the rural character of the Appalachians is revealed in a satellite image of night lights in urban areas - and where they are absent
Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), GLOBE: A Gallery of High Resolution Images, Conterminous 48 USA states (with lights)
From a geological perspective, "The Appalachians" can be defined broadly as the mountains west of the Coastal Plain (starting at the Blue Ridge) or narrowly as the Allegheny Plateau, west of the Valley and Ridge physiographic province.
From a cultural perspective, the "mountain people" of the Appalachians often include the isolated homesteads in the Blue Ridge as well as the Appalachian Plateau. The residents developed distinctive accents, syntax, and vocabulary, derived from both isolation and a multi-lingual background:1
A clue to a person's origin is how they pronounce Appalachia. Those who grew up in the southern mountains include a "t" in the name, while people from elsewhere replace the "t" with an "sh," as described by one language specialist:2
Why the mountainous region was originally called "Appalachia" is not clear. John Lederer, who traveled into the unexplored southern and western areas of Carolina and Virginia in 1669-1670, says the Native American term for the mountains was "Paemotinck" and the lower ridges at the base of the mountains were known as "Tanx-Paemotinck" ("tanx" meaning "small" or "little").
Lederer apparently recorded Algonquian terms for the mountains. He identified the following:
Ahkynt - "the flats"
Ahkontshuck - "the highlands"
Pæmotinck - “the mountains"
Tanx-Pæmotinck or Aquatt - the promontories
In Virginia the Algonquian word Pomotawh meant hill or mountain. The Choptank word for mountain was pomat-tinike and the Nanticoke word was pemettenaichk.3
The standard explanation for the current name, based on a report of the Hernando de Soto expedition written by an author known as the Gentleman of Elvas, is that the Spanish encountered the Apalachee tribe based around the town of Apalachen in northern Florida during the 1528 expedition led by Panfilo de Narvez. There were seven large earthen mounds at the site, near modern Tallahassee. The Hernando De Soto expedition returned to the town in 1539.
To entice the Spanish to leave, the local indigenous residents told of mountains to the north where the Europeans could find gold. Spanish mapmakers, starting with Diego Gutierrez and his 1562 Map of America, then assigned the name of the Florida town to the mountains. The French mapmaker Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, who personally traveled to "Florida" in 1564, produced a map that was published in 1591 that had great influence on use of the term. The 1569 map by Gerardus Mercator, "Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendate Accommodata," showed the Appalachians as a mountain range stretching north from Florida.
European mapmakers applied the name that evolved into Appalachia
Source: Library of Congress, Americae sive qvartae orbis partis nova et exactissima descriptio (by Diego Gutierrez, 1562)
Gerardus Mercator in 1569 showed the Appalachians as a mountain range on the eastern side of North America
Source: Gallica, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendate Accommodata (by Gerardus Mercator, 1569)
French mapmaker Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues had the most influence in naming the Appalachian mountains
Source: Library of Congress, Floridae Americae provinciae recens & exactissima descriptio auctorè Iacobo le Moyne cui cognomen de Morgues... (by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, 1591)
The Appalachians were named in Europe by European mapmakers, not by the Spanish explorers marching through North America with Panfilo de Narvez:4
the first modern atlas, compiling sixteenth-century cartography, shows "Apalchen" far north of the Florida peninsula
Source: Library of Congress, Theatrvm orbis terrarvm (by Abraham Ortelius, 1570)
After the Civil War, Northern social workers realized that poverty was common in the mountains of Virginia. Educational levels were low, some religious rituals bordered on mysticism, and disputes were settled by extra-legal processes rather than standard law-and-order techniques.
Hillsides provided thin soils in contrast to valley bottomlands or even the Piedmont, and poor roads made it very difficult to transport crops or products to market. The standard solution for compressing the volume of sorghum, corn, barley, and wheat was to distil the grains into alcohol, which created a high-value product that was far easier to load on a mule.
Rich Mountain and the valley carved out by Clear Fork of the Clinch River, in Bland County
To generate donations to support various initiatives, the concept of Appalachia as a blighted, isolated region was popularized. That helped generate funds from donors, but the stigma of "poor Appalachian" became unpopular in the region.
In the 1960's, President Kennedy and the President Johnson sought to relieve poverty in the area, setting up the Appalachian Regional Commission to funnel grants for various social programs. The counties in the Shenandoah and Roanoke valleys had the opportunity to be included in the designated area for extra grant funding, but some declined. Being associated with "Appalachia" could be a deterrent, limiting the interest of private sector businesses to locate in the counties.
The jurisdiction most famous for moonshining in Virginia, Franklin County, ended up being excluded from the boundaries. In the end, the following counties were included:
The surprising election of President Trump in 2016 spurred interest in the region, as pundits sought to explain his support in southern Ohio and central Pennsylvania in particular. Many residents in those two areas had migrated from Appalachia to find factory jobs, before globalization of trade led to factory closings.
In Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir Of A Family And Culture In Crisis, J. D. Vance suggested that government programs to retrain and educate displaced workers was not the solution to high unemployment and drug use. He attributed much of the problem to family culture within the Appalachian region. Vance went on to be elected to the US Senate from Ohio, then as Vice-President in 2024.
Historian Elizabeth Catte responded in What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia that the book reinforced stereotypes about the region:5
After Ron Howard announced plans to make a movie based on Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir Of A Family And Culture In Crisis, The Roanoke Times editorialized against it:6
Appalachia experienced a steady decline in employment between 2012-2017. Coal mining jobs declined due to both automation and lower demand for the fossil fuel.
the steady decline of jobs in the center of Appalachia affected the social fabric
Source: Appalachian Regional Commission, Industrial Make-Up Of The Appalachian Region: Employment and Earnings, 2002–2017 (Figure 101)
by the late 1700's, settlers referred to the Alleghenies rather than the Appalachians
Source: University of North Carolina, A Compleat map of North-Carolina from an actual survey (by John Collet, 1770)
the "Apalacci Montes" were represented as stretching north from Florida
Source: Library of Congress, Virginia et Florida (by Gerard Mercator, 1565-56)
Source: Geography by Geoff, Why So Few Americans Live In Appalachia