Nestled in the heart of Appalachia.

The University of Virginia's College at Wise is where students experience unique regional culture and the great outdoors.

UVA Wise empowering students to learn and lead in their communities and the world.

[uplifting music] [Joshua Deel] Take a look.

How does a place rebuild once the world around it changes in such dramatic fashion it's nearly unrecognizable?

When the businesses are shuttered and the people leave, who picks up the pieces to try again?

I've heard it said, "Where we are affects who we are," and I think we have the chance to understand ourselves better if we understand where we come from.

Hi, my name's Josh, and I'm producing this series with PBS Appalachia to explore the towns that so many people still call home, their hometown, to unearth remarkable stories and the people behind them.

Hometowns is about exploring the communities that make small town America unique.

This season, I'll take you on a journey off the beaten path through Southwest Virginia.

Don't get me wrong, this place has its warts, but if that's all I showed you, you'd miss out on the remarkable beauty of its natural wonders and the rich depth of its cultural heritage.

that, in a sense, are at the heart of what it means to be an American.

[clippety-clop of hooves] [♪♪♪] Since Hometowns is about people and the towns they call home, in this episode, we begin our journey in the two state towns of Bluefield, Virginia and West Virginia because this is the area my wife and I got our own start together when we were first married, but we had help getting on our feet from some dear and humble friends here, the Fouries.

Immigrants from South Africa and now U.S. citizens, Andre and Cindy Fourie manage their own horse training operation at the historic Leatherwood Horse Farm.

I've always admired them, inspired by their story, and I enjoy when we're able to reconnect like today.

-We came over in '91.

[Josh] '91, yeah.

-So, it's 31 years.

So, we've lived longer in America than we did in South Africa.

[Josh] So, of all the places, like, that you've lived or experienced here in the States, does this feel like home now?

-Oh, yeah, it sure does.

-[Josh] This is your hometown?

-It sure does.

Yeah, this is definitely, it's home.

Feels more like home than South Africa does.

[Josh] I was wondering too how you went from South Africa to Bluefield, you know, like how you even, found it?

-Yeah, we actually came over to watch the World Championships.

That's what we did.

Firstly, we were coming over to go to a barn that we learned work under, you know, and the barn burned down.

So, then we decided, "Well, we'll just come over and watch the show."

And we stayed and we had actually three job offers.

That's how we ended up here.

Family thought we'd coming back, and we didn't come back, so.

[laughs] [♪♪♪] [Josh] During our conversation together, Andre shared with me some of the fascinating history behind Leatherwood Farm.

It is the oldest continually running Saddlebred horse farm in the United States, and the first farm to purchase a million-dollar horse by the name of Sultan Santana.

The farm was so prominent that President John F. Kennedy, the JFK, stayed here in Bluefield with the owners while campaigning throughout the coal fields of Southern West Virginia.

[♪♪♪] Like Andre's wife said during our conversation, people are so interested and curious to look in other people's backyards, they'll even cross oceans to do so.

But in the case of these unpretentious and hardworking folks, it's also how you might end up finding the place you call home, your hometown.

[♪♪♪] Leaving my friends at the old Leatherwood Farm, which itself sits on the state line between Bluefield, Virginia and West Virginia, it becomes rather apparent to me that Bluefield really is two distinct towns.

One in Virginia and the other West Virginia.

Not only do they have their own unique vibes, but they're consummate rivals.

With Graham High School on the Virginia side and Bluefield High School on the West Virginia side, these two Bluefields have been duking it out for decades in high school sports.

So great is their rivalry, the games between the two schools have been shown on ESPN.

And in 2019, their shared Mitchell Stadium was named America's Best High School Football Stadium.

[♪♪♪] But rivalry in athletics aren't all there is to Bluefield.

In fact, as I made my way into Bluefield, West Virginia, I met up with another friend who was once known for playing sports here but moved away.

He has quite an interesting story why he chose to move back and call Bluefield home once more.

So, what do we have here?

What is this place?

What are you doing?

[Kyle Harris] This is the L.E.A.D.

Program community garden.

A couple years back, I kind of got into gardening myself, growing my own food.

And then, when I actually came back home, I figured this was a great way to start community building and getting the kids involved in something different, you know.

Bluefield is such a big sports town, you know.

This is kind of out of the norm for them, you know, out of their comfort zone.

And then, so, I seen that there was a disconnect between the older generation and the younger generation, and it really started-- the funny story is, so there's a park not too far from here, literally behind our other lot right there, there's a park.

So, I came back, and I was advocating for that park to bring basketball goals to the park.

There's still no basketball goals there right now.

The neighbors kind of had a problem with the goals being there because it would bring a big crowd and it would kind of get a little rowdy sometimes.

So, what I noticed with the neighbors was, a lot of them loved gardening, and it was something that I was getting into.

And I'm really connected with the youth in the community, so I'm like, "Hey, if I create a garden, I can connect the neighbors with the youth.

So, if we get the goals back at the park, there's already a relationship built."

So, it was just a strategy to really connect the community and connect the older generation and the younger generation.

-Why did you come back to Bluefield?

-I was in Knoxville, Tennessee, and, you know, I was working, and things were pretty good down there, but I wasn't moving with any purpose.

I wasn't moving with any purpose, so, you know, I'm just, you know, doing my daily morning prayer in the garden that I had down there, and I'm just talking to God, and I feel like I heard Him tell me to come back.

And ever since I've come back, it's been a different change in the community, you know, and I think this is my purpose.

It's been a little rough.

It's been a journey.

But slowly but surely, it's working.

It's working.

I mean, every single one of these neighbors right here, I can go to their house, have tea with them, sit on their back porch, connect with them.

And they come over to the garden all the time.

We sit.

We talk.

So, it's slowly but surely working, you know.

It's all a process.

The community has, you know, donated a little bit money here and there.

We've had supporters, businesses, organizations donate some, but my biggest way of funding my program and funding this is-- it's funny.

It's a Krispy Kreme fundraiser.

-Okay.

-[chuckles] -So basically, what I do is, I drive to Roanoke, Virginia every single day.

-Every day?

-Every single day.

-What is the round trip?

That's-- -Hour and forty-five.

-See, that's almost four hours on the road.

-Yeah, yeah.

So, I drive down early in the morning.

I get the donuts.

I bring them back, and then I actually go back, you know, sometimes at night.

-Oh, wow, man.

-Yeah, I gotta get the funds.

I gotta get the funds.

It's not an easy thing.

When I started a nonprofit, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into.

And even when I was doing the garden, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, but it's working; it's been working, So, I know it's God behind me, honestly.

[Josh] Anybody willing to drive four hours a day for donut deliveries?

You're giving it your all, man.

I can tell you're invested in this, for sure.

-As soon as we get done with this interview, I'm going to run over.

[laughs] I'm going to get more donuts for tomorrow.

Yeah.

You can't beat it.

You can't beat no fresh Krispy Kreme.

[Josh] Kyle really made an impression on me, following what he felt led to do, coming back to a town that offered very little opportunity to him in his own youth, but now he's hustling every day to run a nonprofit organization to offer opportunities and provide mentorship to local youth, to make a real difference in their lives and the lives of the community.

Kyle's vision for his hometown of Bluefield to connect people across generations and build relationships is admirable and something the whole community can rally around.

Bluefield has a legacy of individuals who saw a need, got a vision, and did something about it.

[Reverend Mitchell] This is the Hotel Thelma, and at one time, she owned the Traveler's Hotel, which you can see the Royal Crown Cola sign vividly on the side.

-[Josh] The Cola sign.

-Right.

And now, it's actually owned by another individual.

But these were two hotels where people of color stayed at one point in time.

-Probably in the Green Book.

-In the Green Book.

Come on in.

We had the Folk Life Center Church come in with volunteers.

They were out of Chicago, a group of young men and women who came in and took a lot of the tile out because people had broken in and stripped the wiring out.

Anyway, so they took most of the roofing part out, where the ceiling part out.

It was debris all through here.

Well, initially, this was the front part of the hotel.

Back this way was part of a store.

The restaurant was over there where the kitchen is.

It was an open foyer in which they had rooms and apartments upstairs.

This would've been a bedroom, kitchen... living room.

And this is a bathroom.

It's a bathroom right there.

The way this started at the height of segregation, Thelma Stone, which everybody called Mama Thelma, opened up a hotel, which it's listed in the Green Book, which the Green Book is a list of hotels that could only be stayed in by people of color because they couldn't stay in the hotels in the white communities.

But during that time, they-- we had visitors like Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, Little Richard, Etta James, which today, those names are noticed because of the legacy that they have left behind.

Now, actually, this was the room that Ike and Tina stayed in.

[Josh] Okay.

[chuckles] [Reverend Mitchell] But like right now, everybody's into history right now.

And what a greater history to know and have than the essence of legends that stayed in your hometown.

Everybody can be a part of this, and we all want to leave a legacy when we leave.

And the greatest legacy you can leave, I feel, as Thelma Stone did, that's why her legacy is going on, is to serve and be of service, not only to your community but to your city and history.

And so, you make your mark there.

Still no perfect people.

I don't care where you go to church.

I don't care if you are a bishop or elder or the freaking pope because I've lived on both sides of the track.

We're all diamonds in the rough or unfinished product and working on making a mark.

[♪♪♪] [Josh] Making a mark.

Industries like coal and rail have certainly done that here as well.

With the discovery of one of the richest and largest deposits of bituminous coal in the nearby Pocahontas Coalfield in the late 1890s, a boom in rail and mining was inevitable, almost obligatory.

[♪♪♪] I'm told Falls Mill was carved out during this early 20th century boom by the railroad as a resort for its employees.

And in recent years has been privately owned and now leased by the state.

[♪♪♪] At one time, there was even a flour mill in operation here.

Today, locals enjoy the peaceful tranquility it affords them.

[♪♪♪] When traveling to Pocahontas, I stopped in the small community of Nemours.

[♪♪♪] And even discovered the former home of one of Bluefield's original founders.

Nearly 120 years old, it's a modest, stately home with rich local history, sitting in the bend of the Bluestone River alongside the railroad tracks.

[♪♪♪] Nearby Pocahontas and the surrounding coal fields, there are other recreational opportunities, like an extensive ATV trail system arising from largely repurposed mining properties, which is an economic driver in areas that were once single-source economies, namely coal.

[♪♪♪] Pocahontas was Virginia's first coalfield boomtown during the early 20th century, and is also home to the first exhibition coal mine in the world, and the only one in Virginia.

It is a national historic landmark and is on the Virginia Landmarks Register, which is a list of important historic properties in the Commonwealth.

Today, I was fortunate to catch a near personal tour with local guide, Michelle Criger.

-I always like to start my tours out here and point out behind this fenced in area is what's known as an outcrop.

It was actually an outcrop a lot like this one here that caused this whole coal field to originally be discovered.

[Josh] As I listened to Michelle recount the history of how this mine came to be, I was struck by the sheer chance and randomness of it all.

A blacksmith named Jordan Nelson decided he no longer wanted to live where he was, so he traded his property for this property on which the coal would soon be discovered.

But only after he awoke one morning to realize his cow was missing.

So, after traipsing across his property in search for her, he came across black shiny stones, which he at first presumed to be tar.

As a blacksmith, he thought he could melt them down and reuse them for his forge.

Only to find out, as he tried to melt them down, they grew hotter and hotter.

Words spread rapidly of this incredible fuel source and people came from all over to purchase it.

At first for only a penny a bushel, then they came by the wagon load.

-Forty-four million tons mined later, here we are.

But as we do move forward, you're gonna notice that some of the sections of the coal to your left is very black, shiny, and exposed, just like we expect it to look.

Unlike what's on your right side here, that's still very much covered up in rock dust.

But the reason it has been re-exposed in some of those sections to your left is at the close of our 2017 season, the Smithsonian up in Washington, D.C. sent a couple of guys down.

They took silicone casts and molds of portions of the ribs.

[Josh] As novel as it may be to take a tour nearly 800 feet below ground in a now-exhibition mine, I recognize I have the luxury of choosing to be here.

Although it's a tad bit uncomfortable today, the mine is at 37 degrees, which most mines stay a little warmer these days in the balmy 50-degree range, due to heat from machinery, I still see the extraordinary conditions under which my own forebearers labored.

In many instances, they would perform unpaid prep work for hours before their shifts even started.

Oftentimes, for this unpaid work, they'd bring friends or family, often children in, to help them, so they could get to the paying work because they only made money on the coal they scratched out of the earth.

Tragically, in this very coal field in the east mine, a horrific explosion happened in 1884.

It killed over 114 people.

That's the number of registered workers.

All the other bodies, again, many were children, unknown and buried in a nearby mass grave.

[♪♪♪] The tyrannical and often oppressive stranglehold mine owners held over the lives of their laborers is unimaginable by modern sensibilities.

Yet this is what people endured to provide for their families, despite the associated risks.

Nearly 80 percent of mine workers in West Virginia and southwest Virginia coal fields lived in coal towns owned entirely by the mines.

They weren't paid in federal currency but rather in tokens called script and ruled with an iron fist and private police force, along with enforcers like the Baldwin-Felts agency headquartered in Bluefield.

It was these very agents who gunned down and murdered Sheriff Sid Hatfield and his deputy at midday on the nearby courthouse steps of McDowell County, after rumors spread of their sympathies for labor unions.

This ultimately led to the explosive mine wars of the early 1920s and the Battle of Blair Mountain that saw the largest armed uprising since the north and south had locked horns in bloody battle.

Federal troops and air support were even called in to put down the striking mine workers who felt their constitutional rights, like freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, had been denied.

The cost of mining has been high, obviously.

In fact, at one point, the coal coming from the Pocahontas Coalfield was fueling the U.S. and British war efforts during World War II.

I'm told this made the railroad infrastructure in Bluefield a strategic target on Adolf Hitler's hit list.

And as I head further into downtown Bluefield, I see remnants of the once booming coal and rail hub this town was, which in light of post-industrial decline, is probably part of the reason Bluefield has gotten a bad rap.

But I met with another Bluefield resident who shared his vision of what Bluefield could be.

What was life like, growing up in Bluefield?

[Bill Cole] You know, it was Norman Rockwell.

College Avenue was a painting that he put out.

It was a wonderful, wonderful time.

I remember the Saturday matinee, and as I recall, my parents would gimme a quarter and I'd ride the bus to downtown and I'd go to the Saturday matinee, maybe I had to take a bottle cap or two to get in and got me popcorn and a drink and a bus ride home.

But it was a wonderful place.

I mean, you know, the kids would go out and play, and Mom would say, "Be home by dark."

And it didn't make any difference where we were.

We weren't gonna get in any trouble.

Nobody was gonna, you know, it was just a safe, wonderful, wholesome place to grow up.

[Josh] How do you feel like Bluefield has changed in your time here?

-We used to be the hub of the southern coal fields in West Virginia.

So, everybody that worked up through the bordering counties in the coal business would come here to shop on the weekends.

The doctors and the hospitals were here.

The legal services, all the professional services were based in Bluefield; the railroad based through Bluefield.

And so, Bluefield was a very important place.

And you know, as the world changed-- and I like to look at it from a retail standpoint, sometimes.

I'm in the car business right now, but I've been in multiple businesses throughout my life, but the downtowns got killed by the malls.

The malls got killed by Sam's and Walmart, and now Amazon's killing 'em all.

And it gives communities an opportunity to decide, do they want to give in and just tear down their buildings in their downtowns, or do they want to stake a claim and say, "We're coming back."

And Bluefield is one of those communities that did exactly that.

And we are on the comeback trail.

[♪♪♪] [Josh] Places like Bluefield stand on the edge of the future, looking to its past for lessons that can be learned.

Many still choose to call it their hometown.

And as you've seen, people have crossed oceans to do so.

Some felt drawn to return, and others, with an eye to what once was, are determined to invest in what could be.

[♪♪♪] [music fades out] [♪♪♪] [music fades out] Nestled in the heart of Appalachia.

The University of Virginia's College at Wise is where students experience unique regional culture and the great outdoors.

UVA Wise empowering students to learn and lead in their communities and the world.