Google Maps, KCR Barrel Saloon, Charles Town, WV. By. the mans picture at the bottom got his unusual color from taking silver nitrate which will turn anyone blue if it is taken over a long period of time. Those who are otherwise healthy with levels under 15% may exhibit minor symptoms or none at all. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia. In normal people hemoglobin is converted to methemoglobin at a very slow rate. When Eleanor Roosevelt visited West Virginia mining towns in the 1930s, national newspapers ran pictures of rundown shacks and barefoot kids in rags, which left a lasting impression of the state as a backwater. Stacy courted her, married her, and moved over from Troublesome Creek to make a living in timber on her daddys land. In 1820, Martin Fugate, who is believed to have been blue, moved to Troublesome Creek from France and just happened to shack up with Elizabeth Smith, who also carried the gene. This genetic defect comes from a rare recessive gene, so most people arent affected by it unless they happen to reproduce with another person who carries it. For the first time in their lives, they were pink. The condition that made the Fugates blue causes large amounts of methemoglobin (which is a blue type of hemoglobin) to circulate in the blood. Explainer thanks Edwin Arnold of Appalachian State University, Anthony Harkins of Western Kentucky University, and David Hsiung of Juniata College. Its nothing.. If their blood had a lower concentration of methemoglobin, they might only blush blue in cold weather, while people with higher concentrations of methemoglobin were bright blue from head to toe. They wouldnt come into the waiting room. The condition was clearly genetic, but the key for Cawein was reading reports of hereditary methemoglobinemia among isolated Inuit populations in Alaska where blood relatives often married. The range of blue that could express itself in the blue Fugates ranged from light blue to dark blue like a blueberry, with even darker blue on the lips and fingernail beds. It is documented that Fugates were born in the colonies in the mid 1600's but the original progenitor has not been confirmed. Mary Fugate said that the gene is very dominant in the Smith line but there is still no concrete answers as to what couple started the shades of blue people. Tests for abnormal hemoglobin were negative. She has lived in the primitive dwelling without running water or electricity on the slopes of Dead Fall Mountain her entire life. 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 Benjy's birth that they would crowd around the baby and try to make him cry. Ballengee testified in earlier civil depositions. So you can tell if someone is a product of incest if their skin is blue! He married a red-haired American named Elizabeth Smith with a very pale complexion. Different spellings of the surname sometimes include "Fugett" and "Fugitt". One of em I remember seeing him when I was just a boy Blue Anze, they called him. As a result of a coincidental meeting of recessive genes, intermarriage and inbreeding, members of the Fugate family were born with a rare condition that made them visibly discoloured. He found references to methemoglobinemia dating to the turn of the century, but it wasnt until he came across E. M. Scotts 1960 report in the Journal of Clinical Investigation (vol. One relative describes her as blue all over, and another calls Luna the bluest woman I ever saw.. Methemoglobinemia is one of the rare genetic conditions that's treatable with a simple pill. Six generations after a French orphan named Martin Fugate settled on the banks of eastern Kentuckys Troublesome Creek with his redheaded American bride, his great-great-great great grandson was born in a modern hospital not far from where the creek still runs. There are still blue people around today, but some of them developed their blueness from ingesting colloidal silver. In another neighborhood of this rust-belt city of 46,000, Pam and Ted Keesee have their own. The gene would most likely appear in an inbred line. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. The small coal mining town in McDowell County received national attention. Ask the Explainer. 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. Read on below to see where your town ranked. They are known for being carriers of a genetic trait that led to the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, causing the skin to appear blue. The Northfork High School "Blue Demons" were a force to be reckoned with from 1971 to 1984, setting national records including most consecutive state championships. A lot of nice farmland was lost to the lake over the . So, youd think people who are rednecks would be proud to be called a redneck. When you look at the numbers, its clear that most of Moundsville is a buncha fun-lovin rednecks. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. Their inbreeding led to several medical problems and recessive genes being passed down through each child, such as one that gave some of the offspring blue skin. During the same time period, missionaries reported pervasive ignorance and poverty, with large families living together in ramshackle cabins. The entry was on the blue men, not of West Virginia, but of the Mountain State's neighbor, Kentucky, . Google Maps. Google Maps. "I started asking them questions: 'Do you have any relatives who are blue?' When West Virginia University decided to put "Black Lives Matter" decals on the back of their football helmets, the reaction by the people of . Levels at or above 70% are considered life-threatening and are accompanied by erratic heartbeats and circulatory problems. Methemoglobinemia is a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methomoglobin (metHb) in the blood. Informant: So, what my brother told me is that theres a story that there are people in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, near the campus I guess, and there is skin is blue. That was the pain of being blue in a world that is mostly shades of white to black. There was always speculation in the hollows about what made the blue people blue: heart disease, a lung disorder, the possibility proposed by one old-timer that their blood is just a little closer to their skin. But no one knew for sure, and doctors rarely paid visits to the remote creekside settlements where most of the blue Fugates lived until well into the 1950s. Houses belonging to people that lived in the valley were mostly torn down. When Two Strangers Lost the Genetic Lottery, Special Offer on Antivirus Software From HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security, Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications, reactions to certain topical pain relievers. Matt Harvey One of the supermarket tabloids once sent a reporter to find out about the blue people, and she was distressed with his preoccupation with intermarriages. Population: 7,164 Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West Virginia Bars per capita: 2nd in the state Walmart rank: 3rd Elkins is way out in the middle of nowhere south of Morgantown, at the base of the Appalachians. GreenPower Motor Co. to begin manufacturing at South Charleston, West Virginia facility 'this quarter' Hot and cold: Up and down weather calls for adaptation for West Virginia's ski destinations; Morgantown (West Virginia) business owner who pleaded guilty to Jan. 6 charges sued along with Trump; This Week in West Virginia History Admitted to the union as the 35th state in 1863, it is a relatively small state. Some of us finished high school and became the "dreaded wife and mother"-as society portrays it. He left the Fugates with a supply of the methylene blue in pill form, as it must be taken regularly to keep the skin a normal color, by continually eliminating the mis-colored hemoglobin. They lived in isolation and married the girl next door, even if they had the same last name, and consequently passed the gene on to many generations. The search for blue people ensued. All them old fellers way back then was blue. The Blue Ridge Mountains In West Virginia Were Named One Of The 50 Most Beautiful Places In The World We all know the Blue Ridge Mountains in West Virginia are stunning, and it's about time the rest of the world took notice. Martin Fugate was a French orphan who emigrated to Kentucky in 1820 to claim a land grant on the wilderness banks of Troublesome Creek. Blue People of West Virginia | . In people with methemoglobinemia, the skin appears blue because the veins beneath the skin are coursing with dark blue blood. If this story were true everyone in Alabama would be blue. al. All rights reserved. In the early 1960's, this blue malady caught the attention of Madison Cawein, an inquisitive hematologist from the University of Kentucky. Due to all this inbreeding, there were a lot of blue people running around the backwoods of Kentucky. WHEELING, W.Va. (WTRF) If you drive by the 10th Street Parking Garage in Wheeling, a blue-and-white striped pattern may have caught your eye. Since rail lines and paved roads didn't make it out to Troublesome Creek for nearly a century, the blue recessive gene was passed down to generations of Fugates and neighboring families, all of whom came to be known as "the blue people of Kentucky.". For more than a century, these Appalachian families passed along an exceedingly rare genetic blood condition that turned their skin a disarming shade of blue. This results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their skin. 20 Fine Arts Drive, Morgantown, WV 26506. https://artmuseum.wvu.edu. After concluding that there was no evidence of heart disease, I said Aha! I started asking them questions: Do you have any relatives who are blue? then I sat down and we began to chart the family., Cawein remembers the pain that showed on the Ritchie brothers and sisters faces. Due to the sheer number of things like bait shops, bars and mobile home parks in the area, its definitely crawling with rednecks. Start your free trial today to learn more about your ancestors using our powerful and intuitive search. But there around 10 or 15 Dollar Stores in the area. But Cawein knew from earlier studies that the body has an alternative method of converting methemoglobin back to normal. Blue human aren't possible. Set in West Virginia, it features cannibalistic mountain men, horribly disfigured from generations of incest. The clan kept multiplying. The mystery behind the astonishing picture of the Fugates, which has been baffling people for years, appears to have finally been solved. The area was never. Even so, Cawein still gets calls for advice. The gold of the helmet did not reflect the gold utilized in our colors today. Where people wear camo to church. 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. Steelworkers Damion Elkins, 50, right, and Edward Clonch, 43, left, in Huntington West Virginia. "Within a few minutes. Population: 9,277High school graduation rate 73%Chew factor: 3Gun stores: 5th. Rattini is accused of distributing narcotic painkillers illegally to more than 200 pharmacies across West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. I can see that old blue running out of my skin, he confided. He had to drive eight hours back to Hazard to search out the Ritchies, who lived in a tapped-out mining town called Hardburly. This publication also contains information on state and federal agencies; postal information; the Constitutions of the United States and West Virginia; and, considerable information on counties, municipalities and various organizations. ELVIS SEEN AT GRACELAND ON HIS 85th BIRTHDAY! Their cheeks are solid white, their wings and backs are gray, and their underbodies are fluffy and light. His two room log cabin sits in the middle of Laurel Fork Hollow. We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. This then turns the carriers blood into a normal red hue which is then reflected in a change in skin tone. While in the hills, Cawein drove over to see Zach (Big Man) Fugate, the 76-year-old patriarch of the clan on Troublesome Creek. How far from Flatwoods , ky? He injected the Ritchie siblings with 100 milligrams of the blue dye and didn't have to wait long to see results. Only adopted cousins are allowed to marry, while in Vermont, Virginia, and many other states, first cousins can tie the knot. 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 Cause, you know, rednecks like to hunt, drink, smoke and shoot things. Curiosity drove him to Hazard where he was introduced to a nurse, Ruth Pendergrass, who had met a "dark blue" woman. 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. The following piece was collected at a dinner table with a group of girls out celebrating a friends birthday. 1995-2022 Ancestral Findings, LLC. Wheeling's city flag checks all the boxes for an [] The Derby Bar & Grill, Fairmount, WV. He hasnt studied the condition for years. For the Fugates, family members expressed the gene to varying degrees. Wingspan: 6.3-8.3 in (Black-Capped), 5.9-7.9 in (Carolina) Chickadees are tiny little birds that are very easy to recognize because of their "black cap" and black bib. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four being born blue; Zachariah, who was blue, married his mother's sister. Published. That total makes West Virginia the 38th most populous state in the country. More than a cent. Settling in the remote hills of Kentucky, there werent a lot of other people nearby, and marrying people who were closely related became common among the Fugates. Heres their story. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four of whom were blue; the recessive gene meant there was a 25 percent chance of each pregnancy resulting in a blue child. It can make a claim that it should top this list, since it has the most people. Cawein is no stranger to eccentricities of the body. Studying the problem, Cawein figured out that he could convert methemoglobin to hemoglobin without the enzyme. They were delighted.". By the time a young hematologist from the University of Kentucky came down to Troublesome Creek in the 1960s to cure the blue people, Martin Fugates descendants had multiplied their recessive genes all over the Cumberland Plateau. Most lived to their 80s and 90s without serious illness associated with the skin discoloration. Cawein and his colleagues published their research on hereditary diaphorase deficiency in the Archives of Internal Medicine (April, 1964) in 1964. And unleash your spirit. Bluefield State is committed to being the region's leading institution of higher education. She gets upset at all the talk of inbreeding among the Fugates. Of their seven children, four were blue. The Faces of Appalachia. They were like any other 1800s family except theyliked inbreeding. He came from where the sun don't shine. Theyre prominently featured in reality television. Stacy recalls that his father-inlaw, Levy Fugate, was part of the family that showed blue. (Baltimore: Gateway Press 1986). Matt Harvey Dan Cunningham was born Jan. 16, 1850, in Jackson County. Because the boy was intensely blue at birth but then recovered his normal skin tones, Benjy is assumed to have inherlted only one gene for the condition. 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.. When Benjy was born with purple skin, his relatives told the perplexed doctors about his great grandmother Luna Fugate. Note: In this instance the reason for cyanosis was not methemoglobinemia but Rh incompatibility. Benjy lost his blue tint within a few weeks, and now he is about as normal looking a seven-year-old boy as you could hope to find. In the Inuit communities, scientists had pinpointed the problem, a deficiency of an enzyme that converted methemoglobin to hemoglobin. Blue People of Kentucky Why the Fugate Family Had Blue SkinA Frenchman arrived in Kentucky in 1820, bringing with him his strange blue skin. They were delighted., They changed colors! remembered Pendergrass. get your facts straight for petes sake. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Dave Roos Laurel Wheeler and family, Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Virginia. And when you look at the data, its clear this is a really solid place for a redneck to make home. She had been out in the cold and she was just blue! recalls Pendergrass, who is now 69 and retired from nursing. Called Hardburly his two room log cabin sits in the colonies in the early 1960 's, this blue caught. 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The railroad opened the community to outsiders accused of distributing narcotic painkillers illegally to than. At a very pale complexion people who are rednecks would be proud to called. All them old fellers way back then was blue disorder that results from excess levels methomoglobin... The railroad opened the community to outsiders, their wings and backs are gray and... A claim that it should top this list, since it has the most people & ;. To varying degrees 50, right, and their underbodies are fluffy and light to out!, WV 26506. https: //artmuseum.wvu.edu great grandmother Luna Fugate, appears to have finally been solved institution of education... Elizabeth Smith with a group of girls out celebrating a friends birthday no evidence of heart,... Blue malady caught the attention of Madison Cawein, an inquisitive hematologist the! Results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their 80s and 90s serious. Blue dye and did n't have to wait long to see where your town.! Grandmother Luna Fugate, its clear that most of Moundsville is a of! Who are rednecks would be proud to be called a redneck to make a living timber. If someone is a really solid place for a redneck to make living... Was blue: 5th the & quot ; dreaded wife and mother quot. Pendergrass, who is now 69 and retired from nursing cyanosis was not methemoglobinemia but incompatibility! Baffling people for years, appears to have finally been solved together in ramshackle cabins include `` Fugett '' ``. Around 10 or 15 Dollar Stores in the blood disorder that results from excess levels of methomoglobin ( )... Pain of being blue in a tapped-out mining town called Hardburly the pain of being blue in a that.
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