West Virginia's Small-Town Revival
Remote as they seem, communities just three hours from Washington, D.C., are more than a jumping-off point for world-class outdoor adventures.
'The American rural experience, as told by Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold, is all about becoming immersed in largely unpopulated, natural places. For weary urbanites, such places offer a chance to find solitude and reflect. Too often, it seems, the scattered towns that dot these landscapes are ignored, lost in the shadow of their wild surroundings.
So it goes for West Virginia. The mountains — and the wilderness that blankets them — are the stuff of American lore: blue forests, trout-filled creeks, pristine backcountry. For many visitors intent on hiking, biking or rock-climbing, the communities of Appalachia, with their rich folk culture and rugged individualism fail to register.
The mountainous belt that stretches down West Virginia’s eastern side is one of the few large tracts that have resisted development in the eastern United States. While persistent poverty still weighs down many corners of the region, travelers coming to experience its natural gems have, in recent years, fueled a modest resurgence in the towns that lie near them. Joining an old guard of native residents, an influx of outsiders has helped resuscitate communities that were all but burned out after the near-collapse of the coal and logging industries in the earlier part of the 20th century.
That so few of these places are familiar beyond outdoor recreation circles is a pity, especially when it comes to towns like Davis, Thomas and Fayetteville: three distinctive communities that are thriving because of — and in spite of — their rustic surroundings.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/travel/west-virginia-towns.html?