Historian Mills Kelly’s love affair with the Appalachian Trail started when he was a boy scout. He was 12.

Also, the region is known for exporting coal, but it’s losing people, too.

And, Cuz’s Uptown Barbeque in southwestern Virginia fuses Asian ideas with Appalachian comfort food, like cheesy egg rolls.

You'll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

A Hiker’s History of the Appalachian Trail
Acupuncture May Ease Alpha-Gal Syndrome
Depopulation In Appalachian Coalfields
Ambulance Crews In Rural Tennessee Administer Antibiotics On Site
A Community Rallies Around Cuz’s Barbeque
Environmental Engineer Turned "Water Healer"

A Hiker’s History of the Appalachian Trail

Mills Kelly knows an awful lot about the Appalachian Trail (AT). While he’s never attempted a thru-hike, the lifelong hiker has covered hundreds and hundreds of miles of the trail. He’s also a trail scholar. He shares its history on The Green Tunnel Podcast.

He’s also written several books about the trail, including his most recent. It’s called A Hiker’s History of the Appalachian Trail. Producer Bill Lynch recently spoke with Kelly about his life with the AT.

Acupuncture May Ease Alpha-Gal Syndrome

A person holding a vile that reads, "Alpha Gal." — Acupuncturist Jessica Dodds holds up an alpha-gal vial she uses to assess allergy severity.

*Photo Credit: Christine Phelan Kueter/WMRA*

Nobody loves ticks. The bloodsuckers have a reputation for spreading Lyme disease, but that’s not all. They can also infect people with Alpha Gal Syndrome, a red meat allergy.

Symptoms of the allergy range from a rash to crippling gastro-intestinal upset. It has even very rarely led to death. Sometimes the allergy fades over time, but sometimes it doesn’t, and there is no cure.

But as WMRA’s Christine Kueter reports, some are getting relief through acupuncture.

Depopulation In Appalachian Coalfields

The silhouette of a coal miner statue looking on a foggy mountain. — In this Oct. 16, 2014 photo, fog hovers over a mountaintop as a cut out of a coal miner stands at a memorial to local miners killed on the job in Cumberland, Kentucky.

*Photo Credit: AP Photo/David Goldman*

The population in Appalachia’s coal-producing counties has declined since the boom of the 1950s. As the coal industry mechanized and shrunk, jobs went away, and young people did, too. Now, a series of population estimates show things might get even worse.

Journalist Jim Branscome grew up in southwestern Virginia and has been following this story. Host Mason Adams spoke with Branscome back in the fall.

Ambulance Crews In Rural Tennessee Administer Antibiotics On Site

A photo of someone's hand holding a vial of antibiotics. — Paramedics in Hawkins County have been administering Zosyn, a penicillin antibiotic that fights bacteria in the body, to treat septic patients in ambulances since last year. The program is made possible through a partnership between Hawkins County EMS and Ballad Health, a major hospital operator in the region.

*Photo Credit: Pierce Gentry/WPLN News*

Untreated infections are one of the most frequent causes of death in the United States. Getting lifesaving antibiotics is a challenge in rural areas that don’t have easy access to hospitals.

For the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, reporter Pierce Gentry tells us about an effort in Hawkins County Tennessee to find a solution.

A Community Rallies Around Cuz’s Barbeque

The exterior of Cuz's BBQ. There is a brick silo and a red exterior wall. The restaurant faces a river and mountains. — Cuz's Uptown Barbeque was selected in 2019 by World Restaurant Awards as one of the top under-the-radar restaurants in the world.

*Photo Credit: Connie Bailey Kitts/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Food in Appalachia is a blend of the food from all the other places people came from to get here. In West Virginia, we have pepperoni rolls because about 100 years ago, Italians working in the coal mines wanted an easy lunch.

Different food ideas show up all the time.

At Cuz’s Uptown Barbeque in Tazewell County, Virginia, you get local mountain flavors, but with an Asian inspired twist. There are items on the menu like Morel mushrooms, cheesy egg rolls and country ham caprese.

In 2022, Folkways reporter Connie Bailey Kitts and her family stopped in at C...