Inside West Virginia's Most Remote Holler

How is it here now?It changed in the years.But my place ain't.

Tucked deep in the mountains of southern West Virginia is Dingus.Situated at the end of a mile -long one -way tunnel originally used for coal trains, it's one of Appalachia's most isolated communities.Locals in the nearby towns had warned us against visiting, claiming its people were unhinged outlaws hostile to outsiders.

To see if that was actually true, naturally, we had to visit.

and ended up having one of the most eye -opening experiences we ever have.

Why is it so rough over here?Because we stick together, and you can't come over here and start nothing if you don't want to finish it with the whole town.

You know what you got, family?You don't need money.

Everybody helps.That's how we make it here.This is our journey from town, through the tunnel, and into the mountains.How is it out here?

Are there police out here?We take care of it.

We started in Williamson on the Tug Fork River separating Kentucky from West Virginia.

It's off in its own little world over here.When you go through the tunnel, when you get there, you'll see what I'm talking about.There's a tunnel that's almost a mile long.Yeah, that's what separates us from the real world, I guess, yeah.

So it's different from here?

Oh, yeah.My sister lives over there right now.She does.She might have said two.

have his sister's number or anything, just some rough directions.But we decided to go look for her, so we got in the car and headed into the hills toward Dingus.

This used to be the training tracks.

Yeah.Right here.Yeah.Yeah.The road, the main road, the county road went down this way, over the hill here, that road on above.That was the county road, this was the railroad.

You know, a lot of people ask me, why do I live here?Because I'm, what, about the only black person in the neighborhood, in the area?And I've never had a problem with anybody.If you'd been here a couple months ago, Bernie Sanders was here.And was he?He wasn't welcome.

No.No.No.Some people didn't take too kindly to him.

Some did, some didn't.That's where we're on our way to right now.

When you say the radicals, you mean like?

Outlaws, I guess you'd say.

Yeah, like the more open with what they do over here.

They don't give a damn for humanity or nothing else.

So we're driving to this notorious town of Dingus, but we just passed a sign.So now I'm going to go down here and take a look and see how bad it is.sure how far we can push it with this two -wheel drive car right here, but it's not looking good for the people out here on Triad Road in West Virginia.Oh, yeah Yeah, we just wonder we're just wondering driving down this road in the absolute middle of nowhere here We came across a school bus that looked to be what someone was living in and next to it a pickup truck now We're getting out of here back to the road headed toward dingus.So all day we've been hearing about the dingus tunnel and dingus and The Dingus Tunnel's in front of us.It's a one -lane, mile -long tunnel.

On the other end is Dingus, which people keep saying is a different world.People say you're liable to see someone on the front porch with a shotgun.They said you're liable to see crackheads.Someone before this said this is where the outlaws and radicals hang out.We have no idea what to expect on the other end of this tunnel.Just like that, we're in Dingus.

This is Dingus that we're in right here?This is Dingus, yep.What should we know about Dingus?There's not much to know.I mean, got one service station.One restaurant and a tunnel.

That's just about it.What's the story with the tunnel?Did you see the numbers on the end of it when it was made?No.It was built in the 1800s, late 1800s, early 1900s.They run a train through there for, I think, at least

And before that, there was no way to get right from here to over there.Some people we talked to back there on the other side of the tunnel, they said dingus, they said it's known for more, it's like radicals, outlaws, they had all these terms.

People are just as good here as they are anywhere else, you know?It's a whole lot more populated now than it was when I was a young boy, you know?Oh, really?Oh, yeah.We've had two or three coal mines in here, and that's about the only work that we've got here locally, is coal mines.And they've all pulled out and left, so I can't see it growing.

Last I worked, I worked for Massey in Logan County.I think somebody said, well, it'll load 500 people off.

So it keeps happening?

In the coal industry, yeah.I mean, it just, it's not getting no better.But coal's always like that.It's up for a while and down, you know what I'm saying?I mean, you can't never, you can't depend on it.As far as raising the family back 30, 40 years ago, I'm sure it was better.

You know, like we talked about the drugs, there was no drugs here hardly at all at that time, and now they're everywhere.Probably a better place to raise a family back 40, 50 years ago, yeah.Dang it's just over here by itself, and we don't bother nobody.

We're driving out here through Dingus, and we just met these two older guys in this beat -up car.They saw us put down the window, and they asked what we were doing.The guy said, come with me. I'll take you up into the hollers.Got no idea where we're going, but now they're speeding.through here.We're zipping through this back road.

We are in the sticks of West Virginia, following these two old men out to the holler.Let's see what happens.

and they're still trying to run me.People are, you know, company, state government, president, you know, whatever.I have cones on my porch.Really?Yeah.How many?

Three or four at a time on my porch.

I take pictures of them.

Can we see them?Huh?Can we see them?I wish I could.I don't have the phone.People broke down or whatever, they come in here or whatever.

We'll take care of, help them if we can.You know, a lot of people ain't that way in this creek, you know, but that's what we do.And everybody's welcome.This road right here can take you anywhere you want to go.This road right here?You can take that all the way out?

Yeah, I can never.Yeah, I'm getting ready to get timber off on all this.And I got a cemetery back there, a big cemetery, three acre cemetery.

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Thank you for watching, and now back to the Holler.But you're saying that's not true, that's not the reality.

How is it here now?Your view here man, I mean these mountains.To walk outside and see this?You wanna hop in the car and take a drive?It's not gonna work.

Nice to meet you.Yeah, how is it out here?

Cones.It's crazy.It's breathing nature or something else.You know what I mean?It really is.What do people do for fun out here?

Horseshoes.Ride the hills.

We cook out on the waste rails.Oh, that's awesome.You know, stop, pull a place out, throw charcoal in it, and have something to eat, clean up the place, and go on.Off the road, not bother nobody, and doesn't nobody bother us.And they don't.

They don't do it twice.No.believe that.

Bother you once, don't bother you again.That's right.Is there a lot of like, I don't know, like people say in Williamson and Kermit, they're saying that there's a lot of like, you know, people get high and they kind of act like fools and stuff like that sometimes.No, no.Used to be.

Used to be, but try to be now, don't have to.

It's a lot of drugs, clean up a lot around here lately, you know what I mean?Oh, it has?Yeah.Ain't many go -heads or retards or special need people, you know?Yeah.But a lot of them's in jail now, so they dried it up, you know what I mean?

So what was it like before?

Oh, people were running down the road naked, hollering and stuff, man, trying to flag you down.I don't remember nothing.I mean, for real.Lawl chasing down the road.It was crazy a while back.How long ago?

About a year ago.That recently?

Yeah.We were standing here and some naked guy came running up here.That would be...Who would make it hurt?

Are there police out here?

There are police.

Oh yeah.We take care of it.We order the police as far as that goes.We have to call the law, and if we call the law...

We have to call the law because we're going to get a body pretty much, or get somebody.

But we try to take care of it ourselves.Yeah, the law takes too long to get here, so you got to do it yourself.

Yeah, I own all of this, so it don't matter, you know what I mean?If they come this holiday, they're mine.Obviously, we won't walk out.We carry it out.We got kids.It's all about the kids.

It's all about the kids.

So you have kids who live here?Yeah.What do you hope for your kids?

Like every man, we hope a better life for everybody.You know what I mean?They won't leave here.That's fine.They won't move off.That's fine.

Kids get thrown choices.You know what I mean?Staying here, can they have a better life?Oh, yeah.Oh, yeah.Thank you.

Oh, yeah.Oh yeah, definitely.It's up to them to get over it.I mean, it's a choice that they make.Once they get to school, it's their choice.

It's better than the city or...Oh, it's in the woods.Any place like that.

And in terms of jobs and stuff, though?

There's work around here?

Oh yeah, there's college.work.

If they want to work, there's coal mines and everything.

Timber cutting, logging.There are all kinds of jobs.Is that three rebel flags?Three, four, I think.

Four?One doesn't make it clear.No.No.What does it mean to you?What's the flag mean to you?

Flying flag.United States flag, you know, to me.You know, flags are not racist or nothing at all.

What do you think if people, say from New York, if they had to know one thing about this area of the country, what should they know?

What do you drink?Sometimes shine, I don't know.You guys make shine?

I can't say I don't know.Can neither confirm nor deny that.

I'm out of the holiday here.All of them watches my place and I watch their place.That's how we work.

Tight knit.All together.

This is what we do for fun.We don't have no bars or nothing to go hang out and everything in.This is what we do for fun.Take a pic take a picture

of this.My children left here and went to Atlanta, Georgia.Stayed in Atlanta 13 years and then came back.So it's true, these mountains do call you home.

What led you to come back from Atlanta?Family?

Family.And there for a while I treated Atlanta as home.I grew comfortable with it, but then I started missing everyone back here, but most of them are done deceased, drug addictions.I lost a lot of family to addiction and alcoholism.But being there's nothing here, that's what they go to, and I was able to escape that.But now I'm back here, so it's a struggle.

But there's still no place like West Virginia.I reckon I'm the oldest one in the whole crowd here.Yeah?

You don't look that old.I'm 73.How are you?

What do you think about raising your kids in West Virginia?

Raised tough.

I think it's alright.I mean, I was raised here.I actually have one more question for everyone.

The term hillbilly.Do you guys embrace it?Is it an insult?What do you think about that?100 % love it.Absolutely.

This right here is what it's about.

I got uncle's family.in the family now and stuck with me.Don't you...They don't even want you, but we love you.They want you, but you're here.

I don't care what you want.

This is what we do.We bicker back and forth, but we all love each other, and this is what it is.And I lived in Ohio part of my life.I'm sorry.Where am I?Shut up.

I lived in Ohio part of my life, but this is why I'm back here.I can be me. I can be happy and swirl with my kids.

I was born and raised here.This is all I know.

That's Mickey there.That's the cat, Mickey.And he's born and raised a cat.He walks by.And he's family too.But this is what we do.

This is what West Virginia is about.It's family.Roots.

I think people get that wrong.To the point that she made before, you know, people talk about this part of the country, they talk about poverty and this and that.That's not the point.

Where you doing with this?But I'm a broke ass bitch.But this broke ass bitch has family and I'll never be broke because I'm richer than 90 % of the rich millionaires.And that's the truth.

I got more than most people.

I was able to fly everywhere.I was able to do anything I wanted.I was making good money, but I wasn't happy.I didn't have nobody to.

You guys are lucky There's few places where you just have this many people together, you know in a family I want like Christmas Thanksgiving we're here for you guys.

It seems like a way of life John Wayne Senior the year

why he's the youngest cuz they quit after that Can I get rid of some Why is it so rough over here?

Well, I don't know.That's just how they taught, you know, we just showed up.

Because we stick together and you can't come over here and start nothing if you don't want to finish it with the hotel.

Given that, you know, people like yours, you know, everyone knows about like the drugs and the, and the kind of the theft and that stuff that some people do.What do y 'all do to, to keep it together, right?Stay together.

Well, they by our last names and everything else, they kind of keep their distance anyway, because I guess we will find them, you know, they won't get by.

They say they steal shit, they say we will go get it.

You know, you got family, you got to be the real.You don't need money.Everybody helps each other.That's what we do.That's how we make it here.You couldn't make it.

Gas prices, food prices is up to high.We make it, you know.Get ready to run the hogs, whatever, you know.Have our beef and cows, whatever, you know.That's what we all do.

Dingus captures the best and worst of Appalachia.It's poor and isolated, but that's what makes it so beautiful, it's people so real, and its culture so rich.People told us not to go to Dinkus.Good thing we didn't listen.If you're still here, I'd like to thank you and take a moment to ask that you consider subscribing to our substack.Shooting videos like these isn't cheap, and depending on YouTube revenue makes it hard to fund risky videos like this, where we have no idea what we'll find and if it will get views.

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