Ben Isenberg with his wife, Callie, and their two children. Chasing big incentives, telecommuters are flocking to the mountains of West Virginia and Tennessee. Two winters ago, Ben Isenberg and his wife, Callie, plus their two children were on the tail end of a 15-month, pandemic-fueled expedition across the United States. “We were true nomads,” Ben quipped, noting that he and his family moved into a camper after selling their Maryland home when COVID-19 hit. He then managed Symmetry, his Annapolis-based marketing agency, remotely while Callie — a former high school science teacher — homeschooled the kiddos on the road. “We loved every minute of it,” said Ben. However, as the 2021 holiday season rolled around, the couple felt a twinge of homesickness, not for the Chesapeake Bay or Isenberg’s native Connecticut but for someplace small, mountainous, and charming. The only problem? “No place we visited felt right,” Ben revealed.  MADE IN WEST VIRGINIA {% assign oriCollection = collection %} {% assign collection = collections['made-in-west-virginia'] %} {% assign productCount = collection.products | size | at_most: 8 %} {% if productCount > 0 %} {% paginate collection.products by 8 %} {% for product in collection.products %} {% assign imageLink = '' %} {% if product.images.size > 0 %} {% assign imageLink = product.images[0].src | img_url: 'original' %} {% endif %} {% assign alternateImageLink = imageLink %} {% if product.images.size > 1 %} {% assign alternateImageLink = product.images[1].src | img_url: 'original' %} {% endif %} {% if imageLink != '' %} {% if true %} {% else %} {% endif %} {% if 'none' == 'zoom' %} {% endif %} {% if 'none' == 'alternate' %} {% endif %} {% else %} This product has no images. {% endif %} {% if true %} {% else %} {% endif %} {{product.title}} {% endfor %} {% endpaginate %} {% else %} {% if 'MADE IN WEST VIRGINIA' == '' %} Please choose collection to show products from sidebar. {% else %} No products found. Please add some products to the collection first. {% endif %} {% endif %} {% assign collection = oriCollection %} But fate works in weird ways. One day in November as the couple dwelled on their next move, the phone rang. It was a representative from Ascend West Virginia, a program to which they’d applied on a lark, and they wanted to interview the Isenbergs.Before we get ahead of ourselves, it’s worth noting that Ascend West Virginia is out to boost local tax revenues by paying remote workers a whopping $12,000 in cash — plus a long list of other perks — to relocate to four Mountain State communities: Morgantown, Greenbrier Valley, Eastern Panhandle, and Greater Elkins. A collaborative effort between West Virginia University and the West Virginia Department of Tourism, Ascend officially launched in April 2021 after receiving a $25 million gift from Intuit (TurboTax) CEO Brad Smith and his wife, Alys. Since then, the program has fielded more than 20,000 applications from telecommuters employed by hundreds of out-of-state companies. Isenberg applied after a friend told him about the program. “I never expected to hear back,” he said. But then the phone rang. “And they said they wanted to interview me for Lewisburg.”A month later, he and his family rolled into town with their camper in tow. “We drove down Main Street and instantly knew this was what we had been looking for.” Lewisburg, WEST VIRGINIA exudes small-town charm. Photo courtesy of Ascend West Virginia. Three days later, the Isenbergs made an offer on a house. A month after that, Ben officially put down roots in Almost Heaven as a member of the 33-person-strong Lewisburg cohort. “Moving to West Virginia was the best decision we’ve ever made,” he said. And no, it’s not because he and his wife pocketed $12,000 in cash. More than the money, the Isenbergs value the conscious community-building that’s baked into the Ascend model. To help participants get to know one another, each locality is outfitted with a coworking space. Program leaders also organize social gatherings like group bike rides, paddleboard yoga sessions, and farm-to-table dinners. “Just the other day, a few of us from Lewisburg connected with the Morgantown cohort and went to a basketball game,” Ben said. “Being part of a ‘family’ is huge.”Ascend’s outdoorsy focus was also a significant draw. In addition to cash, participants receive two years of free outdoor gear rentals plus a booklet of one-time experience vouchers, covering everything from ziplining to off-roading. “Access to outdoor recreation was another reason why we made the move,” said Ben, who continues to work remotely for his creative agency.But above all, this marketing exec and his wife settled in Lewisburg because they believed in this small mountain town.“We wanted to support our community. That’s the main idea behind Ascend, after all,” Ben noted. “The program is investing in West Virginia by bringing income and different, unique perspectives to the state.” MADE IN TENNESSEE {% assign oriCollection = collection %} {% assign collection = collections['made-in-tennessee'] %} {% assign productCount = collection.products | size | at_most: 8 %} {% if productCount > 0 %} {% paginate collection.products by 8 %} {% for product in collection.products %} {% assign imageLink = '' %} {% if product.images.size > 0 %} {% assign imageLink = product.images[0].src | img_url: 'original' %} {% endif %} {% assign alternateImageLink = imageLink %} {% if product.images.size > 1 %} {% assign alternateImageLink = product.images[1].src | img_url: 'original' %} {% endif %} {% if imageLink != '' %} {% if true %} {% else %} {% endif %} {% if 'none' == 'zoom' %} {% endif %} {% if 'none' == 'alternate' %} {% endif %} {% else %} This product has no images. {% endif %} {% if true %} {% else %} {% endif %} {{product.title}} {% endfor %} {% endpaginate %} {% else %} {% if 'MADE IN TENNESSEE' == '' %} Please choose collection to show products from sidebar. {% else %} No products found. Please add some products to the collection first. {% endif %} {% endif %} {% assign collection = oriCollection %} Cash into Johnson City, Tennessee If you’re craving a Smoky Mountain lifestyle, the Johnson City Remote program may be for you. Launched in June 2021, the initiative aims to “attract and recruit new business with the focus being on remote workers,” said Brenda Whitson, executive director for Visit Johnson City. To entice telecommuters, the program dishes up a laundry list of benefits: up to $2,500 in cash, $500 toward the purchase of a new bike, $1,000 off the purchase of a new spa or hot tub (which make it super easy to make new friends), and a discounted coworking space. According to Whitson, 35 participants with incomes valuing $600,000 have put down roots in Johnson City so far. And they are loving all that this mini mountain metropolis has to offer.“We are a progressive, urban area with a diverse park system and a thriving downtown,” Brenda shared. Plus, she adds, “the people here are very friendly.” Johnson City Remote pays telecommuters to relocate to the Volunteer State. Photo courtesy of Visit Johnson City. Lauren Stepp is a lifestyle journalist from the mountains of North Carolina. She writes about everything from fifth-generation apple farmers to mixed-media artists, publishing her work in magazines across the Southeast. In her spare time, Lauren mountain bikes, reads gritty southern fiction, and drops her g's. 'ROUND HERE: WYTHEVILLE, VA. SEE MORE NEXT UP WEST VIRGINIA JEWELRY

PHOTO CARE OF Netflix AND The Hollywood Archive. The next time you wonder "What Would Dolly Do," instead think "What Would Dolly Give?" Just a couple months ago, Amazon founder and one of the richest people on earth Jeff Bezos made Dolly Parton the most recent recipient of his Courage and Civility Award. With it came $100 million that Dolly could use in any charitable way she wanted. “I try to put my money where my heart is,” she said after receiving the award. “I will do my best to do good things with this money.” But that’s nothing new for the Dolly Llama, whose good deeds have become legendary.Not to be outdone by Bezos, we’ve bestowed Dolly with her own title — Patron Saint of Appalachia. Here are eight times she earned it hard. 1. GIVING A SLEW OF KIDS BOOKS Since 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has given free books to children. Today one in ten American kids participate plus more in other countries. From birth to age five, they each receive a book a month. Dolly’s now given away nearly 200 million of them — so many children call her The Book Lady. This initiative has become one of her life’s greatest joys, and it also meant the world to her father, who was unable to read or write. 2. HELPING WILDFIRE SURVIVORS When 2016 wildfires tore through Dolly’s Smoky Mountain homeland, scorching 16,000 acres and damaging or destroying over 2,000 buildings, she put her star power to work. Rallying famous friends like Hank Williams Jr. and Cyndi Lauper, she spearheaded a telethon and created the My People Fund, which raised $9 million. With help from this pot of donations, she gave the most deeply impacted families $1,000 a month for five months, plus an additional $5,000 at the end of that period to help them get back on their feet.   3. CREATING A COVID-19 VACCINE Dolly famously donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University in Nashville for research in 2020 that led to the creation of one of the first COVID-19 vaccines. Her gift has helped save countless lives and tremendous suffering worldwide. 4. MAKING COLLEGE ACCESSIBLE They say charity begins at home, and home is still close to Dolly’s heart. Every year, for decades now, a graduate from each of the five high schools in Sevier County, Tennessee, where Dolly was raised, has received a $15,000 scholarship from her. WE'LL DELIVER DOLLY TO YOUR DOOR {% assign oriCollection = collection %} {% assign collection = collections['dolly'] %} {% assign productCount = collection.products | size | at_most: 4 %} {% if productCount > 0 %} {% paginate collection.products by 4 %} {% for product in collection.products %} {% assign imageLink = '' %} {% if product.images.size > 0 %} {% assign imageLink = product.images[0].src | img_url: 'original' %} {% endif %} {% assign alternateImageLink = imageLink %} {% if product.images.size > 1 %} {% assign alternateImageLink = product.images[1].src | img_url: 'original' %} {% endif %} {% if imageLink != '' %} {% if true %} {% else %} {% endif %} {% if 'none' == 'zoom' %} {% endif %} {% if 'none' == 'alternate' %} {% endif %} {% else %} This product has no images. {% endif %} {% if true %} {% else %} {% endif %} {{product.title}} {% endfor %} {% endpaginate %} {% else %} {% if 'Dolly' == '' %} Please choose collection to show products from sidebar. {% else %} No products found. Please add some products to the collection first. {% endif %} {% endif %} {% assign collection = oriCollection %} 5. PROVIDING WOMEN WITH GREAT HEALTHCARE Dolly raised $1 million for the Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services at East Tennessee’s LeConte Medical Center. There, women of all ages seek treatment for breast cancer, cardiac events, and more. Meanwhile, in the Dolly Parton Birthing Unit, babies take their first breaths while their moms receive world-class care. 6. KIDS TOO She also donated $1 million, not once but twice, to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help children. 7. CARING FOR LORETTA'S LYNN'S PEOPLE She helped raise $700,000 for victims of flooding in Middle Tennessee, with a focus in the area where her friend Loretta Lynn lived, wanting to repay the help Loretta gave after wildfires in Dolly’s part of the state. 8. KEEPING SENIORS ACTIVE Dolly supported and rededicated the senior center in Sevierville as the My People Senior Activities Center, in memory of her parents, Lee and Avie Lee Parton. And we’re sure that’s just the start. Dolly says, “When you’re in a position to help, you should.” It’s impossible to say how many lives she's touched. Every single day, her music inspires people around the world and her acts of kindness reach just as far. So the next time you wonder "What Would Dolly Do," Instead think "What Would Dolly Give?" And then do some of that. Jimmy Proffitt, founder of the blog The Appalachian Tale, grew up in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, but he and his husband now call east Tennessee home. His writing and recipes can be found in Okra Magazine, Southern Cast Iron Magazine, and Lodge Cast Iron social. Taste Of The South Magazine included him in their Taste 50 list for 2022. MOTHER MABELL CARTER'S LIFETIME OF LABOR SEE MORE NEXT UP MUSIC LEGENDS

"Under my basement stairs, there’s a toilet, and that toilet was for the help. They had to go to the bathroom in the basement because white people did not want them using their restroom." 

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If you've spent time in older Southern homes, there's a good chance you've encountered a toilet like mine. Tucked under the basement stairs of our 1927 foursquare in Roanoke, Virginia, it's where the help used the bathroom, and the help, back then, was almost always Black. 

I wince whenever I walk by it, on the way to our basement fridge or getting Christmas decorations. It's a grim reminder of a mean-spirited era, one none of us created but we all inherited. The folks at Practical Preservation podcast recently invited me to talk about how we can face the full histories of our homes — the good stuff and the grim stuff.

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LISTEN NOW

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"The trend I see in preservation is to acknowledge all the history," Danielle Groshong-Keperling said during our interview. She's the host of this weekly preservationpalooza, which covers everything from old smokehouses to historic gardens. It's been named as a great podcast for historic preservation fans by The National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

We also chatted about my family homeplace and tough choices we make to save money during the restoration process. When replacing long-gone steel casement windows, I once replicated the originals using wood rather than steel. 

"We took it as close as we could," I said, "without going broke and having to sell our cars!"

If you've ever restored an historic home, we'd love to hear about your trials, joys, and discoveries. Please be sure to leave a comment below.

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COUSIN EDNA, AGE 101, SINGS THE TEXAS RANGERS

Texas Rangers, Company D, 1894

I didn't even know I had a cousin Edna until my mid-thirties. As my interest in (perhaps obsession with) our old family farm grew, my grandma said I had to meet Edna and her twin sister Elma. They were raised in Stewartsville, Virginia, near the farm my husband and I now own. 

When I first visited the twins in 2008, they regaled me with old stories for three hours — who was kind, who was difficult, who plowed their land stark nekkid in the height of summer!

These ladies remembered it all. 

Sadly, Elma has since passed, but Edna is going strong and on tech's cutting edge. At age 101, she began making TikTok-worthy videos, in which she sings tunes learned from older relatives. This one — "The Texas Rangers" — was taught to her when my great, great grandfather William Byrd Ferguson visited.

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"That night after supper, we sat by the fireplace, and Byrd Ferguson sang this song and patted his foot to keep time." 

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This man came of age during the Civil War and remembered hiding his daddy — a soldier who deserted his post more than once to help his destitute family. When the military came looking for Byrd's father, the family would spirit him off to the woods until the search party gave up and moved on.

To have a first-person account of Byrd's life is downright remarkable, and to have Edna alive, kicking, and recording her memories is a true gift. Please consider sharing her video because this lovely lady deserves to be internet famous!

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Photo by Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash.

"We as humans need to address and acknowledge that our actions are changing bear behavior and causing conflicts. Managing our habits, understanding how they impact bears and adjusting our activities will solve bear-human conflicts, not hunting." 

— Change.org petition with over 8,000 signatures

After a decades-long ban on black bear hunting in North Carolina's bear sanctuaries, residents there will be permitted to hunt in three different bear sanctuaries later this year.  

North Carolina’s Wildlife Resources Commission voted tooverturn the state’s bear hunting ban in designated sanctuaries that was first enacted in 1971 when the black bear population was fewer than 1,000. Since then, the species’ numbers skyrocketed, and the black bear population is now estimated to be at 15,000. TheUniversity of North Carolina Charlotte Urban Institute said that over the last 30 years the population has expanded at an estimated rate of 6 percent per year. 

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Story by Shirin Ali

An artist's rendering of what Telosa might look like. Courtesy of Telosa.

Lore’s proposed new city would generate its own power through renewable energy – its central power would have a photovoltaic roof. It would grow at least some of its own food through aeroponic farms. It would be designed so that almost everything – work, school, amenities – would be no more than 15 minutes away.

Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have been to space (maybe). Elon Musk wants to go to Mars.

Another billionaire has more earthbound ideas. Marc Lore wants to build a new city, a $400 billion eco-friendly metropolis that makes use of all the latest technology and would be the “most open, most fair and most inclusive city in the world.”

He also might build it somewhere in Appalachia.

Now do I have your attention?

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Story by Dwayne Yancey

Photo by Dawn Gaddis on Unsplash.

“It’s where I made a living, where I raised four girls...How quiet it was at night, and the stars that’s another thing that stood out to me, you didn’t have no street lights, didn’t have no people.”

— Rex Caughron, among the last people to live in Cades Cove, a popular destination within Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We've never posted a joint message like this, but as a same-sex couple, we wanted to say thank you for the tremendous warmth and support we’ve found in our mountain valley.

 

People from other places too often assume the worst about Appalachian folk, but our neighbors in Roanoke, where we write this blog and sell mountain-made goods, buck every stereotype. In fact, our whole region is more diverse and welcoming than outsiders imagine.

So thank you to all our allies and happy Pride Month to all our LGBTQ+ friends, family, and customers!

Alex & Mark

Co-leads, The Revivalist &

the Roanoke-based shop

Appalachian Revival

Kituwah, which is considered the place of origin for Cherokee people. Photo by Aaron Morgan on Flickr.

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Story by Sheyahshe Littledave