StoryTown Radio

Voices from the Archive: Clinch Mountain Girls - Part 1

Episode Summary

In this month's Voices from the Archive, we hear from The Clinch Mountain Girls. These five women came to Tennessee back in the ‘70s, many of them inspired by the Back to the Land movement. They set out on a bit of a quest, with a particular kind of work at the end of their path, and it wouldn’t be easy. They would eventually raise their own food. Some of them would build cabins from wood they harvested. They are good friends to this day. Part 1 is about this quest toward Clinch Mountain, about what drew them to Tennessee farmland, and about getting there. More stories of these women and nineteen others can be found in "Clinch Mountain Girls," an oral history written by Nancy Withington Bell, one of the interviewees for this story. Voices from the Archive is a monthly segment of StoryTown Radio. It shares stories from people living here, just how they told them. You might think of it like a news report that tells you about all sorts of things. From ghost stories to apple butter, you could learn just about anything from the people living here in East Tennessee. Listen in as they tell the stories of their lives here in Appalachia. StoryTown Radio is a production of the McKinney Center's Story Initiative. Grounded in the belief that stories connect people to each other, the Story Initiative sets out to collect, archive, and share the stories from the region. Broadcast from Jonesborough, Tennessee, the Storytelling Capital of the World, StoryTown Radio is one way these stories are shared with people, nearby and all around.

Episode Notes

In this month's Voices from the Archive, we hear from The Clinch Mountain Girls. These five women came to Tennessee back in the ‘70s, many of them inspired by the Back to the Land movement. They set out on a bit of a quest, with a particular kind of work at the end of their path, and it wouldn’t be easy. They would eventually raise their own food. Some of them would build cabins from wood they harvested. They are good friends to this day. Part 1 is about this quest toward Clinch Mountain, about what drew them to Tennessee farmland, and about getting there.

More stories of these women and nineteen others can be found in "Clinch Mountain Girls," an oral history written by Nancy Withington Bell, one of the interviewees for this story.

Voices from the Archive is a monthly segment of StoryTown Radio. It shares stories from people living here, just how they told them. You might think of it like a news report that tells you about all sorts of things. From ghost stories to apple butter, you could learn just about anything from the people living here in East Tennessee. Listen in as they tell the stories of their lives here in Appalachia.

StoryTown Radio is a production of the McKinney Center's Story Initiative. Grounded in the belief that stories connect people to each other, the Story Initiative sets out to collect, archive, and share the stories from the region. Broadcast from Jonesborough, Tennessee, the Storytelling Capital of the World, StoryTown Radio is one way these stories are shared with people, nearby and all around.

Instagram: @storytownjbo
Facebook: StoryTown Radio Show

Storytellers: Nancy Withington Bell, Karen Berg, Lee Hoellman, Joanne Irvin, Carolyn Novkov

Story Collector: Isaac Wood

Producer & Narrator: Isaac Wood

Editors: Isaac Wood, Anne G'Fellers-Mason, Bre Walker-Schadler

Music:

Sponsors:

Tennessee Arts Commission (https://tnartscommission.org/)

Trivia with Budds

The Silver Raven

Mountain Empire Cremation and Burial Service

The Wild Women of Jonesborough

McKinney Center (mckinneycenter.com)