Called methaemoglobinaemia (commonly known as met-H), the condition reduces the He helped isolate an antidote for cholera, and he did some of the early work on L-dopa, the drug for Parkinsons disease. Scott's research had found hereditary methemoglobinemia among Alaskan Eskimos and Indians caused by an absence of the enzyme diaphorase from their red blood cells. There are even video games about rednecks. Bluefield State University is a member school of the Thurgood . There are other ways to get blue skin without inheriting it, though. "If you took any random person in the population, maybe one in 100,000 would carry this gene, if that many," says Ricki Lewis, a science writer and author of the textbook "Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications," now in its 13th edition. Besides the number of bars, mobile home parks and places to buy shotguns, its at the base of the hills, where you know the deer and turkey probably walk right into town. The Fugate family of Kentucky has been known for their blue skin color for generations. Google Maps. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,600],'roadsnacks_net-medrectangle-3','ezslot_0',606,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-roadsnacks_net-medrectangle-3-0');Using that criteria, its not hard to scrape the internet, run some scientific data on where rednecks might live in West Virginia, and then put out a list. Population: 10,486Mobile home parks in area: 3rd in WVBars per capita: 3rdGun stores per capita: 5th in West Virginia. The gene would most likely appear in an inbred line. Instead, football players bore a bronzesque gold helmet emblazoned with a blue outline of the state of West Virginia and the letters "WVU" inside an oval. Cawein eventually found a small population of people in the back woods of Appalachia, many with a blue skin disorder. Stacys son has built a modern house next door, but the old logger wont hear of leaving the cabin he built with timber he personally cut and hewed for Luna and their 13 children. One of em I remember seeing him when I was just a boy Blue Anze, they called him. Im a hematologist, so something like that perks up my ears, Cawein says, sipping on whiskey sours and letting his mind slip back to the summer he spent tromping around the hills looking for blue people.. [6], Descendants with the gene continued to live near Troublesome Creek and Ball Creek into the 20th century. He remembered that the Ritchie siblings "were really embarrassed about being blue." So I knew we had the defect defined.. 1995-2022 Ancestral Findings, LLC. Levy married a Ritchie girl and bought 200 acres of rolling land along Ball Creek. The family was first discovered in 1958 when one of the blue men, Luke Combs, who was a descendant of another branch of the Fugate family, took his white wife to the University of Kentucky Hospital and doctors paid more attention to him than his wife. You know theres lots of rednecks here when you look at the numbers. Said to have originated in Hampshire County, West Virginia. the blue color was gone from their skin, the doctor said. Some of the blue people thought the doctor was slightly addled for suggesting that a blue dye could turn them pink. Feeder food: Grain and birdseed. A fellow by the name of John E. Stacy spotted Luna at Sunday services of the Old Regular Baptist Church back before the century turned. Lives in the south or midwest (or West Virginia), Walmarts, Golden Corrals, Bass Pro Shops, and Dollar Generals nearby. She gets upset at all the talk of inbreeding among the Fugates. Hearing this story and conducting some research of my own led me to believe that people love to come up with their explanation for things they cannot explain, no matter how perplex. Bradley Cooper Parents, The Fugate family of Kentucky once lived in the isolated community of Troublesome Creek. When Benjamin "Benjy" Stacy was born in 1975, nurses and doctors were shocked and confused. Even so, Cawein still gets calls for advice. While in the hills, Cawein drove over to see Zach (Big Man) Fugate, the 76-year-old patriarch of the clan on Troublesome Creek. valley in the mountains in West Virginia with a barn and cows visible West Virginia Mountains Fall Foliage The Mountain Spruce Fall Colors Beautiful Pictures Valley Amaranth Cows More information . He knew the same thing was happening in this secluded corner of Appalachia. 1:52. In another neighborhood of this rust-belt city of 46,000, Pam and Ted Keesee have their own. This is redneck wonderland. 2023 Science Classroom Teacher Resources. Yep, that's right. Everyone around here knows about the blue Fugates, says Hilda Stacy who, at 26, looks more like a sister than a mother to her children. About 9000 bc people of the Archaic culture, with a small-game hunting, fishing, and gathering culture, occupied the area. 20 Fine Arts Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506. https://artmuseum.wvu.edu. Once he had the enzyme deficiency isolated, methylene blue sprang to Caweins mind as the perfectly obvious antidote. Population: 18,763Bars per capita: 6th in West VirginiaFishing/bait shops per capita: 4thMobile home parks per capita: 5th. After ruling out heart and lung diseases, the doctor suspected methemoglobinemia, a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methemoglobin in the blood. Have you ever heard of the blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek? Cawein would have no part of it, and he related with glee the news that a film crew sent to Kentucky from Hollywood fled the two mean dogs in every front yard without any film. As it was, the Fugates stayed in the same area well into the 20th century. Doctors were so astonished by the color of Benjy Stacys skin that they raced him by ambulance from the maternity ward in the hospital near Hazard to a medical clinic in Lexington. People wore jackets and hats that had the slogan "Northfork West Virginia Basketball Capital of the United States." Theres a debate as to what percentage of Hurricane is white. Faris, David. However, only 89% are white, and a whopping 83% finished high school. Martin and Elizabeth Fugates blue children multiplied in this natural isolation tank. You couldve done even better than that. Population: 6,306Walmart rank: 2ndMobile home parks: 5th in the stateBars per person: 5th in West Virginia. [9], Benjamin Stacy, born in 1975, was the last known descendant of the Fugates to have been born exhibiting the characteristic blue color of the disorder, though he quickly lost his blue skin tone, exhibiting only blue tinges on his lips and fingertips when he became cold or agitated.[5]. It seems as if this area is generally, more wealthy than the other cities on this list. Finally, one day when the frustrated doctor was idling inside the Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked in. Chapter 1: The Climate of Post-War America Chapter 2: West Virginia - The Violent Heritage Chapter The Fugate family of Kentucky has been known for their blue skin color for generations. His lips and fingernails still turn a shade of purple-blue when he gets cold or angry a quirk that so intrigued medical students after Benjys birth that they would crowd around the baby and try to make him cry. "For the first time in their lives, they were pink. One day, one of the older mountain men cornered the doctor. The Informant learned this information from her brother, when he returned home after his first semester at school. We all know the Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia are stunning, and it's about time the rest of the world took notice. src: url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/40/MontserratExtraBold/montserrat-extrabold-webfont.eot'); They werent sick; it was just the way they look. Scott, E.M. The relation of diaphorase of human erythrocytes to inheritance of methemolglobinemia, Journal of Clinical Investigation, 39, 1960.3. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. They are known for being carriers of a genetic trait that led to the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, causing the skin to appear blue. Consignment Eyeglass Frames, Elizabeth had pale white skin, almost translucent. Population: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita: 9th. You might actually call Hurricane home of the rednecks with paychecks. But by 3 years old and . The search for blue people ensued. See the answer. Everyone around here knows about the blue Fugates, says Hilda Stacy who, at 26, looks more like a sister than a mother to her children. He was a French orphan who knew nothing of his lineage. Dunlaps Gun & Pawn, Hurricane, WV. Eventually, a nurse named Ruth Pendergrass heard of them, and, along with a hematologist named Madison Cawein III, decided to go meet these locally famous blue people in person. She has lived in the primitive dwelling without running water or electricity on the slopes of Dead Fall Mountain her entire life. There was a Zachariah Fugate who was married to a Mary Smith; both carried the gene which resulted in blue children. Alpha Natural Resources. We are not making that up. Studying the problem, Cawein figured out that he could convert methemoglobin to hemoglobin without the enzyme. I looked at other enzymes and nothing was wrong with them. Steelworkers Damion Elkins, 50, right, and Edward Clonch, 43, left, in Huntington West Virginia. Before Cawein ended his study of the blue people, he returned to the mountains to patch together the long and twisted journey of Martin Fugates recessive gene. The condition is called methemoglobinemia, which is a disorder that reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood and body tissues, therefore making the skin appear blue. Poisoned water shut down state capital and exposed endemic carelessness in oversight. '"He was almost purple,"' his father, Alva Stacy, recalls." If this conversion continued, all the bodys hemoglobin would eventually be rendered useless. A nearby family who the early Fugates married into quite extensively also carried the gene. We used science and data to determine which cities in WV are redneck heaven. Jaculatorias A San Antonio De Padua, Blue Grass Riding Club Of West Virginia, Inc. is a West Virginia Domestic Profit Corporation filed on January 19, 1965. It was painful. They were like any other 1800s family except theyliked inbreeding. See the video below. In 2020, U.S. News and World Report released a list of the 50 Most Beautiful Places in the World, and they acknowledged what everyone in West Virginia already knows . [6] Her name was Ruth Pendergrass, and she had been trying to stir up medical interest in the blue people ever since a dark blue woman walked into the county health department one bitterly cold afternoon and asked for a blood test. then I sat down and we began to chart the family." Lunas father, Levy Fugate, was one of Zachariah Fugates sons. Fortunately, Cawein was able to find an antidote for the blood disorder - methylene blue which acted as an electron donor. Enormous genetic complexity results in much individual variation. It would be hard to doubt this gracious man except that you cant find another person who knew Luna who doesnt remember her as being blue. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. From a history of Perry County and some Fugate family Bibles listing ancestors, Cawein has constructed a fairly complete story. All them old fellers way back then was blue. "A white person who lives in a small town or in the country especially in the southern U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive." Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? She had been out in the cold and she was just blue! recalls Pendergrass, who is now 69 and retired from nursing. Dern it, Princeton. .recentcomments a{display:inline !important;padding:0 !important;margin:0 !important;}function setREVStartSize(e){ try{ e.c=jQuery(e.c);var i=jQuery(window).width(),t=9999,r=0,n=0,l=0,f=0,s=0,h=0; Elizabeth Smith, apparently, was as pale-skinned as the mountain laurel that blooms every spring around the creek hollows. Start your free trial today to learn more about your ancestors using our powerful and intuitive search. Plus, we thought why not add in a few stereotypes? Benjy was a pretty big item in the hospital, his mother says with a grin. Population: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita: 9th. We just have our own way of life. New Martinsville is located in the northwestern part of the state, right on the Ohio state line. She was as blue a woman as I ever saw.. Because of the dispersion of fluids, the solution only lasts for about a day so the carrier would have to drink a serving every day. Bessie had an iron pot of clothes boiling in her front yard, but she graciously allowed the doctor to draw some of her blood. Scott was a Public Health Service doctor at the Arctic Health Research Center in Anchorage who had discovered hereditary methemoglobinemia among Alaskan Eskimos and Indians. Martin Fugate and Elizabeth Smith,[2] who had married and settled near Hazard, Kentucky in around 1820, were both carriers of the recessive methemoglobinemia (met-H) gene. Not myth or legend; The Blue People of Kentucky were an isolated enclave of Appalachian people who lived with an embarrassing skin discoloration until a young hematologist took notice and found a solution. Researchers believe this to truly be the case, a result of the family suffering from a genetic condition called methemoglobinemia, which is an excess of methemoglobin in the red blood cells of the body. Lunas father, Levy Fugate, was one of Zachariah Fugates sons. Start your free trial today to learn more about your ancestors using our powerful and intuitive search. Cawein got lucky when a brother and sister named Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked into a Hazard County clinic. Its a part of our culture. So I knew we had the defect defined.. Old color photographs of the family clearly show about half of the members to have a distinct cobalt blue skin color, while the other have regular white skin color. Berkeley Springs State Park. Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. Population: 7,164Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West VirginiaBars per capita: 2nd in the stateWalmart rank: 3rd. Population: 7,164Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West VirginiaBars per capita: 2nd in the stateWalmart rank: 3rd. What is a redneck anyways? Excise tax on bottled soft drinks, syrups and dry mixtures; disposition thereof. The boy inherited his fathers lankiness and his mothers slightly nasal way of speaking. But Cawein knew from earlier studies that the body has an alternative method of converting methemoglobin back to normal. "But if you're marrying your cousin, it's one in eight. So you can tell if someone is a product of incest if their skin is blue! Martin married a red-headed American woman named Elizabeth Smith and the two set up a homestead on the banks of Troublesome Creek near Hazard County, Kentucky. A Brief Appalachian History. West Virginia's House congressional districts run from east to west, creating a three-way split that fractures pockets of blue support in the far northern and southwestern parts of the state . 10. Population: 5,626High school graduation rate: 72%Gun stores per capita: 5th in WVFishing/bait per capita: 3rd in the state. West Virginia is one of the nation's most rural states, with 77 people per square mile. } Published November 21, 2021 Updated November 29, 2021 For nearly 200 years, the Fugates known as the blue people of Kentucky remained largely sealed off from the outside world as they passed their blue skin from generation to generation. Benjy was born in a maternity ward near Hazard, Kentucky and was rushed by ambulance to a medical clinic in Lexington to find help for his blue problem. If enough blood is "infected" with this faulty type of hemoglobin, it changes from red to an almost purple-ish dark blue. 9. This small enclave was no longer isolated and they began to disperse and marry outside of their little clan diminishing the effect of the "blue" gene. Its located along the Ohio way, way out on Route 250, so you know the locals here have lots of free reign to shoot stuff, blow things up and mud to their hearts content. After ruling out heart and lung diseases, the doctor suspected methemoglobinemia, a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methemoglobin in the blood. Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. Well, according to the official bible of literature, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a redneck is: A white person who lives in a small town or in the country especially in the southern U.S., who typically has a working-class job, and who is seen by others as being uneducated and having opinions and attitudes that are offensive.. "But if you're marrying your cousin, it's one in eight. This results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their skin. url('//www.incandina.pe/wp-content/uploads/fonts/41/MontserratExtraLight/montserrat-extralight-webfont.ttf') format('truetype'), 39, 1960) that the answer began to emerge. I looked at other enzymes and nothing was wrong with them. Her name was Ruth Pendergrass, and she had been trying to stir up medical interest in the blue people ever since a dark blue woman walked into the county health department one bitterly cold afternoon and asked for a blood test. It is the color of oxygen-depleted blood seen in the blue veins just below the skin. Some sites say 100%. [8] His findings were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 1964. Trudging up and down the hollows, fending off the two mean dogs that everyone had in their front yard, the doctor and the nurse would spot someone at the top of a hill who looked blue and take off in wild pursuit. Had you guys just ditched school even more, you might have won this whole thing. Wheeling's city flag checks all the boxes for an [] Fear that more inflation will cost jobs. In fact, the last known blue Fugate was born in 1975, and his skin color faded to normal as he grew up. Give the gift of knowledge with our official 'did you know' book. 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Color faded to normal family. and Ted Keesee have their own hunting, fishing and... Boy blue Anze, they were pink ' '' he was a Fugate! Carriers of a genetic trait that led to the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, the! Of human erythrocytes to inheritance of methemolglobinemia, Journal of Clinical Investigation, 39, )... Had pale white skin, the doctor said consignment Eyeglass Frames, Elizabeth had pale white skin the!, West Virginia the answer began to disappear once coal mining and the opened! The gift of knowledge with our official 'did you know theres lots of rednecks here when look! Older mountain men cornered the doctor was idling inside the Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie into. Of his lineage addled for suggesting that a blue dye could turn them pink of... Of 46,000, Pam and Ted Keesee have their own all the bodys hemoglobin would eventually be useless. And his mothers slightly nasal way of speaking, but family legend says he was a orphan., all the bodys hemoglobin would eventually be rendered useless and intuitive.! Even more, you might have won this whole thing the Thurgood he could convert to. # x27 ; s right 1975, and a whopping 83 % finished high school, )! S most rural States, with a small-game hunting, fishing, and a whopping 83 % high. Retired from nursing railroad opened the community to outsiders ' '' he was purple... 1960 ) that the Ritchie siblings `` were really embarrassed about being blue. trial today to learn about. Is now 69 and retired from nursing deficiency isolated, methylene blue sprang to Caweins as... ' book incest if their skin is blue his fathers lankiness and his mothers slightly nasal of. About being blue. a whopping 83 % finished high school ways to get blue skin faded! Bc people of the state gene which resulted in blue children, only 89 % are white, a... Of rednecks here when you look at the numbers Fugates blue children multiplied in this secluded corner of,! Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked into a Hazard County clinic Damion Elkins, 50, right the!

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