What is "appalachia"

"cultural and geographical region of inland Eastern U.S.," 1880s, from the Appalachian Mountains, which are its core. Earlier Appalachia was proposed as a better name for "United States of America" by Washington Irving in 1839 (though he preferred Alleghenia) and this may have been the coinage of the word.\n\nIt is a thousand pities that the puny witticisms of a few professional objectors should have the power to prevent, even for a year, the adoption of a name for our country. At present we have, clearly, none. There should be no hesitation about "Appalachia." In the first place, it is distinctive. "America" is not, and can never be made so. We may legislate as much as we please, and assume for our country whatever name we think right — but to use it will be no name, to any purpose for which a name is needed, unless we can take it away from the regions which employ it at present. South America is "America," and will insist upon remaining so.

[Edgar Allan Poe, 1846]

Appalachia ( or ) is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York to northern Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in Alabama, the cultural region of Appalachia typically refers only to the central and southern portions of the range. As of the 2010 census, the region was home to approximately 25 million people, containing the major cities of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Charleston, West Virginia; Knoxville, Tennessee; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; Huntsville, Alabama, and Asheville, North Carolina.

Since its recognition as a distinctive region in the late 19th century, Appalachia has been a source of enduring myths and distortions regarding the isolation, temperament, and behavior of its inhabitants. Early 20th century writers often engaged in yellow journalism focused on sensationalistic aspects of the region's culture, such as moonshining and clan feuding, and often portrayed the region's inhabitants as uneducated and prone to impulsive acts of violence. Sociological studies in the 1960s and 1970s helped to re-examine and dispel these stereotypes.

While endowed with abundant natural resources, Appalachia has long struggled and been associated with poverty. In the early 20th century, large-scale logging and coal mining firms brought wage-paying jobs and modern amenities to Appalachia, but by the 1960s the region had failed to capitalize on any long-term benefits from these two industries. Beginning in the 1930s, the federal government sought to alleviate poverty in the Appalachian region with a series of New Deal initiatives, such as the construction of dams to provide cheap electricity and the implementation of better farming practices. On March 9, 1965, the Appalachian Regional Commission was created to further alleviate poverty in the region, mainly by diversifying the region's economy and helping to provide better health care and educational opportunities to the region's inhabitants. By 1990, Appalachia had largely joined the economic mainstream, but still lagged behind the rest of the nation in most economic indicators.

Appalachia or Appalachian can refer to:

• Appalachia, a cultural region associated with the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States
• the Appalachian Mountains
• Appalachia (Mesozoic), a Mesozoic-era island
• Appalachia, Virginia, a town in the U.S. state of Virginia
• Appalachia (Delius), a rhapsody by Frederick Delius
• Appalachia (journal), a mountaineering and conservation journal published by the Appalachian Mountain Club since 1894
• Appalachian League
• Appalachian State University
• Appalachian Trail
• Appalachian music

In the Mesozoic Era (252 to 66 million years ago) Appalachia, named for the Appalachian Mountains, was an island land mass separated from Laramidia to the west by the Western Interior Seaway. The seaway eventually shrank, divided across the Dakotas, and retreated towards the Gulf of Mexico and the Hudson Bay. This left the island masses joined in the continent of North America as the Rocky Mountains rose.

From the Turonian age of the Late Cretaceous to the very beginning of the Paleocene, Appalachia was separated from the rest of North America. Because of this, its fauna was isolated, and developed very differently from the tyrannosaur, ceratopsian and ankylosaur dominated fauna of the western part of North America, the geologist's " Laramidia". Due to numerous undiscovered fossiliferous deposits and due the fact that half of Appalachia's fossil formations being destroyed by the Pleistocene ice age, little is known about Appalachia, with exception of plant life. In addition, due to a lack of interest in Appalachia, many fossils that have been found in Appalachia lie unstudied and remain in the inaccurate genera to which they were assigned in the days of E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh. Many of the various fossil formations not destroyed by the Pleistocene ice age still remain elusive to the field of paleontological study. However, some fossil sites, such as the Navesink Formation, Ellisdale Fossil Site, Mooreville Chalk Formation, Demopolis Chalk Formation, Black Creek Group and the Niobrara Formation have given us a glimpse into this forgotten world of paleontology.