GREAT video and commentary. A few years back, the company I work for (waste-to-energy) ended up buying a 100-acre impoundment of coal situated in Dotson Fork (near where KY, VA and WV all meet), and our team all stayed in downtown Pikeville. As a Yankee from Boston, I was quickly smitten by Pikeville. I think the population then was just under 8000, yet still had a town feel to it, despite big city amenities (eg medical school, convention center, great history on Hatfields/McCoys, nice downtown hotels we stayed in, etc.). Then to try and fathom that Pikeville's beginnings of the second-largest dirt -moving undertaking in the western hemisphere. VERY impressive undetaking, to be sure.
My husband is part Hatfield. Cheers from Florida . He’s fix n to be up there next week after our flood of 2023z Ian. Our home is underwater. This is where his beautiful mother was born and raised. ✌️💜
My heart still goes out to the flood victims and their struggles at this time. Prayers for all those great people. Keep fighting. Another great video. You do such a great job on your videos. The editing is great. Love the music you chose. Glad to see the town is still booming. Keep the videos coming.
Ohhh I love Pikeville! I lived there for a bit when I was young, in the 80s. My grandpa was a pilot at the local airport. I remember there being dead squished toads by the THOUSANDS on the roads. I remember shopping at the Piggly Wiggly. I remember all the big nice homes. And going to Hillbilly Day with my favorite cousin. I also remember a really cool restaurant we used to go to, up on a hill. It had a windmill on top of it. Oh the memories! *edit: WOW this place has grown!!!!
This restaurant was called The Windmill Restaurant, right next to Daniel Boone Motel. I havent been in a few years, but was still open roughly 3-5 years ago
@@Dhardy316 Oh thats great to hear!!!! I would love to visit and go there one day. It would bring back a lot of memories. I used to eat there with my grandparents.
My wife went to med school in Pikeville and stuck around for a while after. We lived there for 8 years. I met some of the best people in the world and encountered some of the worst as well. It is an interesting place that has more layers than us outsiders will ever know. One thing is certain though, the people there have face adversity and pain but always come out the other side far better than anyone would expect.
Randolph McCoy was my several times removed Uncle through his brother William. I’d like to thank you for not portraying Pikeville and the McCoy’s as barefoot hillbillies. FYI: as you probably know, following the Revolutionary War, a McCoy was given a land grant in Pike County of 200 acres for his participation on the Virginia military line. That makes his descendants eligible for membership in the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution. My father, James Peter McCoy, Jr, would be 102 yrs old now. He told us stories of living in Logan County, WV as a child and the accounts of The Feud that he grew up with. I’m privileged to have heard his stories. Once again, thanks for the video! 🌷
You missed so much about Pikeville. I am not from there but they moved the city in the 60s and 70s. Filled in the river to make the city bigger and blew up a mountain to give the river a place to go. Much like tearing down Grundy Va to put in a WaMart
My wife and I recently moved to WV and we're so pleased that we found this channel. Thank you for making us spend a ton of money on gas driving to all these places lol
I was born in 1951 in Mabscott, WV. I built a new home in Hazard, KY. An engineer I have always worked in the coal industry. My great grandfather was a company man i Mabscott. His name was Kester Thompson, an immigrant from Ireland.
Went down to Kentucky right during the flooding, I was there 2 days, come down from michigan went over to Cumberland falls then shot over to Fleming-neon to pick up a truck. Destruction was catastrophic. Should be going back down soon to head to pikeville to see some family
Pikeville appears to be a bustling prosperous town. Having a university, a medical center and other types of business has kept this community economically healthy.
Nice video. You left out mentioning the Pikeville Cut-Thru Project though. At the time it was the 2nd largest Earth moving project in North America. Pikeville is called the city that moves mountains. They also rerouted the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River and a section of the now Big Sandy Subdivision railroad operated by CSX Transportation.
The fact remains, the earliest settlers of Eastern Ky are royal blooded like my Eastern Ky ancestors. At the 4- 5 gr grand generation many married the Cherokee women. The most common royal descendants were the Brandenburg and Caudill families.
I moved to Glasgow Ky from St Joseph, Missouri last November. I'm using some of your videos to plan trips to places in Appalachia that I'd like to see and this is one of them. Some of the Hatfield family settled in the St Joseph area and there is a cemetery near Halls, Missouri that has quite a few old markers with their last name.
Thank you for the history of my mothers home she moved to Ohio after she became an adult but we went back every year in the summer it’s a different place than it was back in the 60s I was born a raised in Ohio and now make my home for 47 yrs now in southern West Virginia coalfields I love it here and I go to pikeville all the time so again thank you for the history Susie
Here in North Carolina we have linville gorge. The deepest gorge east of the Mississippi. It is also called the grand canyon of the east. Love your videos.
ooh i'm from the east-central part of KY, right outside Lexington to be specific. haven't spent much time near Pikeville, but i love seeing videos about KY and Appalachia in general. the older i get, the stronger i feel that we need to preserve these traditions and be proud of our mountain heritage. people from elsewhere might make fun of us from time to time, and that's fine, i can take a joke, lol. didn't think i had an accent til i moved up to Ohio for a year and everyone there called me a "redneck". although to be politically correct, i prefer the term hillbilly, it just makes sense. i grew up in the hills, i live in the mountains now, i am a hillbilly. that just makes sense to me, and i don't take it as an insult. even though people mean it that way sometimes. thank you for trying to dispel some of the myths and stereotypes, it's much appreciated. Appalachia is a great place y'all, it has its issues like anywhere else. but you're surrounded with amazing scenic vistas, interesting tidbits of history everywhere you look here. old general stores from the 1800s still standing, artefacts from the height of the coal boom, abandoned homesteads, old churches, all kinds of stuff. history buffs would love it here. you can't hardly dig up the ground without finding points, then there's agates and fossils. the music, food and culture are all amazing too. the language is awesome too, and if you like outdoors-type adventures, there's about a million places to go and things to do. KY's a great state, i love it here
I'm a Pike County native and actually writing an academic piece on the feud right now. Truth: the feud was actually very small and it didn't have anything to do with the Civil War or the hog. Randall McCoy himself was a member of the Wildcats and no one knows who killed Asa McCoy. The trial over the hog also had a jury that the judge composed of members of the Hatfields and the McCoys, as was tradition in the area to protect from allegations of bias. Also, it was really more just Randall McCoy vs. the Hatfields. Other McCoys actively supported the Hatfields. The truth is that no one really knows what Randall's problem with Anderson was. But Randall also was a foul tempered jerk who disliked a lot of people. The biggest thing that kicked the feud off was Randall McCoy's sons killing Anderson Hatfield's brother, Ellison. That's when honest to goodness, provable violence between the groups kicked off. The Hatfields killed all three of the McCoy sons. That was in 1882. What really happened after that is more interesting than the legends. In 1886 Perry Cline - adopted son of John Dils, a man looking to improve Pike County's image - got charges against the Hatfields reinstated after they'd been dropped (people believed the Hatfields killing the sons was warranted). Cline disliked Anderson personally and Dils thought that showing law and order was prevailing over the feuding system was important to investment. The New Years massacre happened after Cline and Dils kept sending deputies into WV to go after the Hatfields and then that led to the Battle of Grapevine. There's a lot more to it than that but, in reality, most of the violence happened after Cline got the charges reinstated, which was a purely political and PR move that had nothing to do with Randall McCoy. The reason it became so famous? At the time, a New York newspaper was doing stories on Appalachia and Cline and Dils roped them into covering the story. They thought the paper would show a growing sophistication and commitment to law and order in the region. The exact opposite happened, because the paper instead sensationalized the story to make it more interesting to readers. That newspaper's version became the accepted version of events, even in the region itself.
Ooooo I loved this one!!! The shots you got, the music, and the history! Looks like this is still a pretty booming little town. Keep up the FANTASTIC work! 🤎
Well ima southern ohia boy. Cinci that is😌 u got that foothills sound & i like it! It's not tri-county or deep hills.. it's rite in the middle sounds guud!🙃👍
@@bunnyman6321 the mountain people, my great grandfather included, had no reason to fight for the Confederacy. They had nothing to gain from it. Their grandparents had fought to make the US. They Were loyal to the mountains they were from more so than the state. So when West Virginia broke off and went Union, as did east Kentucky, the boys from Clinch Mt Virginia followed suit.
I was born in bourbersville and grew up near Corbin living in those mountains as poor white trash is hard living I'm related to some Hatfields and I can tell ya there are still places in those hills you wouldn't want to end up and if ya do you may never be found
Love these episodes! Keep up the great work! This has got to be my favorite series on RU-vid. Also love seeing Jelly Roll tour advertising in such a small town. I remember when he was underground many years ago, with only a few people at his shows in decent size cities. Amazing to see him grow!
I have a cousin that lives in Pikeville. And other family including my father that lives in Clintwood, Virginia. Beautiful country down there. Clinchco, Virginia was the home of Darrell "Shifty" Powers. He was in WWII and was in the HBO series Band of Brothers. There's much history in that part of the country. Keep up the good videos.
I remember my great aunt telling about our family's graves (in Kentucky) being covered with squared off stones that exactly covered the top of the grave. I was very young at the time and I don't remember where she said these graves were located. Knowing that would tell me where my family lived in Kentucky. Do you happen to know where such graves are located? I've tried to research the internet but without finding anything. Thank you.
My dad died with cancer 38 years ago and one of his wishes was to see The Breaks again. We took him and I’ll never forget the look on his face and how he lingered just looking at the beautiful scenery. Thanks for these great videos!
Pikeville has found its way since the coal mining days with the University/Med/Dental School. Pretty cool little city. Absolutely beautiful mountains. Helluva football team (they filled in the city pool to make those boys an indoor practice facility). 5 millions cops but its still home
You mentioned Waynesboro VA and I immediately thought about the Blue Ridge Mountains and Skyline Drive. Don't know if that would be considered Appalachian but there's some history in that area.
My grandma waa born here. Fame Thornbury was her name. Her mom was Sarah Elizabeth Coleman and Dad Colley Thornbury. I have always wanted to go there. She used to tell me a lot of stories.
My great grandmother was Jim Vance’s sister and she married Charles E Harman and lived in Tazewell Va. Whitten Dam was made from a cave spring that was on my great parents property.
Great video. Did you get to see the Rhododendron Restaurant while at the Breaks? Just wondering if it survived covid. Always wanted to eat there. Thanks for sharing the history and beautiful scenery. Travel safe.❤️
I did not, unfortunately. It was just about sunset when I arrived so I was laser focused on getting to the overlook before I missed it. Maybe next time!
I like your recap of this story...For me growing up in Iaeger, Wv, I remember the schools being full of both Hatfield and McCoy kids. Seems they all got along just fine, though I'm sure most were direct descendants from the feuding folks.... I never connected my school mates with the feud, even though I had been to the summer play series at Grandview State Park near Beckley, WV...Watching the reenactment of the Feud on stage at the outdoor amphitheater gave the story life and added to the legend of the Feud..Who knew a darn pig could cause such ugliness?
Certainly some complex issues giving rise to this particular feud, but evidently escalated from that swine! However, like I pointed out and would caution anyone in the retelling of the story, much of it has been exaggerated and overblown- right down to the death toll. Thanks for watching!!
Wow this was an awesome video! I am from Brownsville Kentucky where Mammoth Cave national Park is you should definitely come here and do a tour. Lotta history here in Mammoth Cave.. which also happens to be the longest Cave system in the world!
