r/SanctuaryBuilding • u/[deleted] • Aug 15 '16

Suggestion for rural location: Beattyville, Kentucky

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The Guardian's write-up on Beattyville

What industrial manufacturing was to the Rust Belt cities like Detroit, raw mineral extraction (in this case, coal) has been Appalachian cities like Beattyville - a single thing that the community has been built around, with disastrous effects when this flaw comes home to roost. Today, Beattyville is one of the poorest towns in the United States; like the rest of the region, it is subjected to ecological devastation that the coal industry continues to propagate.

An Appalachian town like Beattyville would be a good rural location, imho, because it operates at the intersection of multiple struggles that have been taking place in the region for quite some time now. First, the everyday struggle of carving out a way of life where capitalism has bottomed out; the struggle against a political system that sides against you (in this case, the capture of Kentucky's government by the coal industry), and the struggle against ecological devastation.

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u/[deleted] Aug 16 '16

Because of the history of the coal industry in the area, how arable is the land? I think a big part of this succeeding is being able to produce almost, if not completely, all of our food. If the land isn't fertile, we'll have trouble getting started and keeping going.

edit: I'm still having some trouble finding information on the fertility of the land but I did find some real estate sites listing large tracts of land in beatyville and close by.

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u/[deleted] Aug 16 '16

I think that the location of Beattyville is pretty distant from the coal ash pollution and the other problems that are associated with the mountaintop removal going on more to the east, but I'll have to look into it more. The town is on the outskirts of Daniel Boone National Forest; while hiking through some of the area just to the north east I've seen small farms.

I'm several hours away from the town, so if there any interest on this spot I can go do some on the ground research.