Stinking Creek: The Portrait of a Small Mountain Community

by John Fetterman

Illustrated with 43 photographs. Half works of the people in this book are named Brown. They live in Browns Hollow, the wrong side of the track in Stinking Creek, and they belong to a vanishing culture – they are Hillbillies. This is a moving, intimate look at the Kentucky Mountain people of stinking creek buy a man who got to know them By living with them and listening to them. Fetterman lets them speak for themselves, both in words and magnificent photographs he took almost every one of the books speakers. Stinking Creek is not simply a sociological study full of facts and it is also a look into the soul of a small, almost totally cut off world. We meet men like speed Sizemore, an old survivor of the mines, who is sustained by his religious beliefs - and welfare; we listen to Gilbert Bargo talk about how he'd rather die than accept welfare. Curiously among a people so poor, there is no theft and no delinquency. We meet a whole generation of young, healthy, willing people who have only the lay preacher and the welfare dispenser to turn to in their quest for an identity and a Picture future. This book is a tough and yet touching tribute to them all. It brings a vanishing region and its people to life through their talk, their attitudes, and their manners. And it is refreshingly devoid of both condescension and pity. A fresh and dramatic addition to this slim literature which exists on the mountain people, Stinking Creek is full of a sly country humor reminiscent of William Faulkner. Throughout runs Fetterman's own distrust of urban do-gooders, the questionable blessings of urban charity and his final acceptance of the Hillbillies way of "I may have never known what a hillbilly really is. But now I know who some of them are. And I fervently hope that those whom I do know along Stinking Creek find what they are seeking– and have been seeking ever since their ancestors left the debtor prisons and filthy streets of Britain."

192 pages, Hardcover

First published May 15, 1970

Reviews

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Fetterman was a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal in the 1960s and 70s. In Stinking Creek he tells the story of a holler in Knox County, KY in the year 1970, just as Johnson's War on Poverty was finding its way to Appalachia. Told mostly in the resident's own words, Fetterman captures a moment in time that, for better or worse, would soon be lost forever. This is a chronicle of the last era of the true hillbilly, a fascinating account of snakehandlers, one room schoolhouses, and herbal cures. John Fetterman's daughter Mindy later became a journalist herself and wrote an interesting update about the town of Stinking Creek for USA Today many years later. Her article can be found here: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/...

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The oral history here is invaluable, but the political ranting and raving is execrable. Like, I'm open to the idea that there's a better way to provide assistance to the region than welfare checks (which was ultimately the point Fetterman was trying to make), but comparing those welfare checks to the holocaust is not useful at best.

Fortunately, that's only a small portion of the book. The rest is full of thoughtful observation of and direct quotes from the people of Stinking Creek in the 60s.

[Erin Bentley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most realistic view of the hillbilly that I have ever seen referenced. Fetterman spent a year in Stinking Creek during the time when the Knox County Court House was established as it is today. He shows why the hillbilly is mysterious and hides away in the mountains and why inbreeding is speculated. Most importantly, he explains why and how they arrived. The writing is nothing to brag about, but the understanding that I left the book with is worthy of the 5 stars.

[Author Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives a very insightful view of life of the Appalachia community. Growing up and still living in the Appalachia area, I have seen or experienced many things that are written in this book. I think this is an amazing book and everyone should read it to learn we are not all "cut from the same cloth". Life in Appalachia definitely makes one stronger and more grateful. The photographs that accompany this book are absolutely AMAZING!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting info on the hill people of Kentucky in the late '60's. It makes me wonder what it is like today. I am going to try to do a little internet research.

[Lyndon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry Caudill, author of "Night Comes to the Cumberlands," wrote the intro to thius book. This book goes well with Caudill's book "Night Comes to the Cumberlands." While Caudill's book took a wide ranging look at Appalachia's history, economy, politics, and more, Fetterman's book looks at various members of a mountain holler community in how they lived their lives. This book goes well with Caudill's book. However, much has changed as both books were written over 50 years ago.

[Erin Bentley · Rating 5 out of 5]

By no means was it beautifully written, but it was certainly enlightening. I understand the ways of my people; because it opened my mind to what I previously didn't understand or misunderstood, and because the author endured a year of research amongst the people of Stinking Creek, I gave him five stars.

Most of those people are dead and gone, but some of them are still alive and it's neat to see that I know them.