Carter Taylor Seaton’s article, “Those Who Came,” first published in 2007 in Appalachian Heritage magazine, is an illuminating piece of social history about West Virginia. It tracks the origins, influx and impact of the back-to-the-land movement on West Virginia. I’ve always thought someone should write “A Hippie History of West Virginia.” Taylor, who calls Huntington, W.Va.. home, has a good start with this essay.
The sun heads down over Summers County, West Virginia. | Photo by Douglas Imbrogno
“Those Who came” by Carter Seaton Taylor
“Once upon a time a tribe of people went off into the woods and nobody ever heard of them again…” These words from the 1972 commune journal of West Virginia filmmaker, dancer, wood sculptor, mask-maker and teacher, Jude Binder, tell only part of the story of the back-to-the-land movement’s impact on West Virginia. While her words may have echoed the sentiments of those who came during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the quote has proven naive. Not only were they heard of again, many made an indelible mark on their adopted state. Without them, the cultural landscape of the state would look very different. Quite possibly there would be no Tamarack, the nation’s first statewide collection of its own fine arts and handcrafts, and no Mountain Stage, the weekly live musical radio program broadcast on NPR to thousands of listeners worldwide since 1983 – two of West Virginia’s best advertisements… | Read on
Sat, Dec 1, 2007
Features, People, Words