Hello, how are you? Thank you for tuning into Ridiculous History.

I'm going to be familiar with the world known as Appalachia.

The Appalachian Mountains. I've got some past there.

The thing that's interesting about it is even if you live in the US, odds are that you have not been there.

It's quite a rural area, but it's where today's story takes place. My name's Ben.

Did you know that if you hike certain parts of the Appalachian Trail, you get little rings on your walking stick

or there's some kind of merit badge you're supposed to get where you can show unequivocally that you have hiked the entire Appalachian Trail?

I have exactly zero of those.

I also, well, have hiked parts of the Trail. I've not hiked the entire thing. It's a heck of a commitment.

It's a noble thing to do, almost as noble as being the producer on shows like Ridiculous History, which reminds me,

we should shout out our super producer, Casey Paggram.

So, Noel, you have never hiked the Trail, but you've been to the Appalachians, yeah?

I have. I've been on parts of the Trail. That's where I found that about the Medallion System,

where it's these little curved metal pieces that indicate which parts of the Trail you successfully completed.

And if you're like a real baller, a real Appalachian Trailhead, you have a stick that's just like, you know, covered in these things.

Right, right. Just lousy with them.

One of the most interesting things about exploring this area of the world is that you'll run into places where time seems to have slowed down

or things go at their own relatively isolated pace. And in today's episode, we're going to explore a tiny community that is in its own way very isolated.

It's called Vulcan in the Western edge of West Virginia.

That's about as West as it gets, my friend.

Right. That's actually not entirely true, but it's as West as it gets in West Virginia.

Right. It's a Virginia-wise. This is the Westest. Vulcan West Virginia is an interesting case.

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