112 
But between 1830 and 1850 the four interstate roads declined gradually 
to a wretched condition and state of non-use; for the Blue Grass and Ohio 
regions were finding other routes to market, by use of steamboats, ete. 
Therefore, the mountain counties lost their market and received little out- 
side help for roads. As a result the people have lived isolated by topog- 
raphy and social antipathy. 
During the Civil War thousands of the mountaineers, whose ancestors 
had fought in the Revolution and the War of 1812, joined the Union army 
and received a practical education. Some received similar training as 
soldiers of the South. After the war many returned home. But the growth 
of formal education and broader outlook thus stimulated has been slow. 
In 1878, Shaler, of the Kentucky Geological Survey, saw in the eastern, 
and then most inaccessible portion of the region, men hunting squirrels 
’ 
and rabbits with old English “short-bows” and wrote: “These were not 
the contrivances of boys of today but were made and strung, and the 
arrows hefted, in the ancient manner. The men, some of them old, were 
admirably skilled in their use; they assured me that, like their fathers 
before them, they had ever used the bow and arrow for small game, resery- 
ing the costly ammunition of the rifle for the deer and bear.” 
Recently outside capital has begun to develop the coal and timber 
resources of the region, a fact which is bringing about many changes in the 
mountain country rapidly. As a result, the inhabitants are facing the 
crisis brought about by the sudden mingling of a primitive people with the 
exploitative phase of modern civilization. 
CHANGING CONDITIONS. 
Mineral Resources. 
Coal is the chief mineral resource of the region. The seams occur in 
every county, increasing in number and thickness towards the southeast and 
reaching their climax in the Black Mountain region. The layers are favor- 
ably disposed for mining, except in the Pine and Cumberland mountains, 
where complex structure renders mining difficult. The coal is bituminous, 
the most desirable varieties being as follows: Cannel, found in limited 
basins throughout the field; coking, appearing in large amounts only in 
the vicinity of Pound Gap: and high class steaming coals, occurring in 
quantity in the southeastern counties and at a few places along the western 
margin. 
