A Strange Land and a Peculiar People
The historical "fiercely independent" generalization of Appalachia is rarely espoused today. More often it is the romanticization of a land that time forgot--a destination where, if only one can get there, all of the problems of modern life will melt away. This idea of an Appalachia frozen in time was cemented with the local color writers of the late 19th century (Shapiro, 1986). As the middle class began to burgeon, well-to-do ladies had more free time than ever and required entertainment to fill their leisure hours. Travel writing magazines filled the need quite perfectly and whisked the ladies off to exotic locales without ever leaving their parlors. Local color writers penned magnificent articles with fabulous illustrations of lands far off. They also presented the down-home exotic and featured locales that were so primitive and seemingly uncivilized that it was difficult to comprehend such places could still exist in the Industrial Age. Appalachia was a favorite topic.
Surely he was unaware at the time, but William Wallace Harney’s ”A Strange Land and a Peculiar People” featured in Lippincott’s issue of October 1873, would lay the foundation for a regional romanticization that still fuels the imagination (Harney, 1873; O’Donnell & Hollingsworth, 2004; Shapiro, 1986). Harney mentions the quaint speech of the locals, filled with mysterious colloquialisms. He marvels at their insistence on planting by the phases of the moon or using a water-wizard to divine water and precious minerals (Harney, 1873). He asserts their currency is not money minted by the government, but red fox scalps (Harney, 1873). Meanwhile he conveys the beauty of the region: “It is nearly an hour since sunset, but the twilight still lingers in softened radiance, mellowing the mountain-scenery…a spring branch oozes out of the rocky turf and flows down to meet a shallow river fretting over shoals” (Harney, 1873, p. 430). Harney presents a place that is both foreign, yet somehow familiar. As the world became an increasingly industrialized, modern, over-crowded, rat race, Appalachia remained serene, trapped in time, and surrounded by ribbons of twilight in the blue mountain mists.
To read Harney's article in its entirety, please visit Project Gutenberg.
Surely he was unaware at the time, but William Wallace Harney’s ”A Strange Land and a Peculiar People” featured in Lippincott’s issue of October 1873, would lay the foundation for a regional romanticization that still fuels the imagination (Harney, 1873; O’Donnell & Hollingsworth, 2004; Shapiro, 1986). Harney mentions the quaint speech of the locals, filled with mysterious colloquialisms. He marvels at their insistence on planting by the phases of the moon or using a water-wizard to divine water and precious minerals (Harney, 1873). He asserts their currency is not money minted by the government, but red fox scalps (Harney, 1873). Meanwhile he conveys the beauty of the region: “It is nearly an hour since sunset, but the twilight still lingers in softened radiance, mellowing the mountain-scenery…a spring branch oozes out of the rocky turf and flows down to meet a shallow river fretting over shoals” (Harney, 1873, p. 430). Harney presents a place that is both foreign, yet somehow familiar. As the world became an increasingly industrialized, modern, over-crowded, rat race, Appalachia remained serene, trapped in time, and surrounded by ribbons of twilight in the blue mountain mists.
To read Harney's article in its entirety, please visit Project Gutenberg.