Roots and Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast

The Mountains Remember: Heroes of Appalachia

In this Memorial Day special of Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia, we remember Appalachian men and women whose lives became tied to some of the most difficult moments in American military history. Memorial Day is often confused with Veterans Day or Armed Forces Day, but its meaning is different. Memorial Day is set aside to honor the men and women who died in service to the United States. And in Appalachia, that remembrance has always felt deeply personal. From coal camps and mountain farms to Cherokee communities, small towns, and hollows tucked between the ridges, generations of Appalachian families have sent sons and daughters into military service. This episode follows several powerful stories of Appalachian courage, sacrifice, survival, and service. We begin with Colonel Ruby Bradley of West Virginia, an Army nurse who survived captivity during World War II and continued caring for the sick and wounded under brutal conditions in the Santo Tomas Internment Camp. Later, she served again during the Korean War, becoming one of the most decorated women in U.S. military history. From there, we move to Staff Sergeant Junior J. Spurrier, born in Castlewood, Virginia, and tied to the coalfields of Southwest Virginia. Known officially as Junior J. Spurrier after an enlistment paperwork mistake, his World War II combat actions in France earned him both the Distinguished Service Cross and the Medal of Honor. We also remember Sergeant Cornelius H. Charlton, born in the coalfields of East Gulf, West Virginia. A Black Appalachian soldier in the Korean War, Charlton took command after his platoon leader was wounded, led repeated assaults under heavy fire, and gave his life in action. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Then we tell the story of Private First Class Charles George, a young Cherokee soldier from the Qualla Boundary in Western North Carolina. During the Korean War, George sacrificed his own life by covering an enemy grenade, saving the soldiers near him. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and remains one of the most honored military figures in Cherokee history. The episode also reflects on Francis Gary Powers, born in Burdine, Kentucky, raised in Southwest Virginia, and known around the world after his U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union during the Cold War. His story brings us into the shadows of secrecy, espionage, capture, and the long burden of being misunderstood after serving his country. We also briefly recognize more modern Appalachian military stories, including Jessica Lynch of West Virginia, who was wounded and captured during the Iraq War and later received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Prisoner of War Medal, and Gregory V. Pennington of Southwest Virginia, who was killed in Iraq while helping evacuate fellow soldiers during a mortar attack. These are only a few of the many Appalachian military stories that could be told. Across the mountains, there are names carved into courthouse memorials, folded flags resting in family homes, and stories passed quietly from one generation to the next. This Memorial Day episode is not just about wars. It is about people. Ordinary people from Appalachian communities who carried the weight of history, and in some cases, never made it back home to the mountains that raised them. Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia explores true stories from Appalachia, including history, true crime, folklore, forgotten places, mountain communities, and the people whose lives shaped the region.

The Whistle That Never Stopped | The Wreck of Old 97

In this episode of Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast, we tell the story of Old 97, the Southern Railway Fast Mail train whose name would become one of America’s most famous railroad ballads. On September 27, 1903, Southern Railway’s Fast Mail Train Number 97 was racing south through Virginia carrying United States mail moving from New York through Washington, D.C., toward New Orleans. Known for speed and strict schedules, Old 97 was one of the Southern Railway’s most important trains, running so regularly that some people living along the line reportedly set their watches by it. But that Sunday afternoon, the train was already behind schedule when it arrived in Monroe, Virginia. Another crew was reassigned to take the Fast Mail south toward Spencer, North Carolina, and before long Old 97 was speeding through Lynchburg and toward Danville trying to make up lost time. What happened next outside Danville would become one of the deadliest railroad disasters in Southern Railway history. But this story is about far more than a train wreck. Over the decades that followed, the wreck of Old 97 transformed into something much larger. The story spread through newspapers, railroad depots, front porches, and eventually through music. Long before radio stations carried country music across America, people passed stories down through ballads and folk songs, and somehow the story of Old 97 refused to disappear. In this episode, we explore the true story behind the wreck, the controversy surrounding the crash, and the questions that still remain more than a century later. We dive into the pressure railroad engineers faced in the early 1900s, the importance of the United States mail system, and the debate over whether Old 97 lost its air brakes while descending the grade toward Danville. We also examine the life of engineer Joseph “Steve” Broady, the man blamed for the disaster. Contemporary newspaper reports stated Broady “stuck to his post” during the final moments of the train, remaining aboard the locomotive as Old 97 entered the trestle outside Danville. The episode also follows musician Henry Whitter, whose early recording of “The Wreck of Old 97” helped preserve the ballad and introduce Southern string music to commercial recording audiences years before the Bristol Sessions of 1927. Listeners will hear the story behind the famous song, the rise of Vernon Dalhart’s million-selling recording, the complicated copyright lawsuits surrounding the ballad, and the remarkable fact that the legal battle over Old 97 eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States. We also explore the connection between Henry Whitter and legendary blind fiddler G. B. Grayson, whose recordings helped shape early Appalachian and country music history before Grayson’s tragic death near Damascus, Virginia in 1930. And hidden inside the story all along are deep Appalachian roots. Because the wreck of Old 97 was not just a railroad story. It was an Appalachian story too. From Southwest Virginia railroad men to early mountain musicians, this episode follows how one moment in 1903 continued traveling across generations long after the whistle faded from the rails. This episode contains historical discussion involving railroad disasters and fatalities. Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast explores the history, folklore, mysteries, and true stories of Appalachia through narrative storytelling rooted in the mountains and communities of the region. Music featured in this episode includes the 1924 recording of “The Wreck of Old 97” performed by Henry Whitter. The recording is believed to be in the public domain due to its age and original publication date.

Where The Trail Went Cold | Missing in Appalachia

Deep in the mountains of Appalachia, people have been disappearing for centuries. Some walked out into the wilderness and never came home. Some vanished from quiet farming communities where everybody knew their name. Others disappeared in places so remote and unforgiving that even massive search efforts turned up nothing at all. In this episode of Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast, we explore some of the most haunting missing persons cases connected to Appalachia and the mountains that continue to hold their secrets. We begin in 1792 with the disappearance of five year old Katy Sage near Elk Creek in what is now Grayson County, Virginia. A little girl vanishes while chasing butterflies in a garden on the Appalachian frontier. Search parties comb the wilderness for months with no trace of her ever found. For decades her family is left with only questions, rumors, and heartbreak. Then we travel to Sugar Grove, Virginia in the late 1940s and examine the disappearance of Willis Rex Roberts, a seventeen year old boy from a respected Smyth County family who walked home from school one afternoon and was never seen again. Through old newspaper archives, census records, and local accounts passed down through generations, we follow the last known traces of Rex Roberts before his trail suddenly disappears from history. We also examine one of the most famous missing child cases in American history, the disappearance of Dennis Lloyd Martin in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during Father’s Day weekend in 1969. More than fourteen hundred searchers, including Green Berets, National Guardsmen, park rangers, rescue squads, helicopters, and experienced woodsmen combed nearly sixty square miles of rugged mountain terrain searching for a little boy in a red shirt. They found nothing. The episode then moves to Wytheville, Virginia and the disappearance of Israel Ray Smith in 2008. Israel vanished from his apartment leaving behind his vehicle, keys, lights, television, and gaming controller as if he had simply stepped away for a moment and never returned. Investigators from multiple agencies, including the FBI and United States Marshals Service, spent years chasing leads that ultimately went nowhere. We also cover the disappearance of Gary Shannon Earp Jr., who vanished in 2017 after his truck was found still running near Tumbling Creek inside the Clinch Mountain Wildlife Management Area in Southwest Virginia. His wallet, money, glasses, and untouched breakfast remained behind while search teams combed the mountains for answers that never came. Along the way we reflect on other missing persons cases tied to Appalachia and discuss why these mountains have long been a place where people can vanish without explanation. Rugged terrain, isolated trails, forgotten mountain roads, deep forests, underground cave systems, and generations of oral history all contribute to the mystery surrounding these disappearances. This episode contains discussion of missing persons, death, grief, wilderness dangers, and unresolved cases. If you enjoy Appalachian history, true crime, folklore, unsolved mysteries, cold cases, frontier history, mountain culture, missing persons investigations, and stories rooted in real Appalachian communities, this episode of Roots & Shadows is for you. Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast explores the true crime, history, folklore, legends, mysteries, and forgotten stories of Appalachia and the surrounding mountain regions. From Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee to the Great Smoky Mountains and beyond, we tell the stories that still echo through these hills.

The Lights That Wouldn't Leave | The 1987 Wytheville, Virginia UFO / UAP Sightings

In 1987, something unusual was happening in the skies over Southwest Virginia. Across Wytheville and Wythe County, people began reporting strange lights moving through the night. These were not quick glances or distant flashes. Witnesses described objects hovering low, moving silently, and changing direction in ways that didn’t match anything they recognized. Some said the lights followed their cars down backroads. Others described structured craft with multiple colors. Calls started coming in. Neighbors talked. Families watched the skies. And before long, what started as a few scattered sightings turned into one of the most talked about UFO waves in Appalachian history. Local law enforcement acknowledged the reports. Radio stations began covering the story. People gathered, comparing what they had seen, trying to make sense of it. The sightings stretched across Wytheville, Rural Retreat, and surrounding parts of Wythe County. Night after night, more people came forward. In this episode of Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast, we go back to that moment in time and walk through what was seen, how it was reported, and how the story spread across the region. This is not just about what people saw in the sky. It is about how a community reacts when something does not make sense. We also step back and look at the bigger picture. After World War II, reports of unidentified flying objects increased across the United States. The federal government responded with programs like Project Blue Book, which investigated thousands of sightings before shutting down in 1969. By the time 1987 came around, those official investigations were gone, leaving communities like Wythe County to deal with these events on their own. As the story grew, so did the questions. Were these experimental aircraft. Misidentified natural phenomena. Something explainable that just had not been identified yet. Or something else entirely. And then there are the parts of the story that sit just outside the official record. Stories of warnings. Stories of people being told to stop asking questions. The idea that has followed UFO sightings for decades. The possibility of so called men in black. In Appalachia, stories have a way of holding on. They get passed down, reshaped, remembered differently depending on who is telling them. Over time, the line between what was seen and what was said can begin to blur. But at the center of this story are real people who looked up at the same sky and saw something they could not explain. This episode brings together eyewitness accounts, historical reporting, and the broader history of UFO sightings to tell the story of what happened in Wytheville and Wythe County in 1987. Not as a legend, but as a moment that people here still remember. Because in places like this, the mountains hold onto things. The stories stay. And sometimes, the questions never really go away. 🎧 New episodes weekly from Roots & Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast

The House That Outlasted the Town | Abijah Thomas, the Octagon House & Holston Mills

This week on Roots and Shadows: The Real Appalachia Podcast, we head into Smyth County, Virginia, to a quiet stretch of land along the South Fork of the Holston River, an area that doesn’t look like much at first glance, but once held one of the most ambitious industrial communities in this part of Appalachia. In the mid-1800s, Abijah Thomas built more than just a home here. He built an operation, iron works, a tannery, and Holston Mills, where wool was turned into cloth that would eventually be used for Confederate uniforms during the Civil War. Around it, a small village took shape, complete with homes, a school, a post office, and a store. For a time, it was a place where people lived and worked, all centered around the river. At the top of it all stood his octagon house, completed in 1858 and built on a scale most homes in this region never reached. Seventeen rooms. Ten bedrooms. Thirty-two windows looking out over everything that made that place function. Built from bricks made on site, the house still stands today as the last physical reminder of what was once there. But like so many stories in Appalachia, it didn’t last the way it was built to. War, shifting economies, and the loss of the system it depended on slowly unraveled everything Abijah Thomas had created. The mills were eventually sold, moved, and later destroyed by fire in Salem, Virginia. The town that once stood along the river faded out of existence. Today, only pieces remain. Part of the old grist mill still stands. A few homes from that time can still be found. And the house, still standing above it all—holds onto more of that story than anything else that’s left. While visiting the Octagon House, I was able to see—and even touch—fingerprints still entombed in the bricks. Marks left behind by the hands that built it. Historians, including Ben Jackson, have studied these fingerprints in structures like this, raising the question of whether they were left intentionally… a quiet way for people to leave something behind in a time when most of their stories were never recorded. In this episode, we also talk with the Octagon House Foundation about the work being done to preserve the home, not just as a historic structure, but as a future cultural center where people can come to better understand the full story of the place, including the lives connected to it. If you’re interested in learning more, visiting, or getting involved, you can find the Octagon House Foundation online at: 👉 https://smythoctagonhouse.org/ [https://smythoctagonhouse.org/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Or on Facebook: Octagon House Foundation Because in Appalachia, some places don’t just disappear… they leave something behind.