Back to the Land Movement

 

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Pocahontas County Back-to-the-Land

The Countercultural Reconstruction of Appalachia: The Back-to-the-Land Movement in Pocahontas County, West Virginia

Ideological Roots and Demographic Shifts in the Allegheny Highlands

During the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the rural landscapes of the United States experienced an unprecedented demographic shift, characterized by a "rural migration turnaround" that challenged decades of urban concentration1. For the first time since the inception of the national census, the population growth rate of nonmetropolitan areas outpaced that of urban centers1. In West Virginia—a state that had suffered severe population loss due to the decline of traditional coal mining and extractive industries—this phenomenon manifested as a major influx of young, urban, and predominantly middle-class migrants1. Often termed "neonatives," "homesteaders," or "alter-natives" by contemporary sociologists, these individuals sought to reject the perceived degradations of post-industrial consumerism, the rigors of corporate employment, and the political turbulence of the Vietnam War era1. Instead, they embraced a philosophy of self-sufficiency, ecological stewardship, and manual labor1.

Within this broader Appalachian migration, Pocahontas County, situated in the rugged Allegheny Highlands of southeastern West Virginia, emerged as a primary destination for back-to-the-land settlers4. The county’s extreme physical isolation, dramatic natural beauty, and the collapse of the local timber boom economy—which left vast tracts of agricultural and forest land available at depressed prices—acted as a powerful draw for these countercultural pioneers3. Between 1970 and 1973, nonmetropolitan areas in West Virginia saw a 4.5% surge in population, representing the state’s first growth spurt in over three decades and exceeding the national average of 4.2%2.

This movement was fueled heavily by countercultural media4. In 1970, Lincoln County became an early magnet for these newcomers after an article appeared in the third issue of Mother Earth News detailing how a new settler bought 79 acres of land for just $2,7004. This exposure established a direct migration pipeline, notably drawing "refugees" from the School of Living's Heathcote Mill commune in Freeland, Maryland, who were eager to escape the constant burnout of high visitor volumes and purchase individual plots of land2. From these early nodes, concentrations of back-to-the-land settlers quickly spread into the Greenbrier Valley counties of Pocahontas, Greenbrier, Summers, and Monroe4. The scale of this migration was vast enough to cause a widespread canning-lid shortage in the summer of 1975 due to massive food-preservation efforts, prompting a Federal Trade Commission investigation and drawing the attention of West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd2.

Geography, Telecommunications, and the Appeal of Enforced Isolation

The spatial characteristics of Pocahontas County played a decisive role in attracting back-to-the-land settlers and dictating the structure of their daily lives6. Bordered by the high ridges of the Allegheny Mountains and lacking any interstate highway access, the county remained one of the most sparsely populated and topographically formidable areas in the eastern United States9. This physical isolation was reinforced by a unique regulatory barrier: the United States National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000-square-mile area established to protect the highly sensitive radio telescopes at the Green Bank Observatory from electromagnetic interference9. This quiet zone strictly regulated commercial radio transmissions, creating a telecommunications vacuum that limited the penetration of standard mass media and modern consumer technologies9.

For countercultural migrants seeking an escape from corporate-industrial structures, this enforced isolation was highly desirable2. Crucially, it kept land values exceptionally low3. While land prices nationwide were escalating, prospective homesteaders could acquire substantial acreage in West Virginia for nominal sums4. This economic accessibility allowed migrants to bypass traditional financial systems, establishing independent homesteads without the burden of large commercial mortgages1. The physical geography of the region, marked by steep slopes, deep hollows, and abundant natural springs, forced settlers to adopt localized, low-impact infrastructure6. Lacking municipal water connections, homesteaders designed gravity-fed spring systems and hauled water in buckets, recycling greywater multiple times to conserve resources6.

Settlement Topography: Communes, Farmsteads, and the Heathcote Pipeline

In contrast to the back-to-the-land patterns observed in Western states, where large-scale communal living experiments were common, geography and land-ownership structures in West Virginia favored individual family homesteads3. Corporate land holdings in the southern coalfields directed the flow of agrarian migrants toward the agricultural and timbered valleys of the central and eastern counties4. Where communal arrangements did exist, they often functioned as transitional way stations rather than permanent collective structures4.

The most prominent communal experiment affecting the Pocahontas region was "The Red Hood," an influential commune initially established in Summers County before relocating to the Jacox area along the border of Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties6. The Red Hood acted as an intellectual and logistical hub, housing copies of foundational countercultural texts like The Prophet and the Moosewood Cookbook, and providing temporary shelter for newly arrived migrants who lacked the immediate means to purchase land6. Stephen Jackendoff, a former chef from Philadelphia, visited the relocated Red Hood in August 1975 while dating Nikki Coates, a former resident of the commune6. Captivated by the lifestyle, Jackendoff returned in October of that year, moving into a locust post barn at the back of the commune and using a chainsaw to cut holes in the walls for windows and a wood stove chimney pipe6.

Most settlers eventually migrated from collective communes to establish independent homesteads in remote hollows3. In the Lobelia community of southern Pocahontas County, settlers such as Beth Little and her husband Bill Huffman occupied abandoned, dilapidated structures6. They moved into an empty farmhouse dubbed "Melvie's Mansion," owned by local resident Melvin Hill, who permitted them to live there rent-free due to the extreme state of disrepair6. These settlers gradually repaired these structures, clearing overgrown pastures, planting organic gardens, and adapting to a lifestyle completely devoid of modern conveniences6.

Key Figure	Urban/Professional Origin	Settlement Location	Primary Contributions and Legacy
Barry Glick	Philadelphia, PA	Renick, Greenbrier County6	Co-founded Almost Heaven Hot Tubs; established Sunshine Farm & Gardens; global lecturer on West Virginia native plants6.
Beth Little	Los Angeles, CA	Lobelia, Pocahontas County6	Co-founded Up Top Sandwich Shop; successfully campaigned to protect the Cranberry Bogs and Falls of Hills Creek from a proposed dam6.
Stephen Jackendoff	Philadelphia, PA	Jacox area, Pocahontas/Greenbrier border6	Built homestead in a converted locust post barn; opened the Cardinal Restaurant, introducing alternative culinary models6.
Rikki Peters	San Francisco, CA	Jacox area / Lewisburg6	Baker at the Cardinal Restaurant; opened the Bakery on Court Street; introduced bagels and fresh yogurt to the local community6.
Peter Hauer	Lebanon, PA / Gettysburg, PA12	Cave Run Farm, Lobelia, Pocahontas County12	Respected speleo-historian and saltpeter expert; active member of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy; helped save Beartown and Falls of Hills Creek12.
Gibbs Kinderman	Pocahontas County / Monroe County11	Marlinton, Pocahontas County10	Worked with Appalachian Volunteers; co-founded the Pocahontas Communications Cooperative and WVMR (Allegheny Mountain Radio)11.
Michael Rosolina	Tennessee / Virginia6	Friar's Hill, Greenbrier County6	Dedicated over 30 years to public education as a local schoolteacher; operates a commercial apple orchard6.

Socio-Cultural Friction and Collaborative Symbiosis

The initial encounters between multigenerational Appalachian residents and the incoming counterculturalists were marked by mutual bewilderment and occasional suspicion1. To the socially conservative, deeply religious local population, the newcomers—with their long hair, unconventional attire, tattoos, and liberal attitudes toward gender roles and substances—represented an alien and potentially disruptive presence2. National media coverage of the "hippie" phenomenon in urban centers like San Francisco had primed rural communities to associate the youth movement with lawlessness, drug abuse, and a rejection of traditional family values2. Local editorial boards frequently warned of these cultural shifts, and some native residents initially categorized the homesteaders as lazy "draft dodgers" or "foreigners"2. Rikki Peters, who arrived in Pocahontas County in an old bread truck with her partner Chally Erb and infant daughter Deva, recalled that local residents frequently stared at her nose ring, tattoos, and long hair6.

This friction was also documented in local literature and lore2. In Glenville, festival promoter Mack Samples expressed concern that the influx of young folk enthusiasts would dilute traditional mountain culture, pointing to changes like women playing the fiddle and introducing new musical styles at the annual Mountain State Folk Festival2. In his novel Hippies and Holiness, Samples created the character Corley Malone, who voiced the skepticism of many locals, describing the back-to-the-landers as northeastern college kids dodging the war, living in abandoned shacks, and indulging in drugs2. Similarly, in Lenore McComas Coberly's The Handywoman Stories, local characters initially viewed the "hippies" moving into Wysong's Clearing as "dirty and strange"2.

Conversely, the idealistic migrants quickly discovered that their theoretical models of agrarian self-sufficiency were highly inadequate when confronted with the physical realities of the Allegheny Highlands2. Lacking basic survival skills, the newcomers frequently struggled with the fundamental mechanics of rural life6. This operational vulnerability catalyzed a transition from mutual suspicion to functional symbiosis6. Long-time Appalachian residents, possessing generations of localized agricultural knowledge, stepped in to assist the struggling newcomers2. Native neighbors taught the homesteaders how to properly chop wood, care for livestock, identify edible native plants, construct water-repellent haystacks, and preserve food through home canning6.

Institutional bridges accelerated this integration6. In Pocahontas County, the agricultural extension agent, Betty Rae Weiford, played a vital role by organizing community workshops that brought local farmwomen and countercultural homesteaders together to share gardening techniques and canning recipes6. Private commerce also fostered positive relationships6. Local merchants, such as Hale Arbuckle, who operated a mobile grocery and supply route, acted as vital lifelines6. Arbuckle accommodated the homesteaders' alternative schedules, delivered specialty items like the Sunday New York Times, extended store credit, and publicly defended the "hippies" as honest, reliable neighbors, helping to dismantle regional prejudices6.

Social Dimension	Traditional Communes (e.g., Wheeler Ranch, CA)	West Virginia Communes (e.g., The Red Hood, WV)	West Virginia Homesteads (e.g., Lobelia / Friar's Hill)
Ownership Structure	Collective land trust; open-access borders; rejection of private property5.	Shared communal lease or purchase; centralized collective structures4.	Individual private ownership or rental of abandoned farms3.
Economic Strategy	Complete withdrawal from market economy; subsistence bartering5.	Shared resources; collective vehicles; small-scale cottage industries6.	Direct participation in local labor markets; commercial organic farming3.
Local Interaction	Highly insulated; perceived as hostile or completely separate from locals5.	Moderate interaction; functioned as a transitional way station for new arrivals6.	High interaction; mutual dependency on native neighbors for survival skills1.
Infrastructure	Temporary tipis, tents, or improvised collective shelters5.	Converted agricultural buildings; shared wood heating; hauled spring water6.	Restored historical farmhouses; gravity-fed spring systems; wood heat6.

Economic, Institutional, and Cultural Integration

As the back-to-the-land movement matured, those who remained in Pocahontas County shifted their focus from subsistence farming to active participation in local civic, economic, and cultural institutions1. Leveraging their educational backgrounds and organizational experience, the "alter-natives" made significant contributions to the county’s social infrastructure1.

Economic and Culinary Transformation

The homesteaders introduced alternative economic models and transformed the local culinary landscape3. Newcomers established health food cooperatives, organic bakeries, and specialized restaurants3. Rikki Peters, a communal living veteran who migrated from San Francisco, established the Bakery on Court Street in Lewisburg, introducing items like tofu, sprouts, fresh yogurt, and bagels (which local residents initially referred to as "beagles") to the local diet6. Stephen Jackendoff opened the Cardinal Restaurant, providing employment for other settlers and introducing organic, vegetarian-friendly options to a traditionally meat-and-potatoes region6. Other migrants transitioned into sustainable agriculture, cultivating specialty crops or harvesting forest botanicals and native plants4. Barry Glick, who purchased 58 acres of land in 1972, initially cultivated medicinal herbs for urban markets before establishing Sunshine Farm & Gardens, becoming a global authority on West Virginia native flora6.

Environmental Activism

The ecologically conscious newcomers quickly organized to protect the delicate Appalachian ecosystems from industrial exploitation1. In Pocahontas County, homesteaders allied with progressive locals to oppose massive infrastructure projects and surface mining operations1. Notably, Beth Little became a leading environmental activist, spearheading successful public campaigns to protect the Falls of Hills Creek and the fragile Cranberry Bogs from a proposed dam project6. Homesteaders also joined native residents in broader regional campaigns, opposing surface mining, the construction of freeway-style highways through rural valleys, and the proposed building of high-voltage power lines across scenic stretches of Summers and Monroe counties4.

Cultural Preservation and Old-Time Music Revitalization

Rather than diluting traditional Appalachian culture, many back-to-the-landers became passionate preservationists of the region’s artistic heritage1. Newcomers immersed themselves in traditional mountain music, studying clawhammer banjo and fiddle techniques under native masters2. Musicians and scholars made numerous visits to Pocahontas County to record and preserve the unique repertoire of the legendary Hammons Family (including Lee, Sherman, Maggie, Burl, and Edden), whose ancestral music and rich storytelling reflected the early frontier life of the West Virginia wilderness16. In 1973, Carl Fleischhauer and Alan Jabbour compiled these recordings into a double album for the Library of Congress, which became a foundational text for the preservation of Appalachian music16.

This intergenerational transmission was carried forward by figures like Dwight Diller, a world-renowned clawhammer banjo player and instructor who dedicated his life to teaching the deceptively complex music of the Hammons Family17. Diller, who passed away in February 2023, inspired generations of younger musicians to pursue traditional Appalachian styles, bridging the gap between old-time legends and the influx of alternative-culture youth17. This cultural transition was also documented by native and homesteader artists alike, including panoramic photographer Doug Chadwick and his assistant Gina Marie Cruise Schrader, whose work documented the changing face of the West Virginia countryside17.

Public Media and Local Representation: The Genesis of WVMR

One of the most enduring institutional legacies of the movement was the creation of a localized public media network designed to overcome the telecommunications barriers of the Radio Quiet Zone10. In the late 1970s, Gibbs Kinderman, a countercultural activist who had worked with the Appalachian Volunteers, the West Virginia Humanities Council, and the Black Lung Association, spearheaded a community-led effort to establish a local radio station11. Kinderman and his family had moved to Pocahontas County simply because they believed it was "the most beautiful place on earth," and they quickly recognized that the extreme mountain terrain and quiet zone restrictions left the county's 9,000 residents without any local broadcast service10.

Working in cooperation with local school board officials, county commissioners, and native musicians like Richard Hefner, the Pocahontas Communications Cooperative was incorporated on April 19, 197911. To comply with the strict electromagnetic interference regulations of the Green Bank Observatory, the cooperative engineered a low-power AM station10. Radio engineer Omar Bowyer, who had previously put commercial stations on the air, designed the technical parameters to ensure the AM transmitter would not interfere with the radio telescopes11. The county commission contributed $25,000, the school board provided a 99-year land lease for $1 a year, and the Appalachian Regional Commission provided matching grants to establish the studio11.

In July 1981, WVMR (West Virginia Mountain Radio) went on the air at 1370 AM, with B.J. Sharp-Gudmundsson serving as its first general manager10. The first broadcast did not go entirely as planned; it began with Emmy Lou Harris's "Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia," after which the station's first volunteer DJ, Dunmore postmistress Annabelle Shaffner, signed on and attempted to transfer the broadcast to Reverend Henderson for a devotional11. Gibbs Kinderman subsequently took over as general manager, a position he held for decades, guiding the station's growth into a vital community anchor11.

WVMR operated on a hyper-local, volunteer-driven format with no set commercial layout, broadcasting an eclectic mix of bluegrass, gospel, classical, jazz, and traditional mountain music10. The station’s democratic structure provided a shared public square where native residents and back-to-the-landers could communicate10. The critical value of this infrastructure was demonstrated during the catastrophic regional floods of 1985 and 1996, when WVMR staff broadcasted round-the-clock to coordinate emergency rescue and relief efforts10. WVMR eventually expanded into Allegheny Mountain Radio, linking stations across West Virginia and Virginia10.

Dark Undercurrents: The Social Costs of Tragedy and Representation

Despite the cooperative successes, the encounter between the counterculture and traditional Appalachian society was punctuated by profound tragedies20. These incidents exposed persistent cultural anxieties, class divisions, and the destructive power of external representation20.

The Hauer-Smith Mystery (1975)

In June 1975, the delicate social balance of the Lobelia community was shattered by the mysterious deaths of Walter Smith, a local teenager employed at Watoga State Park, and Peter Hauer, the prominent speleo-historian and conservationist who owned Cave Run Farm22. After Smith failed to return home from work, a massive regional search conducted by state police and volunteer cavers discovered his body hidden deep within a cave under a pile of rocks on private property22. Shortly after being questioned by investigators, Hauer also disappeared22. His body was later found on a nearby mountain, and law enforcement officially ruled the case a murder-suicide, positing that Hauer had killed the teenager and subsequently taken his own life22.

However, many of Hauer’s friends, neighbors, and fellow cavers rejected the police department's narrative, pointing to a series of unexplained anomalies22. In the months leading up to the tragedy, Hauer’s farm animals—including goats and a horse—had been subjected to graphic, fatal mutilations22. Rumors of witchcraft, occult practices, and hostility toward "weird" countercultural lifestyles had circulated widely through the isolated hollows, creating a climate of intense fear and paranoia26. Friends noted that Hauer, a dedicated conservationist and gentle vegetarian, had done his laundry and made a bulk food purchase the very week he went missing, actions inconsistent with a planned suicide12. The failure of the official investigation to resolve these anomalies left a lingering cloud of suspicion, highlighting the volatile undercurrent of cultural friction that remained just beneath the surface of native-newcomer relations22.

The Rainbow Murders (1980) and the Burden of External Stereotyping

A far more public tragedy occurred on June 25, 1980, when two young women, Vicki Durian (26) and Nancy Santomero (19), were shot at close range in an isolated clearing on Droop Mountain in southern Pocahontas County20. The victims, middle-class outsiders from the Northeast, were hitchhiking to the annual Rainbow Gathering—a massive, countercultural peace festival that drew approximately 6,000 hippies to the Monongahela National Forest in nearby Webster County20. A third companion, Elizabeth Johndrow, escaped the tragedy through a chance change of travel plans20.

The "Rainbow Murders" and the subsequent thirteen-year investigation inflicted severe trauma on the local community20. Lacking physical evidence, investigators turned neighbor against neighbor, casting suspicion on a succession of local working-class men20. In 1993, a local farmer named Jacob Beard was convicted of the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment20. However, Beard was later exonerated and released after it was revealed that Joseph Paul Franklin, a notorious white supremacist serial killer who was passing through the region in 1980, had confessed to the executions21. Pocahontas County ultimately agreed to a $2 million civil settlement with Beard in 2003 for wrongful conviction21.

Throughout the long ordeal, national media coverage consistently relied on flat, classist tropes to explain the violence20. Journalists and external commentators framed the murders as a clash between enlightened, peaceful countercultural youth and violent, backward, and provincial Appalachian natives23. This sensationalized framing ignored the complex reality of Pocahontas County—where thousands of countercultural homesteaders had spent a decade peacefully integrating, intermarrying, and collaborating with their native neighbors3. The external caricature of the region as inherently dangerous and hostile to outsiders revived historical traumas associated with the exploitation of Appalachia, illustrating how the actions of a transient perpetrator could be weaponized to stigmatize an entire rural population21.

Tragedy / Conflict Event	Primary Figures Involved	Location	Local Anxieties / Rumors	Sociological & Institutional Impact
Hauer-Smith Case (June 1975)	Peter Hauer, Walter Smith, Ellen Snyder12	Cave Run Farm, Lobelia, Pocahontas County12	Witchcraft, occultism, drug use, animal mutilations, and hostility toward "weird" lifestyles22.	Persistent distrust of official police narratives; lingering trauma within the local caver community22.
Rainbow Murders (June 1980)	Vicki Durian, Nancy Santomero, Jacob Beard, Joseph Paul Franklin20	Droop Mountain, Southern Pocahontas County20	Fear of large countercultural gatherings; Secretary of State A. James Manchin's lawsuit against "derelict misfits"21.	Severe community-wide trauma; division of neighbors; national media stereotyping of Appalachian culture20.
Anti-Development Campaigns	Beth Little, local environmental coalitions6	Falls of Hills Creek, Cranberry Bogs, Summers County4	Concern over environmental destruction, industrial runoff, and loss of native habitats1.	Alignment of countercultural activists and conservative local landholders; preservation of critical ecological sites1.

Conclusion: The Synthesis of Alternative and Traditional Appalachian Lifestyles

The back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s was not a temporary invasion of Pocahontas County, but rather a transformative process that resulted in a highly integrated community structure1. While many of the original idealists eventually departed due to the extreme physical hardships of mountain farming, those who remained became pillars of local society, serving as educators, artists, local politicians, and community leaders3.

By merging their educational privilege and activist experience with the traditional survival skills and deep-seated local knowledge of native residents, these "alter-natives" helped build a model of rural resilience1. Today, the cultural, environmental, and civic landscape of Pocahontas County—from the eclectic broadcasts of Allegheny Mountain Radio to the preserved old-time music traditions and protected wild rivers—stands as a direct testament to this unique historical synthesis4.

Works cited

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