Includes street index. Prepared in January 1972 by the Tennessee State Planning Commission. Scale 1 in = 1000 ft. / https://dc.etsu.edu/rare-maps/1177/thumbnail.jpg

Like many Appalachian towns, Erwin (Unicoi County, TN) is struggling with the realities of disappearing industrial jobs that have long played roles as economic stabilizers and foundations of community identity. The “Documenting Community Traditions: Oral History of the Clinchfield Railroad in Unicoi County” is the third installment of a three-year oral history project conducted by Appalachian Teaching Project graduate students at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). While seeking to foster meaningful collaboration with our community partners, including the Clinchfield Railroad Museum, students also developed important skills in ethnography, oral history, and team-based research. Grounded in diverse readings in local history (Stevens and Peoples), research methodology (Bernard; Deblasio), and community engagement (Lewis; Ezzell), we engaged in primary archival document research and met with museum curators at the Clinchfield Railroad and the George L. Carter Museums. We also conducted participant-observation at the Unicoi Apple Festival and completed oral history interviews with community members and former railroad workers. Here we will share insights from our research, including the historic and continued importance of the railroad to this community in light of the 2015 closure of the railroad by CSX and the loss of the remaining 300 railroad jobs in Erwin. In addition, we will discuss our collaborative efforts toward creating a cultural heritage travel brochure to assist the Clinchfield Railroad Museum with ongoing efforts to increase cultural heritage tourism as part of local community efforts toward economic development.

No description available.

No description available.

With the assistance of information collected by residents of Bumpass Cove, Tennessee Department of Public Health records, and interviews with residents and local health officials, this study provides a historical overview of the inception of Bumpass Cove Landfill, the resulting problems stemming from its misuse, and the reaction of a persistent community during the 1970s and early 1980s. In its early days, Bumpass Cove was an active and productive mining site; however, the area would become a threat to the local residents’ safety with the opening of Bumpass Cove Sanitary Landfill. Years of illegal hazardous waste land filling wreaked havoc on the environment and endangered area residents’ health. In the end, citizen protest and the intervention of the Superfund Program would result in the closing of the landfill and the restoration of the area. Taken together, these occurrences paint a vivid picture of the controversy surrounding Bumpass Cove Landfill.

The subject of this thesis deals with instances where members of the community dig the grave for the grieving family. This thesis is limited to Unicoi County. Looking at past and present occurrences of this practice, this project will explain how it came to be and why it is still being exercised. The primary sources for this project include newspaper articles from the Erwin Record, interviews with members of the community. Secondary sources were used to frame the overall context and draw comparisons with the rest of Appalachia. The digging of the grave by the community began as a necessity in the rural areas of Unicoi County. Due to the growing economic prosperity of these areas, and the eventual easy access to roads, the tradition began to waver and was preserved and practiced only by the small, isolated community churches.