Tinsel trees, aluminum trees — whatever you call them, these retro artificial trees are making a comeback and being celebrated at the Aluminum Tree and Aesthetically Challenged Ornament Museum in North Carolina.

Rock Mount, Va.’s Twin Creeks Distillery is built on a legacy of moonshining and fiddling that dates back to the 1930s when folks from the Southern Recording Expedition pulled up to Peg Hatcher’s home, wanting to record the old-time musician’s famous fiddling. But fiddling wasn’t all Peg was known for. He was also a legendary moonshiner, and he wasn’t exactly trusting of strangers showing up at the door.

As a skeptical person, I don’t believe in a lot. I don’t believe in Bigfoot tiptoeing around the backcountry, in ghosts haunting attics, or in myths like throwing salt over your shoulder. (That just makes a mess.) But I sure as hell believe in the magic of mountain communities, especially after Hurricane Helene.

Mining historians often focus on southern parts of Appalachia, like West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, but life was just as hard in Pennsylvania’s mountains, where mine owners resorted to lynchings, rapes, and beatings during the mine wars.

Since 1944, Smokey Bear has taught us the importance of snuffing out campfires and never playing with matches. Now that we know some forest fires are good, experts are asking if Smokey is still “on message.”

Moonshiner Grace McAbee moved to Asheville in her 20s. Not long after, she met her husband and purchased a home in an industrial community called West End-Factory Hill, known today as the River Arts District. There, she sold and possibly produced booze.

I know what you’re thinking. Vinegar? In pie? That’s disgusting. I used to think so, too. But when I finally mustered up the courage to take a bite, my five-year-old palate was pleasantly surprised.

After losing her brother to addiction, poet Crystal Good found herself at the center of the Healing Appalachia music festival which compats opioid addiction in Appalachia.

High-energy and often whip-fast, flatfoot dancing is an ancient tradition rooted in European, African, and Native American cultures, and it’s still going strong.

These tunes prove the banjo ain’t just for country music anymore. Today, clever instrumentalists are plingin’ and plangin’ banjo strings in almost every imaginable genre.

The Pour Tour connects 64 distillaries and related stops, including Tall Pines Distillery and the James B. Beam Pennsylvania Whiskey Heritage Center, which holds the largest, publicly-displayed collection of Pa. whiskeys.

Join Santa on old-fashioned locomotives that chug through the hills and hollers of Appalachia, spreading Christmas cheer one whistle-stop at a time. These four train ride make magical holiday memories.

How do you commemorate the legendary Hatfield-McCoy feud? If you’re the state of W.Va., you do it with 1,000 miles of off-road recreational vehicle trails.

Appalachian native Andi Marie Tillman's cast of hillbilly characters have gone viral. in the process, they've taken her from cleaning houses for a living to acting full time.

2023 was Woodshed's first full year as a magazine! From every corner of Appalachia and beyond, readers have flocked to our articles — especially these ten, our most-read stories of the year.

Through a collab with the USDA, my husband and I planted 8,500 trees on our Bedford, Virginia farm. As this new forest grows, it will restore nature’s balance in an area that was clear-cut by my ancestors nearly two centuries ago. Plus it introduces American chestnut hybrids to our land.

We bought our family farm in 2021, but the wobbly economy has delayed restoration of its historic farmhouse. This Christmas, though, I just couldn’t stand seeing it dark and grim anymore. I mixed up an old fashioned, grabbed my favorite little Christmas tree, and headed out to the old place.