A drive through McDowell County into the city of War, West Virginia. One of the larger towns in McDowell County, War has fallen on hard times since the decline of the coal industry.
I enjoyed your video. Thank you my Grandfather was drafted from War for WWII. He was miner. My grandmother stayed there while he was overseas. He was on the beach at Normandy and survived. He was my hero.
My mother and grandparents are from War, WV. I remember visiting almost every weekend. They ran the little grocery store across the road from the high school on the opposite side of the river. Lynn and Margaret Methena. My mom was Wilma Chamberlain (Gray). All have passed on now but it brings back wonderful memories of my childhood.
Thank you for this! My late grandparents were part of the first graduating class from Big Creek back in 1932. My grandfather grew up in Bartley and scored the first touchdown ever on Big Creek's football field, which was itself the first "lit" high school stadium in McDowell County. Meanwhile, my grandmother from Coalwood and later War was valedictorian of that first graduating class. A generation later, my late mother (born in Welch, grew up in Bartley) was a member of the 25th class graduated from Big Creek.
My grandfather, Dr. Walter Allen Carr, lived and practiced in War from c1910 until he retired. I have many happy memories of visiting him and my grandmother Elva Ward Carr at their "house on the hill" in War. Grandaddy Carr gave the town of War the land to build Big Creek High School, where my mom Betty Carr dated the captain of the football team!
My Mom was born and raised in War. A doctor Carr delivered her first in 2 children. Moms family lived in poverty. I have an aunt that lives in Caretta. Moms dad was Samuel Wallace Bateman. My my Uncle Joe lives in Florida The rest of the family has passed. My Mom was Ruby Ella Bateman. I had a half brother that was born in War He was born in War and adopted by a family, named Adair, his name was Farley. I did get to meet him before he passed away. Does anyone knew the Bateman's? There were a lot of children because my grandfather was married 3 times and outlived all of them. Moms brother was Vernon and her sister was named Zephie. She married in a man
named Homer Gilbert. I haven't been to War or Caretta in about 10 years. I miss my family. My Aunt Betty was married in to Grady Hicks ,he has passed away.
Sir, let me say your video documentation of the beautiful Appalachian Region truly warms my heart. I was born on Fudges Creek in Ona, West Virginia but work and other pressing issues have kept me away for over 30yrs. Your videos take me to the place I love more than anywhere in the world, Almost Heaven, Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia. Thank you.
@@TheAppalachianProject I will be continuing to watch, and share, your videos since I am now a subscriber. By the way, Dunbar, WV has a colorful history and also an old vehicle bridge over the Kanawha River.
Thank you for this wonderful video! My dad grew up in War (his parents ran a grocery store there). He always talks about how War was such a beautiful town in which to grow up. He attended Big Creek High School.
The area where most the stores and the Hotel are at, I can remember walking with my dear Dad on that sidewalk in late 1959 and 1960. My father lost both his eyes when he was 2 years old. Some older people might remember him as he played the Guitar and sang really good in the area and on the sidewalk .We lived across the railroad tracks in a house on the hill. My dad's name was Claude McGrady , I also had an aunt Berlie Ward that rented an apt in the town of War. I am sure some people over 80 years o;d will remember him. I have been in Alabama over 33 years so I really appreciate your videos of WVa and am going to subscribe. Please reply if someone you know remembers my dad Thanks
Living in Brooklyn ,New York, I enjoy seeing videos of West Virginia towns. West Virginia is a beautiful state, I hope something can be done to create jobs, and revitalize these beautiful towns.
I was in Harper's Ferry last August, very nice , but next trip I want to go deeper into West Virginia, and see some of the towns like the one's you feature.
I’m from New Jersey, but I lived out in the boonies in Pennsylvania for a few years. Every town there looked just like War. Old towns long forgotten, no jobs, abject poverty, total despair. Once you get away from the coasts or a major city the story is always the same. This problem isn’t unique to War
Now that you mention it, I believe you are correct that it did burn first. I remember it being an emotional experience for a lot of area folks - even moreso than other area schools who have met their doom.
I went to Williamson High School and so did my father. it was in the early sixties I went there and the early forties and my dad went there they tore it down I heard and build a new high school somewhere I don't know where
I love all the u tube videos of west virginia. My wife and I just got home from visiting southwest west virginia. Met a new friend that just became the new football coach for murray high school in Murray kentucky. You may know him,Melvin Cunningham, from Red Jacket Wv. Fine man. My name is Danny Taylor. Murray Kentucky
Anytime you see 3 painted wooden crosses in WV, know that they were placed there by a man named Coffendecker. He put them up all over WV but many have fallen down.
Some of my back when “knee dragging” roads from my sport biking days. East of 79 and 77 got covered but did trailer to other locations and ride entire weekends.
In the late 1970s and early 80s on several occasions, I stayed in War for a week at a time, while tuning pianos in the surrounding area. The economy was hoppin' and the pickin's were good usually. (One time I ran out of money and had to sleep in my car in the parking lot near the railroad crossing. I remember exchanging a piano tuning for a shower. The lady was at work, left the house door unlocked and I never even saw her. Those were the days. That's the only time that ever happened in all my years of wandering.) I have a mental picture of watching a War high school football game and seeing a train go along the edge of the stadium. (Maybe time edits pictures.) An old man called me "honey". I didn't know it was traditional speech. One time as I was walking down the main street sidewalk, a big girl slammed into my shoulder as I passed her. I later learned that people thought I was a narc. I would walk all over town and over the surrounding hills and knock on doors looking for old records. I didn't do that anymore. Now I wish could do it all over again.
Glad you enjoyed it, Willie, I'd totally forgotten about Excelsior. Hard to imagine sometimes that segregation was that recent, glad that the world has changed for the better (at least in that department). I'm sure for folks who lived through it, it seems like yesterday sometimes.
@@TheAppalachianProjectI don't recall any time we focused much on the separation. My Grandfather (carpenter) came up from Alabama to help my father and brother add rooms and a bathroom to our small house. We had our mountainside garden for vegetables and canning, and chickens, cows and hogs (hated climbing the hillside to 'slop' those hogs). We played lost of baseball (sometimes against white teams, and sometimes we had fights). We picked strawberries in the field alongside the black graveyard next to only the highway ( white graveyard was at the top of the hill away from the highway!). We climbed the mountainside to a filed that had an amazing growth of blackberries and were always worried about rattlesnakes and the supposedly white man who might shoot at you (never saw anyone). My parents raised eight of us on the low-paying coal mines, until they began to close int the late 50s and we migrated to different places in the 60s. We have all done well, in a modest way, and is because of WV. I've told my wife and children to spread my ashes there. Excelsior was a good school and had great black teachers. Integration cost most of those teachers great jobs and our Principal became a teacher at Big Creek. I remember Supt. of Schools interviewing several us to see if suitable to attend WVU. Segregation created strange bedfellows in WV, which was probably quite different than the South. For instance, white kids rode the bus to Big Creek first (very early) and black kids rode the same bus, same driver, later. Excelsior played football games on Friday(?) and Big Creek had Saturday, same football field. So, wherever you go, there you are, and thanks for the video and memories
Thanks for sharing those memories. It's comments like yours that make me love doing these videos. I read it and got a small taste of what life was like then. Sounds like it was a simple lifestyle but a happy life. I think it was a blessing to have those experiences.
Wow, this is nothing like I remember it, we lived here in the 50'. I didn't see the movie theater on Main St, my Dad was the projectionist there, I guess they tore it down!
My family iss from Kingwood WVa, Preston Co. Back in the early 70's Pizza Hut came to town, and that was a big deal back then. The last time we visited Kingwood, that Pizza hut was still there. Prob 7-8 years ago. The place is still Almost exactly the same as when we were kids but for Wal-Mart and Dollar General.
MY SWEET LOVING PRECIOUS MAMA WENT TO BIG CREEK SCHOOL THEY WER CALLED THE OWL'S , I DROVE THRU THERE TWO YEAR'S AGO & SEEN THE SCHOOL TORN DOWN I WANTED TO WALK WHERE MY MAMA WALKED , WAR WAS VERY INTERESTING TO SEE IT'S BEAUTIFUL IT'S REALLY COUNTRY THERE I'VE GOT PICTURES WHERE I DROVE I WOULDN'T GET RID OF THEM FOR NUTTIN THANKS FOR THE VIDEO YA'LL VERY MUCH
@@bobbyfranks4361 Well, I did say "practically" an all white people's town. And whites do make up nearly 95% of the population there, with only 3.2 percent of the population being black, so I believe I am pretty accurate and honest about that. And yes, I did look up the stats before I even posted that comment above. But, that's okay...most people who are racist do identify me as being that also.
I might just go there and get myself arrested so I can say I was a prisoner of War. Can you get arrested there for littering? I love your videos, I was born in Whitesburg at what is now Whitesburg Regional Hospital, but it was called Miners Memorial Hospital Association back in August 1958 when I was born. We lived in town in Whitesburg, but Granny and pappy lived in Dongola on up little cowan creek. Dongola was a crossroad with a huge tipple and many rr tracks, and a post office. I think the only thing left is the old PO building, which is no longer active. There's a lot of mine towns around there, my dad lived in McRoberts when he was a boy, then went to Jackson Ky to live on a farm up frozen creek. I have generations of relitives in that area, way back to before Kentucky was a state. My mom was a school teacher in the Whitesburg area and taught in a number of schools around there. She passed on a couple years ago, and I find myself fascinated now by the old coal camps that are fading away. I remember going back there as a child and seeing the black coal smoke coming out of the chimneys as people prepared dinner or were heating their homes, and they had super bright clear light bulbs burning on the porch ceiling, like a beacon to come on in. I think the miners might have appropriated those bulbs from the mine. Lots of homes had no electric though. Granny had a phone long before electric because the mines there need a phone and you could have one too if the line went up your "holler", but the mines generated their own electricity so you were out of luck there. It was tough times, but it was heaven to me, everyone was so nice to me, and all the cousins and aunts and uncles and others were so friendly, it's sad how things are today. People cant understand what it was like when there were no smart phones, TV was unavailable there, radio would come in after dark sometimes, but we knew to have fun anyway.
I appreciate the compliment. Thanks for sharing your story, I am pretty familiar with that part of Kentucky so it is great to read about what life was like in the coal camp days. I am fascinated by that lifestyle too.
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My family name is Downing and my mother's maiden name was McGuffey I guess my grandparents lived there for a little while cuz my father was going there in 1927 and they moved to Williamson where I was born another lived in Chattaroy West Virginia I would love to see I don't know how I get down but I'm old now I guess I'll never let you go back I live in Florida
I live in New York and am moving to West Virginia. Not sure exactly where we are moving, probaly somewhere in South West Virginia. Where is War WV exactly? Love your video!!
Claw Hammer, anyone needs enough money to survive, but I would rather have a poor neighbor who believes in God that give of what they had to help a person in need in that community than to have a wealthy neighbor who would not give you the time of day in your hour of need , and who,s bottom line is more money.
I came from here everybody knows everybody there there really old school bc my grandmaw raised me she was born in the 40s if u hang around these hillbillys they can teach u at thing or 2 and the jail house is moved to the Stevens correctional center i was half my life there in english and yukon#2 and there's alot of butiful land and it's really hot
My father was born in war West Virginia he was born in 1927 his name run Dean Downing and he drove a trucks for Hogan's my grandfather and grandmother's name for CT Downing and Mary Downing I don't know why they live there but that's where my father was born it said on his birth certificate but I'm not sure that my mother killed it out right but I grew up in Williamston West Virginia and so did my dad they moved here I guess after he was born but my stepmother said he was born in red jacket I don't know where he was born I guess really for sure but it's on my birth certificate War West Virginiano
I was born in Canebrake West Virginia my father and his brothers worked in the coal mines. l live in NC I try to go back once a year to decorate my families graves which are in Hartwell West Virginia. Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your videos.
Daniel Armstrong it depends on where we can get to at the time. We have made trips into Southern WV, East Tenn, Southwest VA, Eastern Ky and Western NC
Driving with one hand and filming with the other and exceeding the speed limit was very weak at best. Plus he needs to brush up on his history, coal was OK, but that was not what drove War, WV.
