Rough Side of the Mountain

Description: Anne Lewis. 1997.

In the last 20 years mining companies and factories have closed leaving behind rural communities with crumbling infrastructures, unemployment, and inexperience in self-governance. Rough Side of the Mountain documents the efforts of citizens to rebuild their communities in two company towns in southwest Virginia, Ivanhoe and Trammel. In the summer of 1986 Trammel attracted national attention as the "privately owned" town of 50 homes, the company store, the U.S. Post Office, and the town water and cable television systems were sold at public auction. Town residents, mostly unemployed and disabled, through hard work and with the help of churches, foundations, and private donations, organized to purchase the auctioned homes and save "their" town. By the early 1980ís, Ivanhoe had lost two major industries, zinc mining and a carbide factory, as well as its school and businesses. The only store left in town burned and hopes for attracting new industry vanished with the proposed sale of property that had been given to the town for an industrial park. In desperation, town residents formed the Ivanhoe Civic League in an attempt to rebuild and attract new industry to their community. Rough Side of the Mountain looks at community organizing and economic development while exploring the complexity of Appalachian communities, economic issues, exploitation, women's leadership, and democracy.