The Appalachian Storyteller

Oliver Springs Tennessee 1902

Special Thanks to Museum of Appalachia for an exclusive interview for the next Episode of The Appalachian Storyteller this Saturday!

Spent this morning searching thru the woods on a wild goose chase for a long lost grave for this Saturdays Episode of The Appalachian Storyteller, and we found it!

The search for Appalachias greatest bologna sammich continues at Apple Blossom Café and Catering

This article from 1899 about the Power of the Moon is absolutely fascinating.
Children born in the dark of the moon will be Brunettes while those born in the light of the moon will be blondes.
All underground crops should be planted under the light of the moon.

The Kentucky-Born Outlaw Who Couldn’t Ride a Horse .
Meet one of the Wild West’s most colorful (and comically unlucky) characters: Dick Fellows, a stagecoach robber from Kentucky who wrote his own autobiography while sitting in Folsom Prison.
Born George Brittain Lyttle in the hills of Kentucky in the 1840s, he came from a good family, studied law, and even fought in the Civil War. But after the war, alcoholism and bad decisions led him west to California, where he reinvented himself as “Dick Fellows” and became a notorious highwayman.
Here’s the wild part: the man made a living robbing stagecoaches… but he was a terrible horseman.
In one famous attempt, he tried to rob a Wells Fargo stage carrying $240,000 in gold. His stolen horse threw him, knocked him unconscious, and ran off. Undeterred, he stole another horse, robbed a second stage that same night… only for that horse to bolt with the strongbox, leaving him walking through the darkness carrying the loot on his back. He later fell off a bluff and knocked himself out again.
Despite his clumsiness with horses, Dick Fellows pulled off multiple daring stage robberies across California in the 1870s and 1880s. He was caught, escaped, went back to prison (San Quentin and later Folsom), escaped again, and somehow kept coming back for more.
While serving a life sentence in Folsom Prison, he wrote “The Autobiography of a Stage Robber” his own version of his misdeeds and downfall.
He was eventually pardoned in 1908 after spending decades behind bars and quietly faded back into history.
Dick Fellows wasn’t the fastest, the meanest, or the best rider… but he was one of the most persistent outlaws the West ever saw.

I tell you right now, there was nary a bank that was ever more trustworthy and safer than the Bank of Harriman in Harriman Tennessee. Why, just look at that majestic building its four employees. They'll take good care of your money.

West Virginia (1909)
"By God, those new fan dangled motor cars are a rippin' and a tearing' thru the town, kickin' up a dust cloud, scaring the critters and ruining our peace and quiet. I say it's time we put up a sign and warn 'em! - Squire Elroy