Today is my first day in eastern Kentucky. Most of this part of the state sits on the Cumberland Plateau. Rivers have carved into this plateau for many centuries, creating small valleys locally known as hollows (pronounced ‘hollers’, go figure). The region is known for several things. For starters, it’s rather pretty. Most of the hollows are very picturesque. The second characteristic of the Cumberland, unfortunately, is poverty. This region contains the poorest rural counties in the US, with evidence of hard times everywhere. The most important local legacy, for better and worse, is coal. The Cumberland Plateau sits on the largest deposits of high carbon bituminous coal in the US. Companies have been extracting it
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