, into patches of either 'farm country' or 'coal country'.
I find it telling that everybody focuses on McDowell County, Anthony Bourdain went there, whenever there's a long-form media piece about West Virginia poverty, its seemingly focused on Welch. Most of West Virginia isn't quite like Welch, it's so remote even by WV standards. Welch needs the King Coal Highway complete, better flood control infrastructure, and a re-establishment of literally any well-paying jobs and civic institutions. Welch has no grocery store. This is different from, say, Clarksburg, which has sufficient grocery stores but needs a healthy dose of civic pride and it's upper class to re-invest in it's downtown; or the state's true economic powerhouse, the Charleston and Huntington areas, which need to grow from their current stagnation by doubling down on their existing thriving industries in healthcare and education, connecting to surrounding regions by improving rail connections on the Amtrak Cardinal between Cincinnati and DC (which also runs directly through New River Gorge National Park with 3 stops in or next to park lands) and establishing themselves as a regional business center with a lower cost of living than Pittsburgh or Cincinnati (and better east coast connections than Cincinnati) as they have a ready supply of qualified Marshall, WVSU and UofC graduates who would love to stay in the area and establish themselves but leave simply because jobs are more plentiful elsewhere.
I can’t express how much this hurt my heart. My mom grew up in Welch. I was raised in Oceana. As a child in the 90s my coal mining father made it feel like we had it all, except… I never got to see him. Ever. I spent my childhood in poverty And practically without a dad. Now his mind is gone and a state I loved that was so beautiful is full of trash and dead wildlife. I loved it here. I was so proud. Now I’m a conservation biologist. I have multiple degrees and experience in many Biological fields. The state just slashed scientific funding by 3/4s. They are stripping the will and drive of us who want to make things better away.
I loved West Virginia. The green mountains and clear water streams.
But that West Virginia isn’t here anymore. Wildlife is reduced by half. Those same clear streams are poisoned brown. The trees are thinner and dying.
My childhood, my memories of every thing I loved. It’s all gone. And my poor poor aging parents…. Are stuck here. Even as I do all I can to escape.
Your comment helped me understand a conservationist biologist position I saw within the last month based out of WV. It focused on deer and their health. I was taken aback a little by the posting. Cab you explain to me what is going on with the wildlife as I am currently job searching and would like to understand WV more in this sector?
Further I’m interested what environmental crisis in WV you would recommend looking into.
Very well written.
Thanks for your contribution. It sounds like the government wants to force everyone out
I thought that the worst landscape degradation was years ago. I understand that clearcutting and other deforestation had by the 1950's caused the rivers to become overloaded with erosion enhanced runoff such that floods frequently happened on the Kanawha and the Ohio. A floodwall was built around part of Huntington,I have heard that it is rarely closed anymore. Although some of the flood reduction is artificial,due to dams on the upper Ohio sources and a couple large flood control dams on the Kanawha "new" and Gauley a tributary of the Kanawha. I think the Kanawha is the largest of the Ohio tributaries,I suspect it is larger than either the Monongahela or the Allegheny (by themselves,individually,when they combine and added with Beaver "River" (Creek) the total is bigger than the Kanawha. At one time supposedly coal was dumped in masse into the Kanawha in order to allow the river to push it downstream where it was dredged and recovered. Cheap shipping? @@aredape
I can only say that growing up in West Virginia (I too had to leave the state for career reasons) I miss my home greatly. There is something special about my home. It’s like a place where everyone knows you and your family and people love to talk. I miss that friendliness and slower time. I am very fond of my hard working ancestors from this beautiful country life. When people mock my West Virginia it hurts my soul because they genuinely haven’t experienced it’s beauty the way I have.
I feel that. I got a remote job not to long ago and bought land in wv in my hometown and we move back in October. It's just home there's no place like it.
Beautiful, heartfelt comment… thank you! I too feel this way; WV never left my soul & now that I am finally back again I am here to stay
As someone who grew up in rural Iowa and moved to WV to go to Marshall U in Huntington, then stayed here after graduating, this feels like one of the most sensitive and informative looks at West Virginia that I've seen in a while. Thank you, Sam.
The folks here are trying their best, but they're disadvantaged based on the decisions made by people at the top - coal CEOs lobbying state government NOT to pivot and our governor who profits off of the tourism that will barely bring income to WV natives and will serve to push them out down the road. Lack of funding and lack of education leads to folks getting taken advantage of because they don't have practice thinking through long term problems and can vote against their own interests.
Not to mention, companies who do root here take FULL advantage of the economic vulnerability of people. I know entire families with 3-4 generations who live(d) on the Ohio River that have absolutely 0 people who haven't had one cancer or another after the Dupont incident.
My fiancee is from Huntington too and its such a gorgeous state. She says the same thing, the politicians are all 80 years old and corrupt with no concern for their constituents but they somehow keep getting elected
I feel like a large problem in our area is that people don't treat it like a viable, real metropolitan area. From Portsmouth, Ohio to Ashland, KY to Huntington,WV there are hundreds of thousands of people. We need Interstate 73/74 to be completed so we have a direct route to Cincinnati or Columbus. I live in Ashland, KY and I see how the confluence of the three state area isn't just rural backwoods but a population center.
Our local governments and entities need more cooperation and working together. If we could get interstate connection to the bigger metros near us and more crossing across the Ohio River it would help economically.
ok
zzz
I have literally ZERO sympathy. You get what you vote for.
Hillary tried to tell you all this and you voted in Trump who promised you all nonsense.
Reap what you sow.
I'm from Massachusetts, but I studied economics and geography at WVU for both my BS/MS; it's a state very near to my heart my wife and grandfather are from WV. You did a wonderful job on this video, Sam.
being from massachusetts you know Raytheon is big company. when people come from states like California, Florida, other states outside of northeast they get a different thought of here. I live east of Central massachusetts its 2nd wealthiest state. and construction development everywhere.
This channel goes to the expense of providing accurate subtitles, not just auto generated ones. That's appreciated, thanks.
I was pleasantly surprised to not see "poke a haunt us" on screen
Any channel that provides their own subtitles is just *chefs kiss*. Even though I'm not hard of hearing, reading subtitles helps me understand what was actually said.
Especially while eating a particularly crunchy snack @@chaygrice7612
❤❤❤
Yeah, but he willingly skips over details that go against the climate narrative. For example: he goes on about solar being better than coal, but ignores the fact that it takes more coal to produce a solar panel than it would to just burn coal for power over that panel’s life.
My mom was born in WV and went to Marshall. Then she left for the West and never went back. I spent my summers there as a kid staying with my grandparents and have fond memories of the beautiful landscapes. Mountain mama, I love WV and glad I have some connection there.
This shows remarkable parallels with the Welsh Valleys in the UK. Economically deprived, ex coal mining area, long and thin towns allong narrow roads, lack of good agricultural land. But still a rugged and beautiful place. I guess it's a story that is repeated time and time again of an area and it's people being exploited for natural resources and then abandoned as soon as they are no longer required.
I was literally thinking the same. I have worked all over the Rhondda, Cynon and Merthyr Valleys and the similarities in terms of history but also geographic economic consequences is striking!
Believe it or not, the Appalachians are so old that those *are* the same mountains as the ones in West Virginia. The Appalachians formed on Pangea and separated as the plates did. The Atlas Mountains in Africa are also the same range.
A quick question, were these places populated before the economic incentive of coal. I know that the company town model comes from somewhere in the UK. A part of what allowed these West Virginia towns to even get established was the company currency of scripts which effectively lock them into the town, whereas a natural labor flow would probably leave the companies short on labor or have to pay much higher rates as coal would be saying as a job you do for a couple years save up money and go back to common society. The way they set it up led to multi-generational dependency and eventually you get my daddy was a coal miner, and his daddy and his daddy before him. We all just try and figure out how to exist in this world and a lot of times we follow the models that show themselves to be successful but the model never broke and just slowly withered. It's kind of like boiling a frog.
Coal is bad in every sense.
@@jinxtacy Yes, many towns in WV were founded before coal. Most of the earliest ones were founded as forts. There was also a great deal of logging before coal. But the area was very sparsely populated, as farming and accessing the regions were difficult (and still are). And you’re correct in your comment on company towns and scrip.
The “resource curse” applies just as much to US states as it does African nations.
Duh. American Colonialism is applied to the U.S domestic population.
I believe the term is an “internal colony”
@@Praisethesunson I have a lot of respect for how obviously smart you are.
Did you forget slavery? @@Praisethesunson
@@jasonhaven7170 Slavery has never ended in the U.S.
As a real West Virginian, the biggest problem with the state is the corruption. The jails are privatized, gambling is on every corner, it was one of the last places to take away smoking in public 2007-8. the state has notoriously taken advantage of its residents for generations, chemical spills in the city waterways, it's literally just a toxic place out to kill you if you get sucked into it
Because you allowed your voters to be militantly turned against a political party by the current ruling political party, so there’s no longer any competition for votes. It’s no different than what happens in the ghetto, except you’re white people.
Stop voting for republicants.
They don't. WV is 98% demonrat, has been for decades. The corruption is from the left and they still vote for it for welfair. without welfair the state would starve to death. The left has WV trapped and keep them trapped.@@treflips2158
All prisons are for profit. Everyone who works there is making a profit, they get paid.
@@treflips2158
Or, vote for moderate Republicans.
As a West Virginian I want to thank you for this video! It was very informative and it gives a better understanding of West Virginia! Thank you!
My dad is from Welch WVa. , this past summer we visited his childhood hometown. The amount of abandoned homes and stores along the “hollers” is just mind blowing.Thoughts of walking dead and apocalypse came to mind , granted not to that full extent yet honestly not far. Places like the schools or even churches that he went to were all abandoned. We had gone there to clean up my grandparents gravesite because no surprise here again the cemetery had been abandoned and relied on relatives of those laid to rest there to do whatever they could to maintain the road in and cut paths thru the chest height thicket to headstones. The mountains were beautiful and we drank from a spring that my dad collected water from when he was a child and visted with some family still in the area. I don’t know what it would take to bring life back to that area , but if your into the outdoors WVa. has a lot to offer. Wild and Wonderful West Virginia
Frankly, the mountaintop mines should be changed to solar farms. Its flattened already!
The rest, hiking. Make it an outdoor activity mecca!
At least WV is better than living in one of the western states. People from your area have get more Real any any person I’ve ever met who happened to fly 500 miles from home to talk to me
@@mevans4953 I have no idea what this sentence says. And yet it still makes it pretty clear that you have no idea what you are talking about either, both in general and specifically regarding the west.
@@mevans4953 Seems you fine usa education is showing.
Here's a new idea: make it the new center for the film industry, concentrating on post-apocalyptic, dystopian genres. No need to build sets, you just get out and film.
Ive done volunteer work (home repairs) in McDowell county, and its heartbreaking to see how decayed the area is. Elderly people living in literally rotting homes, empty storefronts everywhere.
People really just don’t care, it’s terrible. So many thousands of people barely scraping by to no fault of their own and everyone just goes “damn, sucks to be them lol just move”
I remember an article from Vox or Vice asking the question, "Why don't these people just leave?" You can't just put all of your possessions onto a vehicle and travel to a different location hoping you will find both a new job and a new home ala "Grapes of Wrath". And both states and federal governments have done very little to help people find jobs in the first place.
@@TheFarix2723why won’t these poors leave so I can have this mountain state to myself?
@@TheFarix2723 There are McDonald's everywhere, starting wages are between $13-$15 an hour. Stop making excuses. If a person is living like this, they aren't too good to work at McDonald's.
@@nh251 You know nothing about reality.
As a person from Merthyr - South Wales valleys, it parallels West Virginia almost exactly. It was the world centre point of coal and steel and where the train was invented. Now it’s the poorest county of the uk
similar story to the north east where the first steam railway was - now we're the most deprived area of england
A lot of Scottish and Northern English towns too. The town I'm in used to have a huge Scotch whisky distillery, world famous but the owner moved it away some years back. Carpets manufactured here were on the Titanic, they were that high quality. Likewise with a lot of heavy engineering and train stuff, mostly all gone now.
makes me fear the region i live in in Australia's coal country (hunter valley). Being anti-renewable and against anything that will lose their jobs as coal mines. We can see what happened in other countries coal areas and yet we aren't doing anything to stop it
Train is a Scottish invention
You can blame the local council as much as the government.
Southern WV native here. Bravo. Well researched, nuanced, and insightful, if depressing. What you didn’t touch on enough is why people stay. It gets in your blood and has a pull on people from an emotional standpoint that is incomprehensible to outsiders.
Lifelong resident of WV, work for Procter & Gamble in the eastern panhandle.
This business choosing to develop a plant here was like a literal bar of gold falling out of the sky and into my back yard.
And I have every intention of using this career as a vehicle to move away from WV.
It’s sad, the state is beautiful and I respect and admire the history of our miners. But. This area, even the comparatively rapidly urbanizing panhandle doesn’t offer much for a guy digging his way out of a less than wealthy family.
You have to recognise the irony. A company moving to a place no one else seems to want to, helping the state and it's people. And the first thing you want to do is to use it to get out of there.
I’m coming out Tabler Station for an internship on-site, not sure if I want to go yet but this all gave me a lot to think about. Thanks for sharing your story.
Life long? That’s sad.
@@Jeffcrocodile Actually, when companies place hubs in low-income areas, they do it primarily to help themselves by saving on labor costs.
Same reason why Elon placed Tesla in the poorest county in California.
I lived in the Eastern Panhandle for a long time. I remember when US-340 was just a clogged two lane road going into Charles Town. My family moved to the panhandle from Loudoun County because it got way too expensive to live there. It's been wild seeing the panhandle grow over the last few decades. Farmland got taken out for highways and housing developments. Schools popped up all over Jefferson County to accommodate the influx of people moving there, and even a few more popped up after I graduated.
But as soon as you go west from the panhandle and past Berkeley Springs, it's like I drove into a whole other country. It's astounding how much geography changes things.
I never really considered myself an actual West Virginian because I never lived in what I would consider somewhat of a no-man's land. But I wonder what will happen in another twenty years. Property values keep climbing, and soon we might have another Loudoun Country situation where people are pushed further west.
Or they could all just flood into Martinsburg. No offense to anyone living there, but that place is a shithole.
As a lifelong West Virginian and a historian, I noticed that this video failed to address the enormous impact of absentee landownership on our economy. Two-thirds of land in West Virginia is owned by people who do not live there, and in half of our counties, the majority of land is owned by out-of-state corporate interests. This goes back to settler colonialism, when West Virginia was the western frontier, and the British governor of Virginia gave parcels of land to his wealthy friends so that Native Americans could not live there anymore, just in case any wealth might be extracted here in the future.
Our dependence on coal is not some magical consequence of geography nor the invisible hand of the "free market." It was DESIGNED this way by a handful of millionaires and billionaires inside offices in Chicago, New York, and D.C.
And I firmly believe that the politicians keeping us in poverty do not represent the will of the people. The majority of eligible voters in West Virginia do not vote, because they are too busy fighting for their mere survival, and they are disillusioned by the deep corruption in this state's political system. Our "leaders" have blocked reforms aiming to create a fairer political system in this state so many times throughout history.
Then vote for better people. There's like twenty people in the state. If you can't figure out someone to actually lead you, that's kind of on you.
@@ASDeckard The comment you replied to: _explains why more people aren't voting_ . You: "People should just vote. It's so obvious!"
Land value tax would probably solve this
@@Hotshot2k4it was probably intended as a pointed fact that not voting doesn’t help and disregarding it entirely is going to further harm the state.
Trying to blame even some of the problems of West Virginia on land ownership 250 years ago is pushing things a bit too far. But I guess blaming Britain is far easier from confronting problems caused by what happened in more recent centuries.
As a resident of Japan, a country that is 3/4 mountainous, with no natural resources, on one of the world's most active volcanic rifts, I would caution you against blaming geography for a region's ills. West Virginia is poor because of the resource curse: coal was extracted, profits were kept by investors and the stable middle-class society that could have been built with the resources available never materialized. By all account, West Virginia should be the New Hampshire of the mid-Atlantic: a state that leverages its mountains, lakes, and other natural scenery to rake in vacation money from its wealthy neighbors, then turns their dollars into the high quality of life that attracts and retains young, educated people.
Japan is also surrounded by ocean and therefore has an easy out route to manufacturing exports. In addition, one thing this video didn't go over is how tied the state government has been to out of state coal industry and gambling throughout the years. In the 70s, where the writing was on the wall about coal, had a sober mind laid out a long term plan similar to that of Pittsburgh, it might be different. New Hampshire was not a one resource state either. In addition, WV is larger and not as accessible by richer states. Flying in is a pain too. This place is more remote than you think
Context is everything though: the US is genuinely blessed with geography and natural resources, so everywhere that *isn't* WV is would probably have a better place to build / grow a city, business, tourist destination, major university, etc etc
Plus Japan's cities are mostly coastal (ish), and/or built around navigable rivers and water features whereas WV is absolutely not.
Also you can iirc see the same exact issues in rural japanese towns now that are also depopulating, particularly mountainous inland and comparatively inaccessible areas with little to no economic opportunities like WV. The issues aren't as severe due to a way better social safety net, and a more collectivist culture in general, but there absolutely are japanese towns that are disappearing / depopulating for the same reasons that's driving mass poverty in WV. The critical difference, probably, is that many WV families are effectively stuck with paid off property / houses, that can't be sold (or has had severely depreciated property values) due to no demand, and so ergo can't easily sell / relocate elsewhere in the US (and have ties to the local community, families, etc etc). Comparatively cheap housing (that's NOT investment-driven) is one thing that Japan does comparatively well at (albeit with its own costs / downsides), and it's far, far easier to relocate easily (and without losing your entire life's savings, such as they are - and ability to eventually retire!!) in japan than it is in the US - particularly given that japan generally has far higher population density and ergo far, far better public transit / transportation, and ergo the ability to continue seeing friends and family on a (somewhat) regular basis even if you move around a fair bit.
Overall very unfair to compare WV with japan, a country roughly the size of california and with over 3x the population (and thus productivity potential) in that same area. Nevermind that it was even on a trajectory to catch up with the _entire US_ GDP in the 1980s (however short lived), and with a _smaller_ / higher productivity population, to boot.
Overall having tons of natural resources (or more specifically a *single* resource extraction based economy) tends to be much more of a curse than a blessing (or at least when autocrats and/or capitalists are involved), and WV is kind of a perfect case in point w/ that.
Overall, the fact that its geography, infrastructure, and population is just... not great for building / pivoting to anything else might be a sad, but accurate observation w/r why WV is so cursed.
Good news ofc is that it's maybe less cursed in the long run with climate change (ie. will have a climate that's not totally uninhabitable and/or catastrophically underwater both literally and financially w/r its property + infrastructure investments), but that's a pretty small consolation. It is at least a truly beautiful state - outside of mass poverty (and problematic / limited infrastructure), it certainly does have that going for it.
Ditto rural japan.
That said, yes, fully agreed that you can 100% blame WV's current economic state on capitalism + wealth inequality / wealth / ownership inequity - although coal mining has been an increasingly low margin industry and WV is genuinely uncompetitive at this point (albeit for some not terrible, and not really its fault reasons), so it's probably important to not overstate this point too much. Much of the whole problem now, obviously, is that WV coal mining families genuinely did do fairly well for themselves and every generation up until the last few were able to have fully paid off houses, et al - which was great until the bottom (gradually) fell out of the coal industry, and the house you now own + have paid off is comparatively worthless if no one wants to buy it
@vxathos I didn't compare WV to Japan, I compared it to NH. I used Japan to explain why geography isn't destiny.
Rural Japan is depopulated for the same reason that WV is: failed social policies. The policies are different, but the effect is similar: there is little incentive to live in inconvenient areas unless something compensates for that. Unlike rural WV, which I've hiked through, the Japanese countryside has been carved up into tiny little plots (1/8 acre is a big piece of land, even in the countryside). That makes it difficult to recreate what north Americans would consider "a space of my own."
High population doesn't equate to productivity. References: Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, etc.
@@ichifishIt’s not just social policy. Rural areas are inherently going to have less economic opportunities and and amenities. You simply can’t support them with such a small population. But you can support and anchor those areas with large cities that generate tax revenue and such, which WV doesn’t have.
@@ichifish There's a cultural aspect in WV too. WV is unique in that although it is quite red in opinion, it is very much a welfare state. One of the best explanations I've heard to talk about the perplexing combination of entitlements and independent spirit is "people here were taken care of by the coal mines that now left them, so they have a distrustful sense of entitlement." Every Governor does not touch entitlements, yet won't move past coal and gambling. Even someone pro business or with a heavy sense of social planning will find this state hard to solve. There are just no headquarters there. There's no economic run off from major manufacturing. It's just the state, some growing tourism, and some outside companies. Pre college education is a mess. There's a church every other block, half of which are probably laundering money.
I would continue to assert that it is a state that has a deceptively unique situation. NH geographically might look similar, but WV has a lot of unlisted ingredients. Kudos to you for hiking through.
I'm a native West Virginian living in Colorado now. I really would love to see WV move into more sustainable tourism. For example, Red Rocks brought $700 million to the Denver community last year. With so many gorgeous areas in West Virginia, I ponder what opportunities could be made outside of the oil rig industry.
is colorado similar to wv with the land features?
@@waldronaviation7725 The Appalachian mountains are much older than the rockies, so more time has weathered them to be not as striking visually as something like taking a drive through rocky mountain national park. BUT areas in wv like Dolly Sods, Summersville, New River Gorge, and much more have so much beauty unique to west virginia, I could totally see open air venues coming in an making a killer. Especially for niche markets like blue grass and the folk circut. There is a lot of beautiful nature that remains unseen to many in the US that WV has to offer :)
West Virginia is the best kept secret 🤫
@@charliehenderson38 yes outsiders not welcome, stay out!
As an Ohioan, I visited Red River Gorge (Kentucky), southern Ohio, WV (a few areas) and Colorado multiples times in the past few years. It's absolutely stunning that with the natural resources of WV and its close proximity to those major cities but insanely lacking to take advantage of the natural resources in the form of tourism.
While a bagel sandwich in Colorado Springs is $10, and $15 in Aspen, I can spend $9 in WV and get dinner.
The whole mountain of Spruce Knob have like 5 cabins. While rentals at every other corner in mountains in Colorado and RRG. WV is trying so hard not to benefit from it's amazing nature.
West Virginia is amazing in so many ways. A lot of poverty, but unbelievably beautiful and much of it pristine.
@DontReadMyProfilePicture.104you're so creative 😂😂😂😂😂😂
@DontReadMyProfilePicture.104couple years too late for this crap
W Virginia is so unamazing in many other ways.
Where does the buck stop ?
Pristine in the sense of very few humans, yes, but a lot of it is still young growth forest. A hundred years ago, the lumber industry cut down forests in damn near the entire state, some mountains were essentially barren moonscapes. Forests grow back, but we lose the old growth in the process.
@@drabberfrogpeople have been doing that shit for years
As a resident of West Virginia. I genuinely appreciate you at least giving some story about the state. I have often found that most people believe that West Virginia is Western Virginia and don't even realize it is a separate state. Much appreciated for the distinction.
I was thinking the same, and I’m not even from your home. Peace and good luck
"OH you're from WV? I've been to Richmond!"
I go to west Virginia all the time, but I can’t even tell you the last time I was in West Virginia
@atkaschaThe problem is that those states you have listed HAVE had people try to give them compassion. Time changes and industry changes. People have tried to bring trainings, education, etc, in order to help displaced workers pivot into more modern jobs. That and they continuously vote against utterly anything that helps them get out of the hole. Instead voting for a political party that wants to keep their “glory days” which just isn’t feasible in the 21st century. It’s really an epidemic of stupidity.
I can’t even lie, I couldn’t name a city in WV until Fallout 76 came out 😅
Writing this from France; I used to go to WV every summer as a kid going to summer camp in Pocahontas County. I was always shocked even as a kid how poor the region is compared to my other experiences in the US. However, I do know some people that live there full-time. Although they're economically struggling, they don't want to leave because of how simple and beautiful their life is there. Snowshoe is a good example but there are so many places that are unique in WV in how beautiful and fairly untouched they are
Snowshoe is amazing!!
Pocahontas is so much better off than most of the state is too. Nothing like the southern coal fields.
That's a big reason I'd find it hard to leave, if I'd lived in the area growing up. I spent a lot time in the Shenandoah Valley, which is similar (at least in my family's town), and I used to think that if I could find remote work, I'd be happy to move there. The beauty is almost worth it.
Was it camp hidden meadows? Went there and there were a lot of international folks
Stan, that is a fair assessment. We don't want the place to be Lodoun County. If it were we would have to leave. Also, there a more people who struggle in cities than in WV, simply because there are many thousands more of them. We have 1.8 million people. We have peace, woods and lakes and rivers and mountains. We don't want it to be Charlotte NC, or Pittsburgh, or DC, or Jacksonville or anywhere else we can name. I'm and the 3rd of 7 children. All of us graduated from college and all of us stayed in WV. Teacher, Doctor, Park Ranger, Accountant, Forester, Counselor, Engineer. All of us do fine. There are struggles everywhere. There are trade offs depending on where you go. WV was used as an extraction colony for generations. Coal operators imported people, made their money, then left. They left the empty holes and the miners and their families with few opportunities. Many of the small towns in WV should not and would not exist if not for people set up to mine coal. The towns justifiably should have been torn down when those mines played out and the people relocated elsewhere. After WV coal helped to power the industrial revolution, producing untold billions of wealth for a few, there were no crumbs left for the workers.
Harpers Ferry is a great small town that’s now a historical site. Breathtaking views of the Potomac and Shenandoah along hiking trails and tons of civil War and B&O history. It has a nearly identical geographic challenge to Welch but I guess was close enough to DC to has enough history to attract more tourists
I'm from West Virginia. The confluence of industry, geography, economics, history, and politics make for a far more complex series of interconnected problems than you could possibly cover in a twenty minute video. You could do a whole series of videos on West Virginia. It's a beautiful, bittersweet place
The political corruption alone would fill volumes. And then there’s the literal labor wars tied to that. I think Logan holds the world record for corruption per capita
@@encyclopath AMEN. The politicians have sold the people OUT. Anyone thinking this belongs to one party is sadly mistaken or blind.
More bitter than sweet
Fun Fact: Virginia actually extends more west than West Virginia. North Virginia would have been a substantially more appropriate name.
people wanted to name it Vandalia, the region was reffered as that long before it was part of Virginia even.
And John Denver’s “County Roads” is probably more about west(ern) Virginia more than it is West Virginia. Despite practically being West Virginia’s state anthem.
Logic being the lyrics of “(…)Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River” are far more synonymous with Virginia than West Virginia. As WV proudly considers itself part of Appalachia, not the Blue Ridge (which is the glorified hill range between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean).
100% of West Virginia is west of Virginia, and only a sliver of Virginia is West of WV, so i think the name is appropriate
@@benjaminwatt2436 how can West Virginia be west of Virginia when Virginia extends more west than West Virginia does?
@@ChuckThree the Shenandoah River valley was originally proposed to be a part of Vandalia (West Virginia) with the blue ridge being the border
One of the saddest things about West Virginia is the key indicator of the level of opioid addiction. The number of cheap flights from Huntington, WV to Orlando, St. Pete, Destin. Due to quirks in ease of obtaining prescriptions in Florida, it was a major pipeline of moving illegal opioids to WVa. So sad.
Ah yes, the ole OxyContin express.
I remember Washington Post mentioned that a few years ago back when opioids was becoming a national issue not just a regional issue like it only happens in major cities like San Diego, Los Angeles, Inland Empire, San Francisco and Sacramento areas.
when the communist takeover occurs, they will allow american patriots to be poisoned, while replacing them with cheap labor by means of border cessation. sound familiar?
and while i do not agree with the tactics of Reagans "war on drugs", he was correct in the fact that we cannot allow ourselves to kill ourselves to the chagrin of the communist infiltrator.
drugs aren't the issue. capitalism is the issue. drug abuse and self medication (NOT to be misconstrued for one another) are symptoms of capitalism.
@@transsexual_computer_faeryWould it explain linkage between communism and vodka? Or capitalist countries that don't have US unique opioid problem?
This was really well done! Thank you for the detailed info, graphics,and footage. Makes so much sense now.
WV native here! An interesting fact, Bramwell, WV (in Mercer County, adjacent to McDowell) once held the highest number of millionaires per capita in the country. Times have certainly changed!
Bramwell is still beautiful - I was just there recently!
I am merely a visitor to West Virginia, but have been several times over the last 10 years or so. There is just something about it that is haunting and beautiful. The landscape can be both breathtaking and heartbreaking as you can see in this video. Even Welch, which has been less and less "alive" if you will each time, is somehow still fascinating to visit and I know we will go back again, if only to capture what remains.
This state reminds me so much of Wales. Large industries and cities attempting to support formerly industrial mining towns located in difficult to develop geography. Couple this with the small scale of the agriculture, also a fiercely community focussed society. The tourism picture is also interest when you look at Pembrokeshire and Eryri National Park.
Yep, similar
As someone who grew up in Appalachia, visiting Wales was a strangely familiar experience.
And as someone who grew up in a Welsh mining valley I found visiting West Virginia in the 1970-80's very familiar. Friendly communities, the declining mining industry and the narrow river valleys . One big difference though. The W.V. hills were tree-covered, those in Wales are comparatively bare. W.V.-- A great state and a great people who have come through a lot of hardships.@@thelight3112
I know you meant Wales, but I was actually thinking about whales and the whale blubber industry...
Also: West Virginia drawl and Welsh are both incomprehensible to outsiders.
Looks like an absolutely gorgeous place, despite its economic troubles. I can now easily see why people in the area felt culturally distinct enough from Virginians to secede after the former state seceded from the Union; small valleys connected by rivers and hollows would certainly lend to a distinct local flavor and it sounds lovely
It is lovely. The sad thing though is the same. Isolation means that new ideas are not very welcome here so people continue to vote against their own best interests because it's the way that things have always been done. I live in West Virginia now and have lived here since 2013 and I'm determined to stay here
Not just culturally distinct we are also a bit ethnically distinct as well. Lot of Scottish and Irish settled in the western part of Virginia, the English settled the east and the coast. There was always going to be some clashing on culture and ethnicity. West Virginia is pretty unique culturally, the dialect spoken is distinctly different than to that of the more aristocratic southern accent or the broadly southern that is used as the stereotypical southern accent, there’s even a bit of a sub language that is a bit like Gaelic and some Welsh although it’s largely gone away some phrases and pronunciations still exist from the “mountain speak” or what I like to call “appalachianese”. More strangely is the cultural cuisines, they are heavily Italian based as many Italians migrated here a lot of the stone buildings that have been erected had been constructed by Italian stone masons.
The biggest reason why many remain is because it is beautiful and it’s our home and homeland, many of us are from the mountains and valleys of Scotland, if you trace a line from the Scottish highlands to the US it’ll connect to the Appalachians. Ancestors stayed here because it reminded them of home and despite what is commonly believed we never had serious interactions with the Native Americans, the Clan structure of the Cherokee and Shawnee were shockingly similar to the Clan culture of the Scots and disputes were handled accordingly, while we might be a salt of the earth people and not looking for trouble and don’t start fights, it doesn’t mean we don’t end them, West Virginia fought the closest thing to a 2nd civil war in the US in the 1920s over the fight for the creation of the labor movement, it was “Rednecks” that made the US government reform wages and working hours in the US.
I hope you visit and enjoy the beauty of the state
I noticed that the video left out the episode in West Virginia history of the mine wars,Mother Jones,the bombing of the coal workers' camp,the Baldwin mine guards,Governor Hatfield,Sidney Hatfield and his murder. @@loganbaileysfunwithtrains606
as a northern virginian, i agree
It is beautiful, but often destroyed by industry.
McDowell county having a life expectancy of 70 years and a per capita of $14k is crazy. That’s literally on the level of countries here in Africa 😭 and this is a US COUNTY??
That’s US inequality for ya
time to wake up and see what the US is really like. take the high earning areas out of the equation and the rest of the country is beyond 3rd world. the disparity is shocking
@@SirZanZabro does not understand what a 3rd world country is
@@ethan12345678923the US is literally a third world country with a Gucci belt
@@SirZanZa lol, you have clearly never step foot in a third world country
I worked just outside Charleston as a raft guide. Having come from new mexico, itself a very poor state, it always amazed me the state of decay that the whole of WV is in. And i was in the "nice part of state. " and new river valley is gorgeous but when raft guides are some best paying jobs around then you have a issue.
We are not only landlocked, 2/3rds of our land is locked up by out of state owners and corporations. Even rental homes.
I blame the spineless, self-serving old suits in Charleston that allows it. That land should be taxed at a higher rate, and locally owned taxed at a lower rate.
Living in Loudoun County, I can confirm my neighbor owned a coal mine in West Virginia.
I have family that lives in Leesburg. It’s a nice area.
High dollar area
What do u do for work my friend?
I moved out of Leesburg to West Virginia
As an European, its somewhat interesting to see such documentaries about the US. As someone, who havent been in the US, I always forget that the mightiest country doesn't only consist of California, New York, Florida and Texas. People, at least in Europe, tend to romanticize the US, everyone is wealthy, lives in huge houses drives huge cars, but infact the US has poor places too. You can read that the US Gov spend billions of dollars on ships, guns and other military equipments, but having such desparete places.
Yeah we know
West Virginia receives at least $25 Billion per year federal funding, nearly 40% of WV state revenues. I'm encouraged by the posts of those getting an education and successful jobs elsewhere. I left my own home state for better jobs also. What many do for themselves and their families. If some choose to stay as small farmers and shop keepers, etc. well, that is their dream and more power to them.
There are tons of places of desperation poverty in the US, ironic as LA in CA presented in media as glamour and glitz has a MASSIVE poverty/homeless issue. Granted W Virginia is very bad but there are many pockets nationwide: Gary Indiana or some areas of Detroit/Baltimore/Chicago/DC/NYC etc
Half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck
@@lijohnyoutube101it's increasing. Look anywhere and you can see poverty taking hold
My local city has a poverty rate of 33%, it's not quite as bad as Gary but it's still bad.
People only pay attention to the worst without paying attention who don't make the 10 poorest cities list. Just cause they aren't like Gary doesn't mean they don't have a bad poverty issue
its not a silver bullet but improving passenger rail to DC would help greatly. Currently the only train that runs through the middle of the state, Amtrak's Cardinal, only runs three times per week, runs at about 50 mph, and is very frequently delayed.
It's a good idea but the state historically votes against public transportation because it's controlled by big carbon.
Average train brain comment. Something as insignificant as passenger rail which would only be used by wealthier people commuting to white collar jobs in DC would do next to nothing for the West Virginian economy.
@@jon-michaelsampson1120it would also open up an entire market of better paying jobs to the locals. Right now they've got just about fuck all opportunity wise. Obviously transit isn't free though, and not everyone could/would be able to/want to commute.
So no, it's not train brain, just basic understanding that better public transit leads to better job markets. You can look at most of Europe if you don't believe it.
The town of Welch had an Amtrak stop until 1977 and both Greyhound and Trailways stations.
I don’t know how well that would work. WV has a lot of very small towns that are hard to access on foot. A line to Charleston may work, but that isn’t the area of the state that needs development.
Yup. My parents grew up in WV, but moved to Ohio before I was born because there's very few employment opportunities in WV. I honestly think WV could do great if they embraced the tech sector. I'm a computer programmer and I would totally move to WV if they had a good amount of decent paying computer/software jobs. And programmers tend to be outdoor lovers in their free time due to spending all their time indoors whilst working, and the nature of West Virginia is perfect for that, so many good places to go hiking or kayaking or fishing or (insert more outdoor activities here).
The state is trying to court tech companies to build facilities in WV. Bill Gates just got to build a nuclear reactor in the state, and a state politicians have visited Seattle to visit Amazon, Microsoft, etc. I think it's a hard sell, though, when the majority of the state lacks the infrastructure (high speed internet, decent roads, etc) and skilled workers needed to support major tech developments. If anything I could see them settling in the eastern or northern panhandles since they're close to larger metropolitan areas, but that will hardly help the rest of the state.
people don't want to admit what we all know: cities drive innovation and jobs, that is a fact, mining and such don't provide a steady job environment, WV is unfortunately stuck in a bad cycle, there's no real industry for other jobs
ok
@@greenhouseghostie Debatable as there are many remtoe workers who don't seem to see the benefits. May have been true for some time when in Silicon Valley they had combined both the Data Center and HQ but now they are scattered across entire US for latency and each office building is being tested.
@@greenhouseghostie Gates is going to build a nuclear reactor here??? Do tell. Please post anything, anything that proves what you said. Please.
In my experience I have to say. The people that I visited. They were the kindest and most generous people that I have ever known.
Upon arrival, the father got up and turned the television off. Then we were offered home made beer and the cards came out. We talked for a while and they were actually interested in my life.
We had arrived after dinner but the mother made us a nice meal. We talked about so many things. But no one watched television while we were there.
The ultimate in manners, dignity and so much kindness.
I'll never forget that family in West Virginia, that turned off the television and me feel welcome in their home.
They are not poor in the things that matter.
Since you mentioned Slovakia, I see some more parallels. There is a region where coal mining was the thing over decades. For the last decade, coal production and power generation in a power plant built in the region is a net loss operation. The state has to pay subsidies in order to make coal mining and electricity production viable. But this time is also coming to an end. Currently 5 nuclear reactors run at full power and provide the majority of electricity in Slovakia (60%), with a 6th reactor under construction (the rest is 15% hydro, then other sources and only about 3% brown coal from the region I talk about). The region of upper Nitra slowly but steadily gets away from coal mining (and burning in the power plant) and the last mines are about to be shut down soon, if already not closed as I write this comment. Finally. It was economically bad, but the state could not let the people become unemployed and create what happened in West Virginia, as it would cause even bigger problems in the long run. Ecologically, it was a bad thing from the start, but back then nobody knew the full scale of impacts that come with burning brown coal. The region is striving with redevelopment but I hold my fingers crossed it will manage to get on track to prosperity. State subsidies, once for coal mining and burning for electricity, have shifted to create something other.
Slovakia won’t go anywhere if it keeps electing leaders who want to tie Slovakia’s fate to declining pariahs like Russia. The future is to the west, not the east
I'll pray that Slovakia gets through this as well. These areas need more development.
@@blankityblankblank2321 It is only a small part of Slovakia and we have worse off regions in the central southern part of Slovakia than the upper Nitra region, where things are improving, contrary to those "hunger valleys" as we call them - mostly Rimavská Sobota and Revúca, where unemployment is around 20%. Those regions are hard to develop, there is nothing besides hills, but not as great hills as other hills (little tourism potential). Infrastructure is poor as well.
He didn’t even get his facts right. Slovakias life expectancy in 2023 is 78 years. Only one year less than americas 79 years.
Where the FRENCHIE funny club was created ❤
Thank You Wendover for doing a video of my home state and educating people of the problem of it has. I’ve been a long time viewer of your channel and this is simply amazing.
The people here are proud to live here but the decay of the state makes it hard to stay. On one hand you have the most beautiful landscape and plenty of outdoor activities, but on the other, no major industry to carry the supporting industry. I hope the people watching this video get interested in learning more about West Virginia and its rich history and culture. And maybe attract more people that are up to the challenge of helping to turn this state around.
Unfortunately, it seems like the real takeaway from the video is leave WV and move where the jobs and money are.
If you've ever seen the movie October Sky; I highly recommend Homer Hickham's book "Rocket Boys". It takes place in Coalwood/McDowell county in the 50's. He was the son of an Olga foreman and even at that time the writing was on the wall for kids that the coal industry was collapsing. One of my favorite books to revisit.
I'm still mad they made the wife want to leave him in the movie. In the book, she said she wanted him to quit the mine because it was killing him. When he said where would we live if I had no job, she said I'll live under a tree if if means I get to stay with you.
In the movie, she was mad and threatened to leave him. He said, oh yeah, where you gonna live? She replies, I'll live under a tree to get away from you.
They took a pronouncement of love and fidelity and turned it into a hurtful shrew epithet.
The titles "October Sky" and "Rocket Boys" have the exact same letters in different orders.
I worked at that mine at coalwood in 75
And this is why I scroll comments. I was trying for the life of me to figure out where I’d heard McDowell County WV before. That would be it. Homer Hickham & October Sky. GREAT movie!
@@peacewind-aero there's also The Glass Castle set there and also based on a true story
With FL, CA and now WV, this could well become a series on all US States, and I'm here for it.
I was born in WV and lived there for 21 years before moving to VA and, finally, NC. When I was born in 1980, it was already well on its decline. Nearly everyone I went to school with left as soon as they graduated high school. Very few have ever returned and that trend continues. As stated in the video, there just aren't enough decent paying jobs that aren't somehow connected to coal. It's a sad state of affairs for sure, and I hope that something will eventually change to allow the state to get back up on its feet. It's such a stunning place, full of some of the most loving people you will ever encounter. They certainly deserve a better life.
I am a WV native that followed economic opportunity to NC. I’ve traveled all over the state and know exactly where most of the scenes were. I lived in the housing development my senior year of college right below the Milan picture you used.
All my life, I’ve heard that WV’s most precious resource is it’s young people. Lost to drugs or greater opportunity elsewhere, it’s increasingly true as I grow older. The state and other public institutions (WVU in Morgantown) have been growing incentives for people to stay or move back. In addition to this, I meet someone with WV ties multiple times a week and often our conversation goes back to we wish we could move back but can’t do it feasibly. Probably a good story somewhere in there with someone who has a great solution to this problem.
I am disappointed in WV's leaders.....where are they?
The real problem isn’t so much that the economic incentive went away, it’s that
a) the people stayed there after it left instead of moving to places that had work, and
b) Nothing else replaced it because the government of WV didn’t use the tax revenue from all the coal mining to build a decent education system or good infrastructure.
You can’t just sit around and expect somebody to drop high-paying jobs in your lap. Businesses are businesses, not charities. They don’t just show up and give away money. There has to be a reason for them to create those jobs. And low skilled employees are never going to command high wages for long, because they’re easy to replace with machines. So if you want sustainable prosperity, you need high-skill employees. The people most at fault for West Virginia’s poverty are the elected leaders of West Virginia. They didn’t bother to fund a good education system and kept telling the voters that coal would last forever and would always be an infinite source of good jobs for people with no skills.
It behooves the politicians to keep people dependent upon coal. They'd have to provide better to attract other in than they do people who are desperate to maintain their home and family.
Amazingly well presented! I could watch an hour of these on each American state! I see you've covered other states as well, but goddamn I wanna binge watch this. It's so relaxing, calming, yet informative. I'm supposed to go out, but I'm way too cosy now.
Thank you for this video - It blew me away! I'm from Amsterdam The Netherlands, and I currrently live in rural Eastern Poland. I'm utterly fascinated by the huge difference in economy in these two places, and your video give a lot of clues how such differences may happen. I especially liked your remark, that e.g., mountains can play such a role!
I live in Maryland but have to commute to Winchester, VA twice a week. That means driving through the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The nature and physical terrain is truly beautiful. The way the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers carve through this region is just breathtaking. But the unfortunate reality is that few people want to live where there are few opportunities and resources. The tax base is simply not there to turn the state around for the better.
For several years during the mid-90's, I worked at a major bank. I was responsible for collecting delinquent mortgages and car loans for the entire WV portfolio. Having been raised in NE Ohio and having my entire maternal family line born and raised in WV still didn't prepare me for the extent of the state's poverty levels. Lack of work due to closing mines and business pulling out of the state just blew my mind. Eventually the bank sold off the entire portfolio, but I've never forgotten how lucky I am to have been raised where I was.
Appalachia has historically been dirt poor, but I've never realized how poor until just recently. No wonder that drugs are such an issue, there's nothing to do and no future to look forward to. We need to do better and help rehabilitate these areas by bringing viable jobs to the state. Give people a valid reason not to do drugs or of depression or sheer boredom. Offer educational programs and child care, so people can get on their feet and better themselves and their families/descendants.
Alternatively, dissolve the area as a State. Create a huge national park(s) from the unused mountainous areas. Bordering States could annex populated border towns.
People try to do that but they call it socialism and vote against it.
I feel like WV is a diamond in the rough. It has dense towns that could be connected by passenger rail and isnt sprawling suburbs. There's opportunity to redevelop the land. Imagine offices on the river banks and then walking to them and after work mtn biking, hiking, white water rafting. It could be redevloped into a paradise.
Yeah there is definitely a lot of untapped potential here. I don't see why vineyards/wineries wouldn't do well in WV. Beekeeping and mushroom farming could probably do well too.
And I don't see why some theme parks couldn't be built there too. (Especially with Disney coming under a lot of public ire the past few years). Entrepreneurs could seize upon the opportunity to try new theme park concepts.
And WV's small, dense cities would be great to experiment with vertical city-building rather than suburban sprawl. Abandoned/dilapidated buildings & vacant land could be sold for dirt cheap to developers who want to build supertall skyscrapers.
The WV government could also reform the marriage laws in the state to protect men from getting screwed over by the divorce courts, and use those laws to attract weddings to the state.
Also, human cloning is legal in WV. With some 30% of young men being single, once that technology becomes more sophisticated, they could create such a surplus of attractive women there that even the bottom-of-the-barrel nerds can get laid. Embracing *that* technology could make them far richer than coal ever did.
if it was that simple, every rural state would be developed, like Wyoming, I think the main problem is WV is too far off the path from the major suburban areas, unless you build right near the border areas, the geography is its own biggest drawback, most major areas are near a river or highway, that's the unfortunate hard truth
I agree. The new national park is a start.
Great video!
At 12:15 he says "hollows", but they are actually called "hollers".
I've watched your channel grow over the years and man, you keep getting so much better! Great job, this is facinating!
I worked near 10 years in coal mining in wyoming.
The coal out there has less sulphur, which is a big reason why it boomed compared to coal in the east.
Coal in the east is mostly bituminous, which burns hotter than the sun-bituminous coal of our west in wyoming, but burns cleaner mostly.
It also burns waaaaaay cleaner than the lignite coal in the south like in texas. Much higher ash and lower carbon content.
The highest carbon content coal in us is anthracite which is mined mainly in Pennsylvania and is utilized mostly for home heating. High carbon content and low ash content, plus very high btu levels. Good for home heating.
Thank you for presenting this informative and sensitive video on the Appalachian economy. It helps us to understand the human costs of transitioning to cleaner energy sources.
If you haven't done anything on it yet, I'd love to see your take on Hawai'i and it's import/reclamation/conservation culture. One of the interesting stories we ran into while on Maui was all the abandoned cars and it got me thinking about how isolated Hawai'i is from everything and how self reliant it has to be. Maui just instituted a scrap metal program this year and with the fires earlier and its recovery, maybe it'd be a good episode.
I didn't expect to see a video dedicated to the state I've lived in most of my life, nor the background footage of my area, but this is a pretty good synopsis of some of the many issues facing the state. However, while it highlights the problems with transitioning from the coal boom, it misses the part where coal is still propped up as the savior of the state. Politicians run on platforms to "bring back coal." Trump's repetition of the statement is one of the reasons this is a state he was most popular in. There's a healthy portion of people here who pine for those glory days when a coal mining job, however unsavory the experience, brought in significant wages. Even our governor, one of the richest people in the state, made his fortune owning coal mines.
We have one of the oldest population averages in the country, and as long as that voting population tries to return to those glory days, West Virginia will continue to languish. The only thing I think that will change it is that generation dying from old age. Yet, even then, the majority of people who are willing to stay here aren't the educated and skilled workforce that would be necessary to attract the businesses and industry of the future. At this point, we're essentially just an easily influenced set of seats in the Senate.
Isn't this the oldest political/populist schtick in the book? 'I'll bring back the good old days!' Anyone thinking about it know the good old days (however good or bad they actually were) ain't coming back. But it's such an appealing 'lie' to give you hope when things otherwise seem hopeless that it's even understandable why people prefer the lie.
I agree with this comment. People in the renewables world are pursuing Just Transition, but politicians with both political and economic interests in coal are blocking progress.
Always pleased when WV is discussed, there is a LOT of potential here...hopefully more things that can take advantage of the unique terrain can help soon.
Gotta respect Sam the narrator for learning so many words just by reading, otherwise we wouldn't get to enjoy things like his pronunciation of "harbinger" at 17:19
@0:15 how funny. I used to work at Loudoun Co. Hospital in the Operating Room when the hospital was in the old location on Market Street. That was some decades ago. Right after I got out of the Air Force. I lived in Frederick, MD at the time.
For people interested in a more personal look at what West Virigina looks like, I recomment Peter Santanello's documentary video "Poorest Region of America - What It Really Looks Like".
Not a documentary, just a UA-cam video
It's funny, many West Virginians are of Scottish decent, and historically Scotland has had very similar problems due to its own wild hilly/mountainous geography.
I hope things improve for our long lost cousins 🙏
Same ancient mountain range as the Scottish highlands actually.
Yeah, a lot of Scottish towns were set up to service the coal mining industry and various other heavy manufacturing. It's all gone and is a wasteland now.
@@veeeks2938 yeah, there’s parts of Appalachia that I’ve been to that remind me of the pictures I’ve seen of the highlands. It’s my favorite part of Appalachia.
@@chiefderpawhere is that?
Huh
One thing that really strikes me is that having to build along river courses in deep valleys means that most of the urbanized areas are terribly susceptible to flooding when exceptional rainstorms occur. There's nowhere to escape to in a flash flood.
As a Data Engineering Consultant, Starlink has changed everything for us. We've been looking at West Virginia to relocate. My clients rarely require on site visits so even the lack of good commercial airports isn't much of a problem. With the savings on cost of living, I can even afford a small plane of my own for regional trips.
West Virginians elected politicians that sold residents out to Frontier, effectively leaving the state economy to wither in the digital age. Could’ve had reliable, high speed municipal internet access long ago.
I don't think Starlink is in WV, they were not in West Maryland 1 mile away when I was looking 2 years ago.
We "WV" got starlink last week @@lizardjoel
@@lizardjoel They have it now if you go with the non-mobile RV option. Not as good as Starlink’s full residential but still leagues better than Frontier or HughesNet.
@@ScoutSniperMC nice. I really like West MD which juts into and culturally plus economically is very similar to WV except weed just got legal to homegrow. I hope WV legalizes recreational weed and homegrow I would very much consider moving there buying a house and paying taxes etc if they don't I'll buy a place in West MD or Western VA instead all good.
As a life long West Virginian I feel like you missed the fact that all the major employers even the small ones like snowshoe are owned by out of state interests, usually the children of the founders that have moved out of state, and they never reinvest anything in the state. Businesses that have been around for decades just close the first time a major expense arises for the owners. Even the utility companies where people spend the bulk of their income are owned by out of state interests. I've been seeing a lot of videos about West Virginia recently and I'm glad people are taking an interest but I feel like most of them are lacking a local perspective and just talk about us like we are a failing African nation and not one of the fifty states in the USA.
I'm not surprised to hear it was out of staters
and yet West Virginians keep voting for the same corporate stooges
Well it happens to all failing countries that they get indebted to and are pwned by abroad entities.
I'm sorry that's been your experience.
I can only speak to the Canaan Valley, but the outsiders run Whitegrass and Timberline -- which are great and getting better (weather-permitting).
Meanwhile the state-owned Canaan Valley Resort seems to be falling apart.
@@mikesmith2057 Snowshoe is doing well too but that's because they are profitable and pull out of state dollars. I was thinking about other businesses that people use all the time like stores, gas stations, and restaurants. I wasn't arguing for state control either. The government leaders we have are so corrupt they don't even hide what they're doing. The governor gave the lady that makes the biscuits at his local Hardee's a truck with pandemic funds and tried to say it was random luck she won. They are more concerned with cutting their own taxes then they are about running the state. The whole thing is broken and people can't seem to see that they are electing people who don't care about them or what is good for the state.
loudon feels like that one episode when squidward went to ro the squid town. Rows of the same house. Fairfax and Arlington basically have the same jobs but it actually feels alive
untill about 8 months ago, i lived right on the border of farifax county and loudon, it is as boujey and rich as you would think, we were not rich, but we BARELY managed to pay 2500 dollars a month for 900 sqft townhome, it was awful. we now live in a raleigh suburb and pay the same amount for 2900 sqft and everything is cheaper and honestly its so much nicer
I moved to West Virginia last year because I could buy 50 acres with a decent house for 150k. I work mainly online doing Cybersecurity and would not be able to without starlink, which is a fairly recent thing and even more recent in this area. I make 70k doing that and while not rich it goes so much further here than where I moved from in PA. I've set up a few cabins and tent sites using Airbnb and such and just in a few months made a decent amount, already made up for the down payment for the property. That will slow down in the winter though. The goal is to transition to part-time online work and the rest from money made from the property in various ways.
Well bully for you....what's your point? Should we give you a pat on your back for being so "clever "? How does that help and contribute ANYTHING of value to your community???
But of course you got yours and that my dear Watson is what matters
@@almabraun3799The people staying in his cabins and tent sites will fill their tanks at local gas stations, eat in local restaurants, shop in local grocery stores, possibly even hire guides for their adventures. The OP is stimulating the local economy.
This just reminds me of what one of my history teachers in high school told us. "It all comes down to geography"
Thank you for talking about WV. I am from here , and having people speak about us like this helps many understand a misunderstood area of the US .
I grew up in WV and moved to the Carolina's almost 30 years ago after college. Over that period I have tried several times to make the case for WV to not keep repeating the same mistake of trying to build manufacturing and service jobs. But instead to focus on Tourism, Technology and a strategic "planned" transition. Tourism can provide seasonal low to mid level jobs that will once again help the owner class and to some extent the general population of WV but not all that much. Technology on the other hand has better paying jobs and most firms can operate out of facilities that are smaller in foot print and more flexible in layout than manufacturing. One of the most disheartening periods for me was during the community discussions around permitting for the large pipelines crossing the state in the last few years. I suggested several times in those discussions that rather than fight the pipelines (which I saw as a loosing battle) to instead negotiate with the pipeline companies and state legislature to include right of way access for the development of a high speed gigabit internet backbone that could cover large portions of the state. Then partner with large tech companies to develop and implement that backbone. The other partnership that is needed for WV in my mind is between coal, real estate developers, state economic development, and technology corporations. So that going forward every mine reclamation project is not geared toward returning the land back to nature (which is a fallacy anyhow since it is never the same) but prepping it for future development. Essentially harness the vast earth moving resources of mine operations to transition the areas into spaces for corporate offices, corporate facilities, service business's, housing, and mixed use communities as a plan part of their reclamation duty. WV I think "could" become the next Silicon Valley and in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Where tourism can be used as the opportunity to advertise the benefits of relocating to the area to fill the tech jobs. Imagine working remote in the mountains but only a short drive to your office when needed, with good pay, benefits, and several high profile employers to choose from. But it will take visionary leadership to make it happen which is what is lacking in WV and has for decades.
West Virginia values coal as a cultural thing more than as an actually vital economic sector. The coal mines have reduced the amount of miners they employ, and they're not coming back. However, black lung is coming back as the state tries to protect coal from legal liability.
Coal love me hate me need me coal
Coal isnt a bad thing, and suggesting that it is is just deceitful, uneducated, evil, and wrong... Getting rid of coal isnt helping anyone. Yes, there are bad practices, and thats a separate issue all together, but coal mining and burning is good, and getting rid of coal is a big big problem
@@tandava-089Burning coal is not good for anyone or anything. Suggestions that it is only paint ulterior motives. There are cheaper, more productive, and safer ways to generate electricity and heat.
@@pootispiker2866 Burning coal isn't a big deal either. There's many technologies to make it cleaner. Nobody got off coal because it was ineffective or expensive. People got rid of coal because everyone is crybaby scaredy cat bitches who were dumb enough to take losers like al gore seriously....
How many years ago were the coasts all supposed to be underwater already?
Coal has never been a problem for anything.
Y'all are just dumb and easily convinced of things
@thomasfitzpatrick669 Just shut up and go get some black lung if you like coal so much.
My family is from Logan, West Virginia, my grandpa was a coal miner for 33 years at the westmoreland coal mines, from 1953-1986 great grandpa was one as well, pretty scary stories grandpa would tell about working in there
I visited WV from NYC once and I was so fascinated by what a unique place it is. The towns are all so unique, and the people are so kind! It’s just a very different world
West Virginia is top 10 in my favorite US states. It’s a beautiful state with mountains and open wilderness. Most West Virginians are super kind and down to earth too.
Excellent for hiking and rock climbing! Absolutely beautiful.
We try to be! We enjoy the tourism so long as you respect our landscape and our towns and cities of course! If you ever find yourself in West Virginia again I suggest coming to the panhandle and visiting Harpers Ferry!
Looking to move to West Virginia so I can get away from diversity and crime. It's beautiful!
So many beautiful old towns in West Virginia. It's a shame this region is in such poverty.
I live in western Maryland, 10 mins from the WV border. A lot of people who used to live here have relocated across the border to WV for the cheaper living and they seem to love it. I’m thinking of doing the same myself. Maryland is suffocating to live in and doesn’t have enough things to do to justify the high cost of living.
I am a CA resident, but what I love about the US is peacing out for a vacation to the eastern states. I went to WV one year and my favorite thing was the nature. The sheer unconquered nature as well as all the amazing bridges that unite these massive mountains. I love CA for its weather. But WV has this very memorable rural nature scenes. I swear, there’s not a place in the world like it. Another thing that always made me question the state’s existence. How the hell did WV get those boarders?! But when ya look into it, it’s some pretty wild history. Those bridges though, I swear they insane! Would visit again 13/10. I also liked this video, I wouldn’t mind if Wendover did more videos on US states like this. Give each state a video!
It’s an absolutely beautiful landscape. IMO it’s the prettiest temperate region in the world
california public school education showing through
I second your last statement. I want to see a Minnesota state summary Wendover Productions video.
The best part where I am near Charleston is the totally not miserable humidity with no wind except in storms. But you are right, this state’s natural beauty is breathtaking and for that my family calls it the best kept secret in America
WV borders are the result of the Civil War. WV and VA used to be one state, but after VA became part of the Confederacy, the US promptly moved to invade VA and, though it couldn’t take the whole state, it was able to hold the northern Appalachia region. In the middle of the war, that area broke away from VA to become WV and thus added to the US. WV’s borders were defined by war. Given how expensive state governments can be to run, an argument can be made to consolidate states to save bureaucratic costs and save taxpayers money.
West Virginia is absolutely beautiful, but depressing. I discovered recently that there wasn't a single whole foods in West Virginia. I'm not saying whole foods is the greatest and any place without one stinks, but I found it surprising and telling that Amazon hasn't identified a single town in West Virginia that could economically support one. I've stayed in Charleston, Hinton, hurricane, Harper's ferry and I've hiked the dolly sods, new river gorge, and coppers rock. I really hope the region recovers and more people get to enjoy it's beauty
It's full of poorly educated conservatives who consistently vote against their own self-interests. Yuck!
Keep your yuppie "whole foods" out of WV, there are plenty of real fresh foods at market grown by locals.
i mean whole foods is for yuppies
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This was really informative. Thanks for posting.
This is really a story that plays out around the world
Companies go in, exploit an area for resources, and unless clever and methodical moves were made to move up the value chain, the area stays stagnant, and then broke when the company leaves
Resource curse. Oftentimes resource less nations end up doing better due to human capital. Take a look at japan and Hong Kong for example.
Should have planned for the future when coal was going to reach it's peak. Currently oil rich nations are investing in other projects for the same damn reason.
I would say the blame goes to local government in power for not seeing this coming. Blaming businesses for even providing jobs as "exploitation" is easy to say and simply shifting the blame instead of owning it.
Its never the WV's fault. Always someone elses fault.@@gabbar51ngh
Those small farm, grass fed cattle should fetch a premium price. West Virginia would be a great state to go free range or organic farming.
I suppose the issue is the infrastructure of getting goods to market. You can have the best grass fed cattle and sheep in the US but if the roads and rail connections make it unviable to sell, you're stuffed.
The geography isn't great for ranching or farming. Too many tight, winding mountains/hills and not a lot of large, flat valleys.
1. Can't help but think back to Hilary Clinton's outreach to WV during her 2016 Presidential campaign. She accurately pointed out the need to transition the region to green energy and jobs in better paying sectors, but was mocked for it.
2. Currently reading American Nations, a book about the major cultural regions of America. This video can apply to many other Appalachian regions in other states, where the Scots-Irish immigrant populations were purposely neglected by the governments based in coastal/ urban regions away from the mountains.
Even with green energy it's an uphill battle, literally. The US has lots of windswept plains in the midwest and west where wind turbines can be easily installed, no need to cart things up a hill in the middle of a forest. Even then wind turbines don't provide nearly as much steady employment after installation, you need a handful of maintenance crews but that's it. The harsh reality is that the state cannot economically support the number of people who live there, only a few farmers and associated businesses plus tourism. But no politician is going to tell people they should abandon their home and move somewhere more economically productive, like a city, because they would obviously hate that.
1:45 btw, the three faster shrinking states are West Virginia, Illinois, and Connecticut
2:28 Having a per capita income comparable to Panama actually means the average West Virginian in this area is far poorer than the average Panamanian, as the cost of living is so much lower in Panama.
The crazy thing is other than housing everything else is actually cheaper in Northern Virginia. People in WV are really hurting financially.
Apparently because of the beautiful landscape and geography Off Roading tourism is becoming big in West Virginia. I’ve even heard of a bar or something on a scenic outlook with no road to it, you have to off-road to it and that sounds so cool!
hopefully they got stories to tell and information on the local fauna and flora which would make it worth every penny.
maybe befriend the people while we at it.
One quick note for the video: The Mylan plant closed back in July of 2021.
Being an Appalachian from rural East Tennessee, this was handled very well and the solution to coal is complicated at best
As a West Virginian, we've had no help from our state government for ages and carpetbaggers have been able to gain political bases here while they have 0 understanding of our state. I recall when a UN ambassador or official (i don't remember) came here and described our state as "similar to a third world country"
Yikes.... I didn't know it was that bad.
Heh, not lying there. Both of our representatives are from prominent out-of-state political families. Carol Miller is Sam Devine's daughter from Ohio and Mooney probably hasn't spent more than a night or two in the state. When he realized he couldn't win office in Maryland, he bought a house in Charlestown and said he was West Virginian and voters bought it.
@@eksbocks9438 - yeah, you’re pretty much a third-world country when Doctors Without Borders is organising free medical care in more than one state.
@@alexwilsonpottery3733 I'll give you that one. They try really hard to mask it. And say that hospitals provide "advanced" care.
But it's basically run like a for-profit business.
If you're already established in life, it's easier. But if someone isn't: They still get the full bill.
They just pretend like inequality doesn't exist. And continue to make their demands. Our country literally encourages it. While calling it "friendly competition."
@@alexwilsonpottery3733 That's true. They try really hard to mask it. And say that they provide "advanced" care.
But it's run like a business.
I’m watching this from Wyoming county wv. Very well done video. I like to feel wv will make a comeback in my lifetime. Growing up here is rough and very different. I’ve traveled to every state trucking and seen what else there is and West Virginia is still such a beautiful place to live
The terrain disadvantage is a real thing, the Indians didn’t even maintain permanent settlement in most of the state. We’re destined to return to our pre-coal population distribution as the seams get mined out, with a few population centers along major transportation routes with a largely uninhabited, wild interior. If your industry requires moving physical goods you’re starting out a step behind here. This all sounds bad but it’s a massive advantage if your concern isn’t economic growth, but physical security in a WROL scenario..
I don't know what WROL stands for, and I'm not interested enough to look it up. I work in an industry that is packed full of acronyms and I HATE ACRONYMS. I think we use them to confuse people in the break room that come from other departments. We want to make our work processes sound complicated.
@@stevechance150 After a quick google search I found it stands for Without Rule of Law, a prepper term for the complete breakdown of society.
"WROL stands for Without Rule of Law, doomsday prepper lingo for the complete breakdown of governance after a major environmental or other disaster."
Well... it sucks to live here but whenever everything else goes to shit, living where noone else used to want to live make your odds better. Also we need to supply ourselves to make ends meet so we are prepared...
@@stevechance150 Society Without Rule of Law - it’s not necessarily an industry specific acronym but definitely an obscure one, and your point definitely applies, you could just as easily call it doomsday or collapse of government.
And just outside West Virginia there are a lot of areas with flat lands and rivers that are basically perfect for cities and agriculture. A lot of West Virginians left the state and got jobs in cities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia where there have been much better opportunities.
To be fair to West Virginia, the part bordering Loudoun County is doing quite well, and the part of Virginia in Appalachia near McDowell is also very poor... It's partly a geography thing. The state line doesn't make all the difference.