This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Coming Home." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.
In collaboration with Arthurdale Heritage in Arthurdale, West Virginia, fourth and fifth graders from West Preston School and a group of local homeschool students developed five videos that explore the history, tourism, nature, and agriculture of Arthurdale, WV. Students learned to conduct oral history interviews, draft scripts, along with taping and editing a video.
Speaker 1 (00:01): Welcome to Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.
Speaker 2 (00:04): West Virginia is a beautiful state, full of scenery, historic places, and exciting adventures. As students from West Preston School in Preston County, West Virginia, we wanted to show you some of our state's beauty and let you hear from some West Virginians why you should visit the Mountain State?
Speaker 2 (00:24): Our first guess is Professor and author Ann Pancake who grew up in West Virginia and lived around the world before returning. She is now a professor at West Virginia University and the author of Strange as this Weather Has Been and talked to us about what she values about living in West Virginia.
Ann Pancake (00:51): I have found that West Virginians are really wonderful human beings. Here are some of the qualities that I think that not everybody, but some people here have more than a lot of people I have met in other parts of the country. Those are commitment to family and communities, kindness and warmth, generosity, loyalty, humbleness, down to earthness, hospitality, putting others before one's self, attachment to the natural world, hard workers, common sense, resourcefulness, and resiliencies.
Ann Pancake (01:27): I'm really attached to our land and the mountains and the forest and the rivers and the farmland and I love being outside in West Virginia.
Ann Pancake (01:43): I think the pros of tourism, obviously it can provide more jobs. I think it can also show people who are not from West Virginia the real and true West Virginia instead of the stereotype West Virginia. I think it can help small towns and small farms stay alive. I think it can help us preserve the natural world and the farmland because people mostly come here to do things in the natural world, to do stuff outside in addition to learning about our history and heritage. So it should be a motivation for West Virginians and the politicians to preserve the natural world and preserve the historical sites and the heritage sites.
Ann Pancake (02:36): I think there's a risk that tourism can happen and people who actually live here don't get the benefits from it. So they don't get the money and they don't get the jobs, or there's low paying jobs like just cleaning a hotel room. West Virginia has a history from people outside West Virginia making money off of us while we don't get anything. Okay? So sometimes I'll worry that will happen.
Ann Pancake (03:02): I'm also worried sometimes that there'll be so many people in some of the natural places that they might get damaged or overrun. Sometimes if there's too many tourists they can take over a place that used to be special to people from West Virginia, and I know some places where that's happened for me. Another con is if we have tourism, we have to have the infrastructure to support it . . .
Asset ID: 2022.28.05
Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org
