The Mountain Traditions Project

On a spring day in April, Park ranger Caroline Blizzard leads a group of people to a hillside in Western Maryland to hunt for ramps – a type of wild onion native to the Appalachian region.

On a beautiful spring morning, Andrea Lay gathers herbs growing at her home, Hidden Hollow Farm, near Keyser, West Virginia. Lay sells many of those herbs at her shop, The Nettle Patch, in Frostburg, Maryland.

Katie Ross and her husband Otto are a both teachers by profession who honed their storytelling skills as members of the West Virginia Storytelling Guild. Often they perform together, with Katie telling the story and Otto providing music and comic relief. They are relative newcomers to Appalachia, yet they see that the history and richness of the region is due in large part to its melding of cultures and stories.

Jason Twigg is a Mount Savage native and thru-hiker who has completed the Triple Crown: 3 epic hikes in the U.S. that include the Pacific Crest Trail, the Continental Divide Trail and the Appalachian Trail. On a hike along Big Savage Mountain in Garrett County, Maryland, Jason talks about his love for long-distance hiking and why he keeps doing it.

Reverend Frankie Revell is not only a state champion banjo player but also makes one-of-a-kind stringed instruments from discarded materials. He then sells them to raise money for local people to take driver's education classes so they can commute to work. At his home in LaVale, Maryland, Revell talks about the history and future of the banjo, and how he himself comes from a long line of banjo players.

Ben and Hana Yoder began Savage River Farm in the village of Pocahontas, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, less than ten years ago. While also raising two young children, the Yoders have achieved a successful farming venture, raising various kinds of livestock, vegetables, mushrooms – and running a local CSA program. They talk about the challenges of farming, but also their passion for small-scale agriculture in the region.

A native of Frostburg, Maryland, Mark Bowling learned to climb with his best friend in high school. Since then, he's climbed all over the world, and has worked as a climbing guide in Moab, Utah, and Joshua Tree National Park in California. While bouldering at Cooper's Rock State Forest in West Virginia, Bowling talks about the solitary pursuit of climbing as well as the greater climbing community.

Father and daughter Pete Hobbie and Dakota Karper are part of a group of musicians who play together at the Cabin in Hampshire County, West Virginia. They talk about old-time music, how they started playing, and the music genre's future.

At Tom Dodd's home along the South Branch of the Potomac River in Greenspring, West Virginia, he and his friend JP Roby hold their annual cider-pressing party.

Neal Peterson is a plant geneticist who has been breeding pawpaw trees for over 45 years, and has come up with seven varieties of his own. At his home in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, Peterson says the pawpaw is the largest edible fruit native to North America, but it has never been cultivated so you won't find it in grocery stores.