by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 10:00 AM ET, Wed January 3, 2018
Known across the nation for its struggles in the face of a dying coal industry, Appalachia is now seeking to reinvent itself as a tourism destination rich in history and ecotourism opportunities.
In locations throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia, this growing industry offers such things as wildlife experiences, and history tours showcasing the local labor movement, country music and more.
For a region where many residents have watched coal, timber, clay and oil-and-gas-extraction all go from boom to bust, a tourism-based economy represents a glimmer of hope for the future, one that's already paying dividends in certain locations, according to the Associated Press.
In Nelsonville, Ohio for instance, the remnants of the region's booming coal mining era, such as opera houses, speakeasies and railroad depots, are all being preserved and included in new tours.
Meanwhile, the Corbin, Kentucky-based Appalachian Wildlife Foundation is busy creating an ecology education site on what was the state's first mountaintop removal coal mine.
"Capitalizing on the wildlife of the region for conservation, based on our work, turned into a tourist attraction," board Chairman Frank Allen told the Associated Press.
The wildlife center now being planned includes elk, deer, bear and nearly 300 species of birds. It is slated to open in 2019, all while mining operations continue nearby.
What's more, an economic impact report projects that the former mine land will attract about 638,000 visitors a year and bring in about $124 million in annual spending after about five years in business. The attraction is also expected to create about 2,300 jobs, the Associated Press reported.
"The mining has created phenomenal elk habitat. Elk are, by nature, prairie animals, and the grassland habitat that's created when the coal mines are restored is very conducive to the elk," Allen said. "It's kind of the ultimate irony: The 'evil' mountaintop removal process and, all of a sudden, it's created the ideal habitat for wildlife."
Virginia is perhaps the furthest along in its efforts to create a tourism economy in places left behind by disappearing and dying industries. Reports from this area show that the new economy is attracting not only jobs, and tourists but also new residents.
According to the Associated Press, arts, entertainment, and recreation-related fields added more than 5,000 jobs from 2000 through 2014.
"We've lost many, many more jobs to coal losses than we've attracted," Todd Christensen, executive director of the Southwest Virginia Cultural Heritage Foundation said. "But what we're also finding is that communities that have embraced the creative economy have seen an influx of 25- to 34-year old college-educated people moving in."
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