Gods and Generals (2003) So close! @font-face { Though West Virginia has had boom-and-bust cycles since, Census Bureau data shows it has lost population every year since 2012 and now has about 1.8 million residents. And a Walmart all to their own. Devil Anse Hatfield, patriarch of Hatfield clan of 19th-century Hatfield-McCoy feud. As a result, four of their seven children exhibited blue skin, and continued reproduction within the limited local gene pool ensured that many descendants of the Fugates were born with met-H.[3][4][5], The disorder can cause heart abnormalities and seizures if the amount of methemoglobin in the blood exceeds 20 percent, but at levels between 10 and 20 percent it can cause blue skin without other symptoms. (Baltimore: Gateway Press 1986). He served as Democratic Senate Leader from 1977 to 1989. Since rail lines and paved roads didn't make it out to Troublesome Creek for nearly a century, the blue recessive gene was passed down to generations of Fugates and neighboring families, all of whom came to be known as "the blue people of Kentucky.". Elizabeth Smith, apparently, was as pale-skinned as the mountain laurel that blooms every spring around the creek hollows. The number of tobacco stores per capita (we call it the chew factor) is the highest in West Virginia here in Charles Town. Google Maps. The Fugate family of Kentucky has been known for their blue skin color for generations. Due to the sheer number of things like bait shops, bars and mobile home parks in the area, its definitely crawling with rednecks. "For the first time in their lives, they were pink. valley in the mountains in West Virginia with a barn and cows visible West Virginia Mountains Fall Foliage The Mountain Spruce Fall Colors Beautiful Pictures On a hypothesis, he gave a substance called methylene blue to family members who were willing to take it. You have the most bars and trailer parks per capita in the state, and your high school graduation rate is 70%. Methemoglobinemia can also be caused by reactions to certain topical pain relievers like benzocaine and xylocaine. Edit Old Gold & Blue Page blue people of west virginia December 17, 2021 sister act cast member dies comments The name refers to a specific set of families. blue people of west virginiaspot vs pinfish. Bluefield State University (Bluefield State) is a university in Bluefield, West Virginia that is an historically black university.It is a part of West Virginia's public education system and converted to a university in the summer of 2022. Incredibly, Benjy had inherited a gene dating back over 162 years! Had you guys just ditched school even more, you might have won this whole thing. Scott was a Public Health Service doctor at the Arctic Health Research Center in Anchorage who had discovered hereditary methemoglobinemia among Alaskan Eskimos and Indians. They went over to Patrick and Rachel Ritchies house and injected each of them with 100 milligrams of methylene blue. Rachel was leaning against the wall. Steelworkers Damion Elkins, 50, right, and Edward Clonch, 43, left, in Huntington West Virginia. by Brian Farrell and Steven Cohen | Feb. 27, 2023 Story at a glance Residents of western Maryland and eastern West Virginia on Friday morning found their cars and other things outside coated in. Informant: So, what my brother told me is that theres a story that there are people in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, near the campus I guess, and there is skin is blue. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. In online research, there was no mention made of "blue" people as recorded in the genealogy book, The Fugate Family of Russell County Virginia, published in 1986, but it has been confirmed in the Fugate discussions on the Genforum. Of their seven children, four were reported to be blue. Not myth or legend; The Blue People of Kentucky were an isolated enclave of Appalachian people who lived with an embarrassing skin discoloration until a young hematologist took notice and found a solution. He tested first for abnormal hemoglobin, but the results were negative. The couple had eight children, including Luna. Google Maps. al. Six generations after a French orphan named Martin Fugate settled on the banks of eastern Kentuckys Troublesome Creek with his redheaded American bride, his great-great-great great grandson was born in a modern hospital not far from where the creek still runs. 9. Hereditary diaphorase deficiency and methemoglobinemia. We do not feel less-fortunate. He had to drive eight hours back to Hazard to search out the Ritchies, who lived in a tapped-out mining town called Hardburly. Methemoglobinemia is one of the rare genetic conditions that's treatable with a simple pill. The family was first discovered in 1958 when one of the blue men, Luke Combs, who was a descendant of another branch of the Fugate family, took his white wife to the University of Kentucky Hospital and doctors paid more attention to him than his wife. Dora Bryan House Chimes, Her name was Ruth Pendergrass, and she had been trying to stir up medical interest in the blue people ever since a dark blue woman walked into the county health department one bitterly cold afternoon and asked for a blood test. Under Trump, the jobs. She told me that her family was the blue Combses who lived up on Ball Creek. Laughing, the Informant launched into a story of the West Virginia Blue People, a story about a genetic condition the resulted from intermarriage. Where people wear camo to church. [5] He treated the family with methylene blue, which eased their symptoms and reduced the blue coloring of their skin. Cawein would have no part of it, and he related with glee the news that a film crew sent to Kentucky from Hollywood fled the two mean dogs in every front yard without any film. Methemoglobin which is blue, is a nonfunctional form of the red hemoglobin that carries oxygen. She and her husband Alva have a strong sense of family. Population: 7,164Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West VirginiaBars per capita: 2nd in the stateWalmart rank: 3rd. They werent sick; it was just the way they look. valley in the mountains in West Virginia with a barn and cows visible Stephanie Pittman 561 followers More information Blue People of West Virginia | . Dark blue lips and fingernails are the only traces of Martin Fugates legacy left in the boy; that, and the recessive gene that has shaded many of the Fugates and their kin blue for the past 162 years. Using Yelp and Google Maps, this is the criteria we used: Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a citys border, as well as within a short driving distance. According to the official dictionary definition of a redneck, and based on stereotypes that the internet says are true, using science to determine the most redneck cities in a state cant be too far off. type to search . Dunlaps Gun & Pawn, Hurricane, WV. THE town of Odd, West Virginia is a quiet, rural countryside, despite all the buzz surrounding the infamous inbred family, The Whittakers, who live within it. 12. "The precipitous upland nature of the terrain makes naturally for three things: (1) poor communications; (2) fierce sectionalism; (3 . Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? It was hard to get out, so they intermarried, says Dennis Stacy, a 51-year-old coal miner and amateur genealogist who has filled a loose-leaf notebook with the laboriously traced blood lines of several local families. As a bonus, theres a Golden Corral, several Dollar Stores and many Waffle Houses in the area. The Blue Fugates have essentially now gone from reality to legend. Cawein cheers their bad luck not out of malice but out of a deep respect for the blue people of Troublesome Creek. Luna is buried at the top of the hollow. Also, small scattered families in Grant, Preston, Randolph, Tucker, Marion, Monongahela, and Braxton counties, West Virginia. Published. Archives of Internal Medicine, April, 1964.2. So, hold our beers and watch this. Martin Fugate carried the recessive gene and the odds that he could have married a woman with the same recessive gene were overwhelming - but that is exactly what happened. The man who discovered the cure for methemoglobinemia was Madison Cawein III, a hematologist (blood doctor) at the University of Kentucky who heard tales of the "blue people" and went looking for specimens in the 1960s. They were bluern hell, Cawein says. And when you look at the data, its clear this is a really solid place for a redneck to make home. He injected the Ritchie siblings with 100 milligrams of the blue dye and didn't have to wait long to see results. More information This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which . As the story goes, Martin Fugate, a French orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentucky's Troublesome Creek around 1820 to claim a land grant. They wouldnt come into the waiting room. Methemoglobinemia is a blood condition, not a skin condition. Its a part of our culture. And they married the people who lived closest to them, the Combses, Smiths, Ritchies, and Stacys. Finally, one day when the frustrated doctor was idling inside the Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked in. The search for blue people ensued. The antidote worked quickly but patients were required to take daily doses as it passed quickly through the urine. Eventually, Cawein gained their trust and began taking blood samples. One of the girls, the "Informant", was discussing an upcoming trip to visit her brother at West Virginia University. It began whenMartin Fugate, aFrench orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentuckys Troublesome Creek to claim a land grant in the early 19th century. People who live in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle and parts of western Maryland found cars and other items coated in the dust from . They have the 2nd most bars and the 2nd most trailer/mobile home parks per capita in the state. He helped isolate an antidote for cholera, and he did some of the early work on L-dopa, the drug for Parkinsons disease. Most of the Fugates lived long and healthy lives. *. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four being born blue; Zachariah, who was blue, married his mother's sister. Are Ferne Mccann's Parents Together, What is a redneck anyways? One of the girls, the Informant, was discussing an upcoming trip to visit her brother at West Virginia University. Admitted in 1863, West Virginia was the . By Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh Fast Facts Nickname: The Mountain State Statehood: 1863; 35th state Population (as of July, 2016): 1,831,102. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/40/MontserratExtraBold/montserrat-extrabold-webfont.ttf') format('truetype'), Blue People of West Virginia | . "The True Story of the Blue People of Kentucky" Luna was bluish all over. Theres lots of trucks in Grafton, WV. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four being born blue; Zachariah, who was blue, married his mother's sister. When young people started moving away from the farms surrounding Troublesome Creek in the mid-20th century, they took their recessive blue genes with them. This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as info-tainment. This information supplied by John Graves whose uncle was the father of the child. [8] His findings were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 1964. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. This spring water is 74.3 degrees, and it is known to have a natural curing ability. For more than a century, these Appalachian families passed along an exceedingly rare genetic blood condition that turned their skin a disarming shade of blue. Stacys son has built a modern house next door, but the old logger wont hear of leaving the cabin he built with timber he personally cut and hewed for Luna and their 13 children. After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list as The Most Redneck Cities in West Virginia: Many of these are types of places where old redneck ladies drive their motorized wheelchairs down the middle of town, towing their grandkids in a wagon. "I started asking them questions: 'Do you have any relatives who are blue?' The clan kept multiplying. Legend has it that Martin himself may have had a blue tinge to his skin, but not the dark blue color of later Fugates. He was a French orphan who knew nothing of his lineage. He recounted how, after hearing the story for the first time, he and his roommates would make a show of continuously checking to see if their other friends lips or skin ever looked blue. His two room log cabin sits in the middle of Laurel Fork Hollow. 11 HINTS YOU MIGHT BE DESCENDED FROM ALIENS, FUGATES OF KENTUCKY: SKIN BLUER THAN LAKE LOUISE As My World Turns, If Your Skin Is Blue, Dont Marry Your Other Blue Shaded Relative interesting12, Daily News investigates: Mystery of family with blue skin solved | Bazaar Daily News, If Your Skin Is Blue, Don't Marry Your Other Blue Shaded Relative - interesting12. Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, Its blue, and their people have always had blue skin because of all the intermarrying and incest. Director, Human Resources Southern West Virginia. Films That People Feel Guilty for Not Seeing. Most of them old people went by that name the blue Fugates. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/40/MontserratExtraBold/montserrat-extrabold-webfont.woff') format('woff'), In more recent memory, the 2003 film Wrong Turn helped perpetuate the inbreeding stereotype. Its 97% white, very blue collar, and there are lots of places to get guns, ammo and chew. Elkins Journeez Bar, Elkins, WV. I looked at other enzymes and nothing was wrong with them. Upon further research, I saw that the original story was based on a specific family that was said to be suffering from blue-tinted skin. The methaemoglobinaemia condition, or met-H, reduces someones ability to carry oxygen in the blood, leaving it darker than the colour typically found in veins. Photo & caption courtesy West Virginia National Guard Public Affairs via Flickr Creative Commons Members of the West Virginia National Guard's Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High-Yield Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package draw water samples from across the Kanawha Valley to determine . Cawein advised giving the child methylene blue and not worrying about it. Berkeley Springs State Park. Generations later, a descendant of Martin Fugate, Benjy Stacy, would be born "blue". Benjy was born in a maternity ward near Hazard, Kentucky and was rushed by ambulance to a medical clinic in Lexington to find help for his blue problem. So you know theres some good fishin there. Sweet Dreams. A reference to "the Huntsville subgroup" is made in the American version of television sitcom Shameless when Kevin Ball (played by Steve Howey) discovers that he may have ancestors from that group.[10]. Population: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita: 9th. It like to scared me to death! West Virginia Blue People Text The following piece was collected at a dinner table with a group of girls out celebrating a friend's birthday. He married a red-haired American named Elizabeth Smith who had a very pale complexion and their union formed a genetic mutation that resulted in their descendants being born with blue skin. The couple had eight children, including Luna. Elizabeth had pale white skin, almost translucent. This is redneck wonderland. RAYLAND, Ohio (WTRF) A house fire in Rayland over the weekend has been deemed an arson fire by the State Fire Marshal's office. Our skimmable newsletter is delivered to your inbox each week, giving you 5 things you need to read and get smarter. The company's filing status is listed as Revoked (Failure To File Annual Report) and its File Number is 45369. By the time a young hematologist from the University of Kentucky came down to Troublesome Creek in the 1960s to cure the blue people, Martin Fugates descendants had multiplied their recessive genes all over the Cumberland Plateau. General Blog . Within a few minutes. Rednecks are hailed as being great in our song lyrics. Chickens are genetically complex. It can be brought on by several things: abnormal hemoglobin formation, an enzyme deficiency, and taking too much of certain drugs, including vitamin K, which is essential for blood clotting and is abundant in pork liver and vegetable oil. 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