Two E. Tennessee ex-mining towns try to change their fortunes [View all]

I really liked the approach taken for Briceville with the Thacker’s Coal Creek Watershed Foundation and its founder, Barry Thacker. Educational opportunity is the key!

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2014/08/31/two-e-tenn-ex-mining-towns-try-change-fortunes/14912097/
The Tennessean
Two E. Tenn. ex-mining towns try to change their fortunes
Travis Loller, Associated Press

ROCKY TOP, Tenn. – In the Appalachian foothills of eastern Tennessee, Rocky Top and Briceville share a common heritage and a common problem: How to revive communities that once boasted bustling main streets and jobs for nearly anyone willing to mine the coal once plentiful in the deep shafts underground.

Briceville has embraced the long-range vision of a nonprofit group offering college scholarships to people who are often first in their families to go beyond high school.

About five miles away, the town recently known as Lake City decided to change its name to Rocky Top. It is banking on the quick-strike dreams of developers promising a multimillion-dollar tourist complex built around the popular bluegrass song that declares, “Rocky Top, you’ll always be home sweet home, to me. Good ol’ Rocky Top. Rocky Top, Tennessee.”

The contrasting paths reflect more than divergent ideas. They dig deep into the increasing desperation of places across Appalachia mired in poverty and decline and receptive to any kind of help to reinvent themselves.... MORE at link provided above.