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charter.]] Appalachia is a term used to describe a region in the Eastern United States that stretches from southern New York state to northern Alabama , Mississippi , and Georgia . Although parts of the Appalachian Mountains extend through Maine into Canada , New England is usually excluded from the definition of Appalachia. Over twenty million people live in Appalachia, an area roughly the size of the United Kingdom , covering mostly mountainous, often isolated areas from the border of Mississippi and Alabama in the south to Pennsylvania and New York in the north. Appalachia also includes parts of the states of Georgia , South Carolina , North Carolina , Tennessee , Virginia , Kentucky , Ohio , Maryland , and the entire state of West Virginia . The region contains few intermediate-sized cities, and only two large Metropolitan Area s are located entirely within the region— Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , and Knoxville, Tennessee . (However, the expansive region served by the Appalachian Regional Commission incorporates some additional urban areas, including Birmingham, Alabama and the northern part of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area .) CULTURE See Also: Appalachian folk music Country music Appalachian English Prior to the 20th Century , the people of Appalachia were geographically isolated from the rest of the country. As a result, they preserved the culture of their ancestors (most of them Scots-Irish , Scottish , Irish , German , and English ) who settled the region in the 18th Century . The region's culture includes a strong oral tradition (including Music and song), self-sufficiency, and strong religious faith. Coal deposits in the region were tapped in the latter half of the 19th Century and drew a new wave of immigrants from Ireland and Central Europe . With this Industrialization came increased Urbanization . The creation in 1936 of the Appalachian Trail , which stretches from Georgia to Maine, also helped open the area to hikers and outdoor enthusiasts from all over the world. Long characterized as economically underdeveloped, Appalachia has received more sympathetic treatment by historians and anthropologists in recent decades. Groups like the Foxfire Project , an anthology of writings that began in 1972, appealed to the counterculture and gave the region new visibility in academia. Though the region is often characterized as educationally deficient, the inhabitants of the region have preserved much historical lore. For example, Appalachian people have preserved a lot of historical medical knowledge. People in the community know where to find, identify, harvest, and prepare various herbs that are medicinally used. Ancient arts, such as Beelining , would be more likely to be familiar to an Appalachian person than one from other areas. A long-running series of documentary films by Appalshop takes a historical and critical view of the region, especially the effects of Coal Mining , Poverty , and other aspects of local life. In 1965, the US Congress established an economic development agency called the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). In the terminology of this agency, "Appalachia" applies to the whole territory of its mandate, in recognition of similarities of lifestyle and culture throughout the region. This similarity may come from the great migration of people from the northern to the southern part of Appalachia in the 19th century. In the 20th century, many from the area migrated to northern & midwestern cities such as Detroit , and Chicago in search of jobs, and these cities still contain enclaves of Appalachian culture. In the 1940s through the 60s, Wheeling, West Virginia became a cultural center of the region because it had a Clear Channel AM radio station WWVA , which could be heard throughout the entirety of eastern USA at night. As a scientific technical term, "Appalachia" may be used to describe some (particularly the central section), or all, of the Appalachian mountain range, for example as a geological formation, or an environmental habitat. Appalachia as an academic interest was the product of a critical scholarship that emerged across the disciplines in the 1960s and 1970s. With a renewed interest in issues of power, scholars could not dismiss the social inequity, class conflict, and environmental destruction present in Appalachia. Appalachia's emergence in academia is a result of the intersection between social conditions and critical academic interests. This 'visibility', often taking shape in books and lectures, broadcast the struggles of Appalachia to a broader audience. APPALACHIAN REGIONAL COMMISSION The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) was created by the U.S. Congress in 1965 to bring poor areas of the 13 U.S. states of the main (southern) range of the Appalachians into the mainstream of the American economy. The commission is a partnership of federal, state, and local governments, and was created to promote economic growth and improve the quality of life in the region. The region as defined by the ARC includes roughly 408 counties, including all of West Virginia and counties in 13 other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The ARC is a planning, research, advocacy and funding organization; it does not have any governing powers. The ARC's geographic range of coverage was defined broadly so as to cover as many economically underdeveloped areas as possible; it extends well beyond the area usually thought of as "Appalachia". For instance, parts of Alabama and Mississippi were included in the commission because of problems with unemployment and poverty similar to those in Appalachia proper, and the ARC region extends into Northeastern states, which are never considered part of Appalachia culturally. The ARC's wide scope also grew out of the "pork Barrel" phenomenon, as politicians from outside the traditional Appalachia area saw a new way to bring home federal money to their areas. ECONOMY The economy of Appalachia traditionally rested on agriculture, mining, timber, and in the cities, manufacturing. In the late twentieth century, tourism and second home developments have assumed an increasingly major role. Coal Mining , the industry most frequently associated with Appalachia in outsiders' minds, remains important; however, its economic role should not be overstated. Coal is mined only in some portions of the area traditionally thought of as Appalachia [http://www.nma.org/pdf/c_locations.pdf . Coal mining employment across the country has generally dropped over the last several decades with increased mechanization, notwithstanding a spike in employment accompanying the coal industry boomlet that started in about 2004 While with annual earnings of $55,000, Appalachian miners make more than most other local workers, Appalachian coal mining employed just under 50,000 in 2004. [http://www.nma.org/pdf/c_profile.pdf , [http://www.nma.org/pdf/c_employment_state_region_method.pdf] Restrictions on high sulfur coal in the 1980s resulted in the closure of some mines. The high, continuing "legacy" costs associated with earlier mining activities — retiree health care, , Western U.S. and especially Powder River Basin strip mines. About two-thirds of Appalachia's coal is produced by Underground Mining , the rest by Surface Mining . {Link without Title} , often referred to as strip mining. Mountaintop removal, a form of surface mining, is a highly controversial mining practice in central Appalachia due to its negative impacts on the natural and human environment. Poverty in Appalachia Appalachia is a term used to include a region stretching from West Virginia to Alabama that surrounds the Appalachian Mountains . Although the Appalachian Mountains extend through New England and into Canada, New England, New York, and Pennsylvania are not generally considered a part of Appalachia. It includes both rural and urban and industrialized regions in and around the Appalachian Mountains in the Eastern United States . Over twenty million people live in Appalachia, an area roughly the size of the United Kingdom , covering largely mountainous, often isolated areas from the border of Mississippi and Alabama in the south to Pennsylvania and New York in the north. Between lay large areas of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland and Ohio. Poverty in this region has been a problem for many years but was not brought to the attention of the rest of the United States until 1964 when US President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a speech from a sagging front porch in a poor Appalachian mining town. In Appalachia, severe poverty and desolation is paired with the necessity for careful, cultural sensitivity. Many Appalachian people fear that the birth of a new modernized Appalachia will lead to a death of their traditional values and heritage. Because of the isolation of the region, Appalachian people have been unable to catch up to the Modernization that lowlanders have achieved. In the 1960s , many people in Appalachia had a Standard Of Living comparable to Third World countries. Lyndon B. Johnson was the first president to bring attention to the growing problem of poverty in Appalachia. Standing on the front porch of a family suffering from a problem that had been so long ignored, he declared his " War On Poverty ". The Appalachian Regional Development Act (1964), which created the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), stated that Appalachia was a shambles: :The Appalachian region of the United States, while abundant in natural resources and rich in potential, lags behind the rest of the nation... its people have not shared properly in the nation’s Prosperity . Since the creation of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) in 1965, the region has seen dramatic progress. New roads, schools, health care facilities, water and sewer systems, and other improvements have brought a better life to many Appalachian residents. In 1960, 219 Counties in the 13- State Appalachian Region were considered economically distressed. Now that list has been cut in half, to 108 counties, but these are "hard-core" pockets of poverty, seemingly oblivious to all efforts at improving their lot. Casto, James E., APPALACHIA, May–August 1999 Arc.gov Nevertheless, after 40 years poverty remains undefeated in Appalachia. Martin County, Kentucky , the site of Johnson’s 1964 speech, is currently ranked as "distressed" by the ARC. (Distressed is the worst ranking.) Martin’s average income is US$ 17,152, and 37% of its residents live below the Poverty Line . On 5 July , 1999 , President Bill Clinton made a public statement concerning the situation in Tyner, Kentucky . "I'm here to make a simple point," Clinton told the enthusiastic crowd. "This is the time to bring more jobs and investment to parts of the country that have not participated in this time of prosperity. Any work that can be done by anybody in America can be done in Appalachia." Bill Clinton was the only president since Johnson to bring attention to the areas of poverty in Appalachia. ETYMOLOGY AND PRONUNCIATION The words "Appalachia" and "Appalachian" most likely derive from '' Apalachee '', a Muskogean speaking tribe historically located in northern Florida, first encountered by the Narvaez expedition in 1528, as reported by Cabeza De Vaca . After the De Soto Expedition in 1540, Spanish cartographers began to apply the name of the tribe to the mountains themselves. The first appearance of ''Apalchen'' is on Diego Gutierrez ' map of 1562; the first use for the mountain range is the map of Jacques Le Moyne De Morgues in 1565.Walls, David (1977). "On the Naming of Appalachia." In ''An Appalachian Symposium''. Edited by. J. W. Williamson. Boone, NC: Appalachian State University Press. Pp. 56-76. The name was not commonly used for the whole mountain range until the late 19th century. A competing and often more popular name was the "Allegheny Mountains", "Alleghenies", and even "Alleghania". In the early 19th century, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either Appalachia or Alleghania. Stewart, George R. (1967). ''Names on the Land''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. In northern U.S. dialects, the mountains are pronounced the , or . The cultural region of the mountain South is pronounced , also . The third syllable is like "lay". In Southern U.S. dialects, the mountains are pronounced the , and the cultural region of the mountain South is pronounced . The third syllable is like the "la" in "latch". POPULAR CULTURE
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