Running On Red Dog Road

“Mining companies piled trash coal in a slag heap and set it ablaze. The coal burned up, but the slate didn’t. The heat turned it rose and orange and lavender. The dirt road I lived on was paved with that sharp-edged rock. We called it Red Dog. My grandmother always told me, ‘Don’t you go running on that Red Dog road.’ But oh, I did.” Gypsies, faith-healers, moonshiners, and snake handlers weave through Drema’s childhood in 1940s Appalachia after Drema’s father is killed in the coal mines, her mother goes off to work as a Rosie the Riveter, and she is left in the care of devout Pentecostal grandparents. What follows is a spitfire of a memoir that reads like a novel with intrigue, sweeping emotion, and indisputable charm. Drema’s coming of age is colored by tent revivals with Grandpa, jitterbug lessons, and traveling carnivals, and though it all, she serves witness to a multi-generational family of saints and sinners whose lives defy the stereotypes. Just as she defies her own. Running On Red Dog Road is proof that truth is stranger than fiction, especially when it comes to life and faith in an Appalachian childhood.

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 Rindy, my first grandchild, was born with hyaline-membrane disease, but she fought hard and eventually recovered. She was given her great-great-grandma’s name, Clerrinda.

This book documents the history of the coal mines and coal towns of Thoms Run hollow. Read about the development of coal towns Beechmont, Hickman, Federal, Burdine, and Presto, PA. Get a sense of where the mines and towns were located, and about life in the coal patches. Understand the tough life that miners had in rural Pennsylvania. Learn the rich history of how one little road supported so much coal production and the development of Collier Township, PA

Jimmy Lee Hickam grew up along Red Dog Road, a dead-end strip of gravel and mud buried deep in the bowels of Appalachian Ohio. It is the poorest road, in the poorest county, in the poorest region of the state. To make things worse, the name Hickam is synonymous with trouble. Jimmy Lee hails from a heathen mix of thieves, moonshiners, drunkards, and general anti-socials that for decades have clung to both the hardscrabble hills and the iron bars of every jail cell in the region. This life, Jimmy Lee believes, is his destiny, someday working with his drunkard father at the sawmill, or sitting next to his arsonist brother in the penitentiary. There aren’t many options if your last name is Hickam. An inspiring coach and Jimmy Lee's ability to play football are the only things motivating him to return for his junior year of high school—until his visionary English teacher cuts him a break and preserves his eligibility for the coming football season. To thank her, Jimmy Lee writes a winning essay in the high school writing contest. When irate parents and the baffled administration claim he has cheated, his teacher is inspired to take his writing talent as far as it can go, showing him the path out of the hills of Appalachia. Terrific characterizations, surprising revelations, gut-wrenching past betrayals, and an unforgettable cast of characters born of the dusty, worn-out landscape of southeastern Ohio make The Essay a powerful, evocative, and incredibly moving novel.

Only three national parks have more visitors each year than the Natchez Trace Parkway, a national park of great natural beauty and historical significance that follows a 450-mile course from Nashville, Tennessee, to Natchez, Mississippi. First used as a vital transportation link by Native Americans and later by "kaintucks" and frontiersmen, today the Trace is experienced by more than 13 million visitors a year. Traveling the Trace explores the parkway and sights within 30 miles of either side of the Natchez Trace. In addition to the well-known stops, the authors visit side roads most tourists ignore or don't know exist. It is a guide to: 25 Civil War sites 73 antebellum homes 65 museums and art galleries 78 antique shops and malls 72 bed and breakfasts 56 campgrounds 175 restaurants 49 spots for water sports and a whole lot more "One of the ten most outstanding scenic byways in America." ?Scenic Byways Bulletin "Distances on the Natchez Trace are measured as much in places, people, and history as in miles." ?Southern Living

This book tells the history of Nevada City, California, through the eyes of the men that built it. For its first 100 years, everything in Nevada City revolved around gold. But this is not another book about finding gold. To get gold, you needed water — to pan for it, to wash it in a sluice, to blast away a hillside with an immense water cannon, or to turn the water wheel of a quartz-ore stamp mill. This book instead asks: How did they get the water? It reveals the engineering marvels that brought water to Nevada City’s dry hills from tens of miles away. But what if all the water in every ravine, creek and valley around Nevada City was controlled by just three men? Well, for three decades, every miner, farmer or business could only buy water from the powerful South Yuba Canal Company. What would happen if you got into an argument with them? Or couldn’t afford to pay their water bill? Or even dared to compete with them? The book traces the ingenuity and hard work of the town’s miners and ditch builders, highlighting in detail the history and origins of various local neighborhoods, including Nevada City itself, Hirschman's Pond, Sugar Loaf Mountain, Deer Creek, Scotts Flat, Manzanita Diggings, Gold Flat and various mining camps along Washington Ridge. This vivid portrayal follows the area’s evolution from the chaos of thousands of miners scratching out a living in clusters of muddy tents to a genteel town with hotels, stores, banks, theaters and libraries. What began as a search to uncover a sprawling network of old ditches, turned into a collection of never-before-told stories of the gold miners, the ruthless and greedy ditch company, and the rivals that it crushed. The domineering ditch company later enabled the next generation of monopoly to provide electrical power. The story of PG&E also started in Nevada City. This, in turn, led to the now more forward-looking stewardship of the Nevada Irrigation District. The unique format of this book blends beautiful archival images with more than 35 in-depth biographies of key figures in Nevada City. This 884 page hardcover book includes over 600 photos and illustrations, including 200 historic photographs and 75 hand-crafted maps based on modern lidar technology that reveal the locations of the old mining ditches, flumes, mines and tunnels.

"A tour de force." LOS ANGELES TIMES Ivy Rowe may not have much education, but her thoughts are classic, and her experiences are fascinating. Born near the turn of the century in the Virginia Mountains, Ivy's story is told completely through letters she is forever writing, and that you will forever want to read.... "Few readers will be dry-eyed as they watch this extraordinary woman disappear around that last bend in the road." CHICAGO TRIBUNE