That Work Introduction Volunteers lay pipe along a rocky ridge to bring clean water to their tiny community in western Virginia.
Helicopter pilots swoop critically ill infants from rural Alabama counties to Birmingham hospitals.
West Virginia counties entice European tourists to hike their mountains, while small firms across the Appalachian Region penetrate markets across the globe. These and other projects summarized here portray a region on the move. Then, economically speaking, Appalachia's eggs were in a very few baskets, each vulnerable to market shocks. The Region depended heavily on extraction of natural resources and agriculture. From 1950 to 1960, a decade when national employment grew 15 percent, Appalachian employment actually declined.