This week on Inside Appalachia, a pair of former miners found love shoveling coal and shaped a life making wooden spoons. We learn about treenware. Also, NASCAR Hall of Famer Leonard Wood shares stories, and a bit of advice. And, group bike rides are a way to socialize and get outside. But here in Appalachia, newcomers are met with steep hills.
This week, a pair of former miners found love shoveling coal and shaped a life making wooden spoons. We learn about treenware.
Also, NASCAR Hall of Famer Leonard Wood shares stories, and a bit of advice.
And, group bike rides are a way to socialize and get outside. But here in Appalachia, newcomers are met with steep hills.
Stan and Sue Jennings turned a conversation about a passion into a business.
Photo Credit: Zack Gray/Allegheny Treenware
For 30 years, Sue and Stan Jennings have run Allegheny Treenware, a West Virginia company that makes wooden kitchen utensils. But they started off as a couple of coal miners. And when they weren’t underground, they talked about what else they could be doing.
Folkways Reporter Capri Cafaro visited the Jennings.
Hanging Out With NASCAR Legend Leonard Wood
Straight from the source at The Wood Brothers Racing Museum.
Photo Credit: Mason Adams/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Stock car racing’s roots run deep in Appalachia. Some of NASCAR’s early stars came straight from the lawless moonshine runners of the 1920s and 1930s, but NASCAR’s oldest continuous racing team had nothing to do with moonshine.
Mason Adams visited with Leonard Wood at The Wood Brothers Racing Museum in Virginia for stories and wisdom.
Exploring Morgantown On The Back Of A Bicycle
The ad-hoc Morgantown Social Rides aim to get cyclists onto the streets to explore the city in a new way.
Photo Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
With spring, lots of folks are heading out to the woods or the rivers, but one group in Morgantown, West Virginia is taking to the streets – on their bicycles.
WVPB’s Chris Schulz grabbed his helmet and tagged along to explore his city in a new way.
Sovereignty At The Museum Of The Cherokee People
BPR’s Lilly Knoepp (left) spoke with Museum of the Cherokee People Director of Education Dakota Brown and Director of Collections Evan Mathis at the Appalachian Studies Conference on Friday March 8, 2024 at Western Carolina University.
BPR Senior Regional Reporter Lilly Knoepp spoke with Brown as part of a panel at the Appalachian Studies Association conference in March and sent us an excerpt.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by The Dirty River Boys, Charlie McCoy, John Blissard, Sierra Ferrell, and John Inghram.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. We had help this week from folkways editors Nicole Musgrave and Mallory Noe Payne.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
On this West Virginia Week severe weather pounded the state, from destructive tornadoes in the south to historic floods in the north.
On this West Virginia Week, severe weather pounded the state, from destructive tornadoes in the south, to historic floods in the north.
Jobs in the state saw some losses, and some possible wins, while a program for people with disabilities was cut from the recent Budget. Chris Schulz takes listeners on a bike ride through the hills of Morgantown.
Also, Friday marked the 14th anniversary of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster. Briana Heaney sat down with former WVPB reporter Ashton Marra to discuss her reporting on the trial that followed the disaster.
Brina Heaney is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.
West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick and Randy Yohe.
On an unseasonably warm evening in March, just as the sun was setting across the Monongahela River, a group of about 20 gathered at the Hazel Ruby McQuain Park amphitheater, ready to take to the streets on their bikes.
As temperatures start to rise, people are taking the opportunity to get outside. One group in Morgantown is taking to the streets on their bicycles.
On an unseasonably warm evening in March, just as the sun was setting across the Monongahela River, a group of about 20 gathered at the Hazel Ruby McQuain Park amphitheater, ready to take to the streets on their bikes.
A group of mountain bikers has come down after work from Uniontown, Pennsylvania to take part in the ride. There’s two brothers on a tandem bicycle and a woman with LED’s woven through her wheel spokes.
“Follow me. The route? I just finished it right before we came here,” Drew Gatlin said to the group. He is the staff engineer for the city of Morgantown, and one of the primary organizers of Morgantown’s social rides.
“It’s just a good time on bikes, exploring Morgantown streets and essentially trying to spread the joy that I know at least to be riding on two wheels in Morgantown,” Gatlin said.
Despite its hills, Gatlin assures newcomers that Morgantown and the social rides in particular are relatively accessible.
“If you want to get around town on a bike, you have to climb some hills eventually,” Gatlin said. “It’s a little bit aspirational, it’s a little bit ambitious. Sometimes we take the hills, it’s also helpful to remember and remind people, who are not used to riding around, that it’s okay to walk as well and get off your bike and just push it up the hill a little bit.”
The group sets off behind Gatlin, who has a large speaker strapped to the back of his bike from which he plays music and gives directions.
As the group winds its way towards West Virginia University (WVU), and starts to climb some hills into the student neighborhood of Sunnyside, some riders starts to wonder between gasping breaths why they aren’t riding on Morgantown’s miles of gently graded, car-free rail trails. Professionally, Gatlin said he’s interested in ensuring people can get around town via any mode they choose, be that on foot, in a car or, of course, on a bike.
“Morgantown can feel pretty intimidating to ride around,” he said. “My own motivations for the social ride, taking them on the streets, is really geared towards reminding people that it is possible to ride out on the streets, that you can have a good time, if not, on your own, at least in a group of people with some music, and some whimsy.”
Last year, the bicycling blog IceBikes ranked West Virginia as the fourth safest state for cyclists in the country based on low cyclist fatalities on roads. But analysis by the League of American Bicyclists showed less than a quarter of a percent of commuters in the state biked to work in 2022.
Gatlin said promoting bikes as a viable mode of transportation is an objective of the social rides, albeit a secondary one.
Brothers Gabe Holtzer, left, and Kemp Holtzer sit on their tandem bicycle while waiting for a flat to be fixed on another rider’s bicycle March 8, 2024.
Photo Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Participants of the Morgantown Social Ride stop to help each other with a flat after a long climb up an alleyway in Westover, March 8, 2024.
Photo Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The night’s ride routed through WVU’s downtown campus, next to the student union, down Morgantown’s High Street and through a residential neighborhood before crossing the river into Westover. Following the river, there’s momentarily no worry about hills.
But when riding in West Virginia, you don’t get to avoid hills, just take breaks from them. After the evening’s longest climb up an alley, a rider suddenly got a flat.
“We always try to stay together. We don’t want to lose anybody or drop anyone, that’s why we have someone out in the back,” said Rebecca Marshall. She recently moved to West Virginia from Massachusetts with her partner. For them, the social ride is literally that: a social event built around a physical activity.
“In Morgantown, every place is hilly,” Marshall said. “I think it’s great. That’s why it’s better to stick together just in case people fall behind. People show up that are new to this, and might not have the general fitness for it. That’s totally okay. We want everybody to show up no matter what. Just sticking together is the most important part of social riding. That’s the point.”
Group rides are not a new concept, and according to some attendants of the current social rides, Morgantown even hosted a national series of social rides known as Critical Mass a few decades ago. More recently, Gatlin and others maintained a municipal bicycle board that gave rise to the current social rides, as well as supported a confidence city cycling class at WVU and events at middle schools. Those efforts led to the city being awarded a bronze ranking by the League of American Bicyclists in 2016.
Like so many things, the bicycle board hasn’t quite recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, something that actually helped promote the social rides.
“They’re a lot less intense in terms of organizing resources,” Gatiln said. “As COVID hit, and as the community conscious, if what was safe and what felt safe, at least developed, the social rides were one of the only options that many people felt comfortable doing, to socialize with their community.”
After the flat was fixed, the group headed back across the river to the riverfront park where the ride started.
After more than 12 miles, the ride is over and participants like Ash Orr basked in the feeling of accomplishment, to be back on his bike after the winter, and to have an opportunity to do some road riding.
“Morgantown is difficult to bike solo, I find,” Orr said. “I try to pretty much use my bike only, I try not to use my car at all. But I found that I feel more secure and more confident when I’m going through downtown or just different smaller streets within Morgantown.”
Orr came out on his electric bike, something Gatlin said he’s seeing more of and can help lower the barrier to riding in the Mountain State. But ultimately, the social ride is just a fun time.
“It’s just really a great time to be with the community, bike around town and see parts of town we don’t really get to see much,” Orr said. “It’s really nice being able to get together with folks like this. Social rides will set you free so you got to come on out.”
On this West Virginia Morning, as temperatures start to rise, people are taking the opportunity to get outside. One group in Morgantown is taking to the streets on their bicycles. Chris Schulz takes us with him as he tags along to explore the city in a new way.
On this West Virginia Morning, as temperatures start to rise, people are taking the opportunity to get outside. One group in Morgantown is taking to the streets on their bicycles. Chris Schulz takes us with him as he tags along to explore the city in a new way.
Also, in this show, with March Madness underway, some Kentuckians will legally bet on games, thanks to a law passed last year. Proponents of legalizing sports betting said the move would add oversight – and keep tax revenue in the Commonwealth.
But some worry easier gambling could come with harmful behaviors. As LPM’s Jacob Munoz reports, some experts say at-risk gamblers in Kentucky and nationwide need more help.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Chris Schulz produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
The UCI Mountain Bike World Series came to Pocahontas County this past week for its penultimate event of the year.
World class mountain biking was on display this weekend as Snowshoe Mountain Resort played host to cyclists from across the globe.
The UCI Mountain Bike World Series came to Pocahontas County this past week for its penultimate event of the year.
UCI, which stands for International Cycling Union in French, is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events including the Tour de France.
Riders competed in the UCI Cross Country and Downhill World Cups, as well as the final round of the UCI Marathon World Cup, a 100 km loop from the slopes of Snowshoe to Durbin, West Virginia and back.
Best known for its winter sports, Snowshoe has also developed a reputation for top tier mountain biking. The UCI Mountain Biking website calls Snowshoe “the epicenter of the Mid-Atlantic’s mountain bike culture” and a staple of their World Cup circuit.
Snowshoe previously hosted UCI World Cup events in 2019 and 2021, and will next host a USA Cycling Team event in mid-October.
The World Series was in France before coming to West Virginia, and will move later this week to the Quebec province of Canada.
In a Sunday meeting, members of the West Virginia Legislature’s Select Committee on Infrastructure heard from an e-bike vendor on the potential of updating state code to accommodate riders.
In a Sunday meeting, members of the West Virginia Legislature’s Select Committee on Infrastructure heard from an e-bike vendor on the potential of updating state code to accommodate riders.
Electric bikes, or e-bikes, are motorized bicycles meant to help riders through hills or rough terrain. They help accommodate riders like the elderly, those getting back into riding or those with health issues or disabilities.
“With our hilly terrain here in West Virginia, it’s very likely that you take [your bicycle] out for a ride, you get up to the top of that first hill, you take the bike back, park in your garage and that’s where it stays,” Davisville-based Fission Cycles COO Joseph Overbaugh said to the committee. “But with e-bikes, it helps to lower the curve to get back into cycling. So you actually end up getting more exercise from the e-bike because you’re still out doing physical activity.”
Current state law restricts “Class III e-bikes,” which provide assistance when pedaling up to 28 miles per hour, from being ridden on trails.
State code makes no mention of less powerful Class II e-bikes, which use a throttle to automatically propel riders up to 20 miles per hour, leaving the regulations unclear.
Overbaugh said he’d like to see lawmakers align with the less restrictive federal guidelines.
“Since we do have places like New River Gorge and other federal parks in West Virginia, having those two things in alignment means that you can travel back and forth from both places and not have to overthink about ‘Well, what’s the code here?’” he said.
Overbaugh hopes to have a bill introduced next legislative session that would clarify the regulations.
“For e-bikes, we already have the trail systems, we already have everything needed, we just need to open up the state to bring in those people who want to enjoy nature, they want to enjoy access to what we have to offer,” Overbaugh said.
A similar bill in this year’s session did not make it out of the committee process.
