In 1880, ancient-growth forest still covered two-thirds of West
Virginia, but by the 1920s lumbermen had denuded the entire region.
Ronald Lewis explores the transformation in these mountain counties
precipitated by deforestation. As the only state that lies entirely
within the Appalachian region, West Virginia provides an ideal site for
studying the broader social impact of deforestation in Appalachia, the
South, and the eastern United States. Eventually, even ardent supporters
of industrialization had reason to contemplate the consequences of
unregulated exploitation. Once the timber was gone, the mills closed and
the railroads pulled up their tracks leaving behind an environmental
disaster and a new class of marginalized rural poor to confront the
worst depression in American history.