"The Appalachian mountains form the spiny backbone of the eastern United States. This whole stretch, which the federal government calls 'the Appalachian Region,' runs from southern New York to northern Georgia and Alabama. It contains 397 counties in 13 states, and all of West Virginia. In the region there are: mountain folk, city folk, country folk, coal miners and steels workers, union workers and non-union workers, industrial workers and service workers, farmers and farm laborers, housewives and children, teachers and health workers, ministers and rabbis and priests, artists and poets, professionals and technicians, lawyers and politicians, lobbyists and interest groups, executives and managers, little business people and big business people, coal companies and chemical companies, industrialists and bankers. "So, you see, Appalachia is not a simple place. There are rich and poor, big and little, new and old, and lots in between."
Source: Appalachian Bishops, "This Land is Home to Me" (1975).