Collection Items
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ArticleBig Coal River and Surrounding Area Map of Big Coal River and surrounding area information was compiled from the U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Online Data Base portal for the U.S. Census Bureau's TIGER Mapping Service (Accessed April, 2000). Map information was modified for illustration purposes.
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ArticleSeng Talk and Ginseng Tales Conjuring the Commons For seng aficionados, the ongoing prospect of ginseng makes the mountains gleam with hidden treasure. "It's like catching a big fish," said Randy Halstead. "You're out here all day and you find this big fish, and you know it's everybody's desire to catch this big fish in the lake. You find this big enormous plant and you know everybody that's out...
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ArticleStalking the Wily Seng Though in biological terms ginseng is properly flora, in the ginsengers' world it behaves like fauna. Ginseng is not merely "harvested," it is "hunted," and rare six-, seven-, and eight-prong specimens are coveted like twelve-point bucks. There is an agency assigned to ginseng unparalleled among the many plants valued on Coal River. "It hides away from man with seeming intelligence," wrote Arthur Harding in...
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ArticleHistorical Background The history of human interaction with ginseng lurks in the language of the land. Look at a detailed map of almost any portion of the region and ginseng is registered somewhere, often in association with the deeper, moister places: Seng Branch (Fayette County), Sang Camp Creek (Logan County), Ginseng (Wyoming County), Seng Creek (Boone County), Three-Prong Holler (Raleigh). The hollows, deep dendritic fissures created...
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PDFLANDSCAPE AND HISTORY AT THE HEADWATERS OF THE BIG COAL RIVER VALLEY Landscape and History at the Headwaters of the Big Coal River Valley An Overview By Mary Hufford Reading the Landscape: An Introduction “This whole valley’s full of history.” -- Elsie Rich, Jarrold’s Valley From the air today, as one flies westward across West Virginia, the mountains appear to crest in long, undulating waves, giving way beyond the Allegheny Front to the deeply crenulated mass...
- Contributor: Mary Hufford
- Date: 1995