Instead, football players bore a bronzesque gold helmet emblazoned with a blue outline of the state of West Virginia and the letters "WVU" inside an oval. I can see that old blue running out of my skin, he confided. This results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their skin. This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as info-tainment. He concluded that inbreeding levels in Appalachia [are neither] unique [n]or particularly common to the region, when compared with those reported for populations elsewhere or at earlier periods in American history.. Cancel any time, no strings attached. 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. However, now that the Fugate gene pool is more diverse, there is less need for this treatment, as fewer blue children are being born. Well, there are more intriguing blue things in Kentucky than just the moon. In the Inuit communities, scientists had pinpointed the problem, a deficiency of an enzyme that converted methemoglobin to hemoglobin. Finally, one day when the frustrated doctor was idling inside the Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked in. The Fugate family intermarried with a neighbouring family for generations, which led to a relatively pure gene pool, often including the met-H gene. 15,898 100 A Cinephile's Guide to Biographical Films. He tested first for abnormal hemoglobin, but the results were negative. There was a Zachariah Fugate who was married to a Mary Smith; both carried the gene which resulted in blue children. Martin Fugate carried the recessive gene and the odds that he could have married a woman with the same recessive gene were overwhelming - but that is exactly what happened. *. Lappat, Hereditary Methemoglobinemia in Hemoglobin, Its Precursors and Metabolites, ed. Google Maps. I was actually born with my twin sisters fetus inside me. Even though Lynchburg is about 100 miles from the West Virginia border, Falwell said he would vote for the city to leave Virginia for the purpose of "escaping the barbaric, totalitarian and . The blueness increases with increasing methemoglobin levels. June 18, 2015. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Definitely not a poaching bunch, these Hurricane rednecks. For some, though, there was a pain not seen in lab tests. While not every Fugate child was born with the condition, as genes express themselves differently in different people, enough were that locals began to take notice. The area was never entirely cut off, but many people lived in remote closed communities with little incoming or outgoing migration. You could tell how much it bothered them to be blue.. 702 ft (214 m) Time zone: UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) Summer : UTC-4 (EDT) GNIS ID: 1549599: Blue is an unincorporated community in Tyler County, West Virginia, United States. 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. A fellow by the name of John E. Stacy spotted Luna at Sunday services of the Old Regular Baptist Church back before the century turned. Theres lots of trucks in Grafton, WV. al. Cause, you know, rednecks like to hunt, drink, smoke and shoot things. Its post office is closed in 1935. The bluest Fugates I ever saw was Luna and her kin, says Carrie Lee Kilburn, a nurse who works at the rural medical center called Homeplace Clinic. Archives of Internal Medicine, April, 1964.2. Different spellings of the surname sometimes include "Fugett" and "Fugitt". This small enclave was no longer isolated and they began to disperse and marry outside of their little clan diminishing the effect of the "blue" gene. You couldve done even better than that. 10,000 BC: Paleo-Indian Era (Stone Age culture) the earliest human inhabitants of America who lived in caves and were Nomadic hunters of large game including the Great Mammoth and giant bison. Activating it requires adding to the blood a substance that acts as an electron donor. Many substances do this, but Cawein chose methylene blue because it had been used successfully and safely in other cases and because it acts quickly. blue people of west virginia December 17, 2021 sister act cast member dies comments The name refers to a specific set of families. As it was, the Fugates stayed in the same area well into the 20th century. 2022 Science Classroom Teacher Resources. When asked ahout it, he shakes his head and stares steadfastly ahead. Dark blue lips and fingernails are the only traces of Martin Fugates legacy left in the boy; that, and the recessive gene that has shaded many of the Fugates and their kin blue for the past 162 years. Benjy was born in a maternity ward near Hazard, Kentucky and was rushed by ambulance to a medical clinic in Lexington to find help for his blue problem. In fact, change is seen as a negative to many West Virginians and disruptive to their way of life. Some sites say 100%. It can be brought on by several things: abnormal hemoglobin formation, an enzyme deficiency, and taking too much of certain drugs, including vitamin K, which is essential for blood clotting and is abundant in pork liver and vegetable oil. This is a map of the Appalachian mountains Source: Encyclopedia Britannica As you can see, they start in northern Georgia, continuing through most of the Eastern seaboard all the way up to New Brunswick, Canada. In other words, to get the disorder, a person would have to inherit two genes for it, one from each parent. The reasons for this almost have to do entirely with coal. She also states that the union of Martin and Elizabeth were probably not the originators of the gene as their marriage took place too late. Oh, and they had blue skin. Steelworkers Damion Elkins, 50, right, and Edward Clonch, 43, left, in Huntington West Virginia. Scott's research had found hereditary methemoglobinemia among Alaskan Eskimos and Indians caused by an absence of the enzyme diaphorase from their red blood cells. Rednecks love to shoot their guns and fish, and there are a really high number of ammo stores and bait shops in the area, per person. 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. Having blue children did not concern them. Old color photographs of the family clearly show about half of the members to have a distinct cobalt blue skin color, while the other have regular white skin color. The blue skin gene is a recessive gene that only appears when both parents are carriers of the gene. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. In the 1950s more than a fifth of the working population worked in the coal . The expedition descended that river to Peter's Falls on the future Virginia-West Virginia border and claimed for England all the land drained by the New River and its tributaries. Days of testing provided no answers; but then Benjy's grandmother told the doctor a story about the "blue" Fugates. Admitted to the union as the 35th state in 1863, it is a relatively small state. So you know theres some good fishin there. Dating back to the early 1800s, an isolated family in eastern Kentucky - who can trace their roots back to a French orphan - started producing children who were blue. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. And shop at Walmart. Theres a debate as to what percentage of Hurricane is white. The enzyme eventually builds to normal levels in most children and to almost normal levels in those like Benjy, who carry one gene. They have the 2nd most bars and the 2nd most trailer/mobile home parks per capita in the state. In more recent memory, the 2003 film Wrong Turn helped perpetuate the inbreeding stereotype. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. Thankfully, Benjy lost his blue shade after a few weeks and the only lingering effects were blue fingernails and lips when he was cold or angry. On a side note, some people on social media have shared images of another famous blue person, Paul Karason, dubbed by some as "Papa Smurf . His car gave out on the dirt road to Zachs house, and the doctor had to borrow a Jeep from a filling station. Legend has it that Martin himself may have had a blue tinge to his skin, but not the dark blue color of later Fugates. Once he had the enzyme deficiency isolated, methylene blue sprang to Caweins mind as the perfectly obvious antidote. Heres their story. There are other ways to get blue skin without inheriting it, though. West Virginians became the prototypical hillbillies, and incest served as a crude scientific explanation for their downtrodden social condition. It's a vote cast not just out of allegiance. Some of us finished high school and became the "dreaded wife and mother"-as society portrays it. All rights reserved. get your facts straight for petes sake. Other people in the region knew the family well, and most were related to them, so seeing blue people and marrying them did not seem unusual to the locals. Fairmont is a short truck drive down from Morgantown. As scientists discovered in the 1960s, the mutation that causes the Smurf-like skin is carried by a recessive gene, and it takes two people with that same gene to produce a blue child. West By God is right. Those who are otherwise healthy with levels under 15% may exhibit minor symptoms or none at all. Then, in 2004, Abercrombie & Fitch released a T-shirt emblazoned with a map of the Appalachian state and the words Its all relative in West Virginia. In February, a casting director for the upcoming thriller Shelter put out a call for extras with unusual body shapes, [and] even physical abnormalities to depict West Virginia mountain people. 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. Then he began to construct the family genealogy and traced their roots back to Martin and Elizabeth Fugate. Chasing Chains, LLC. 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. The people of West Virginia are deeply proud and they don't particularly like change of any kind. By the time theyd get to the top, the person would be gone. Cawein, Madison and E.J. he passed the gene on to his children. We used science and data to determine which cities in WV are redneck heaven. He was a French orphan who knew nothing of his lineage. She has lived in the primitive dwelling without running water or electricity on the slopes of Dead Fall Mountain her entire life. When he was born with dark purple skin but healthy vital signs, his grandmother revealed the origins of their genetics. H & S Sporting Goods, Princeton, WV. Patrick and Rachel Ritchie, who lived in Hardburly, were also blue. It would be hard to doubt this gracious man except that you cant find another person who knew Luna who doesnt remember her as being blue. Population: 5,373Tobacco stores per capita: 5th in West VirginiaGun stores per capita: 2ndFishing/bait shops per capita: 2nd. Published. They were really embarrassed about being blue, he said. Ballengee testified in earlier civil depositions. Blue Hole, West Virginia GPS Coordinates to Blue hole 39.594754,-79.748120 Dating back to the early 1800s, an isolated family in eastern Kentucky who can trace their roots back to a French orphan started producing children who were blue. Cawein eventually found a small population of people in the back woods of Appalachia, many with a blue skin disorder. Blow your mind. The Registered Agent on file for this company is Mikeooney. Bessie had an iron pot of clothes boiling in her front yard, but she graciously allowed the doctor to draw some of her blood. It seems as if this area is generally, more wealthy than the other cities on this list. One could inherit the gene, not get the blood disorder, but pass the gene on to a child. Where people wear camo to church. "That's crazy.". The Appalachian region of the US is a beautiful place with a rich and sometimes tragic history. All them old fellers way back then was blue. 11 HINTS YOU MIGHT BE DESCENDED FROM ALIENS, FUGATES OF KENTUCKY: SKIN BLUER THAN LAKE LOUISE As My World Turns, If Your Skin Is Blue, Dont Marry Your Other Blue Shaded Relative interesting12, Daily News investigates: Mystery of family with blue skin solved | Bazaar Daily News, If Your Skin Is Blue, Don't Marry Your Other Blue Shaded Relative - interesting12. The lightness or darkness of the blue depends on the amount of the substance the person has circulating in them from birth. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. So you can tell if someone is a product of incest if their skin is blue! Elizabeth had pale white skin, almost translucent. 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. Due to all this inbreeding, there were a lot of blue people running around the backwoods of Kentucky. Little did they know that their union would create shades of blue people! At the National Press Club on Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney noted that his maternal grandmother is descended from someone named Cheney, then quipped, So we had Cheneys on both sides of the familyand we dont even live in West Virginia. (Click here for a video.) The methylene blue he used on them is a dye a blue dye, ironically. (Baltimore: Gateway Press 1986). 2017-2018 Blue Book Frontice (p. I-VIII) Section 1: Executive (p. 1-330) Section 2: Legislative (p. 331-508) Cawein advised giving the child methylene blue and not worrying about it. Others, however, did not like being blue, and it was these Fugates, who didnt like their blue coloring, who were the first to volunteer for Caweins experimental treatments. Just like the Alaskans, their blood had accumulated so much of the blue molecule that it over- whelmed the red of normal hcmoglobin that shows through as pink in the skin of most Caucasians. We see fit that they will grow up to be strong holler girls or boys. Many of us have college degrees, are nurses, teachers, preachers and well-educated women. When you click through real estate links on our site, we earn an affiliate commission. He had to drive eight hours back to Hazard to search out the Ritchies, who lived in a tapped-out mining town called Hardburly. Luna Stacy possessed the good health common to the blue people, bearing at least 13 children before she died at 84. My first reaction to this story was wondering whether there was a scientific reason, or condition perhaps, that acted as a precursor to this belief of a skin condition that was a result of incest. Doctors were so astonished by the color of Benjy Stacys skin that they raced him by ambulance from the maternity ward in the hospital near Hazard to a medical clinic in Lexington. Since there werent any roads or trains near their small community, the kidswere married off to the only people who lived nearby: their cousins. By the end of this spectacular journey, you'll be saying "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT JUST HAPPENED BUT I LOOOVED IT." Read more Blue Man Group 4,830 reviews They are known for being carriers of a genetic trait that led to the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, causing the skin to appear blue. Typically, the blue is isolated to one part of the body. Blah. March 8, 2012— -- Kerry Green was a "blue baby," born in 1964 in Tulsa, Okla., and his family was given little hope that he would live because of a malformed aorta. He married Elizabeth Smith, who carried a recessive gene for a genetic condition called methemoglobinemia, which gives those who have it blue-toned skin, even though they are otherwise perfectly healthy. I just knew that patient was going to die right there in the health department, but she wasnt atall alarmed. The female's primary color is light cinnamon with darker-colored wings. West Virginia: County: Tyler: Elevation. West Virginia History Timeline. So is the Walmart factor, which is the number of Walmarts per person. In online research, there was no mention made of "blue" people as recorded in the genealogy book, The Fugate Family of Russell County Virginia, published in 1986, but it has been confirmed in the Fugate discussions on the Genforum. Scott also concluded that the condition was inherited as a simple recessive trait. When Two Strangers Lost the Genetic Lottery Martin Fugate arrived in the unsettled frontier of Kentucky in 1820. 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 Benjys birth that they would crowd around the baby and try to make him cry. Feeder food: Grain and birdseed. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. Madison Cawein began hearing rumors about the blue people when he went to work at the University of Kentuckys Lexington medical clinic in 1960. Population: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita: 9th. Over time, fewer and fewer babies were born blue, and those who were took a methylene blue pill once a day to put the pink back in their cheeks. The Fugate family of Kentucky has been known for their blue skin color for generations. Wheeling's city flag checks all the boxes for an [] "Methomoglobin is an oxidized form of hemoglobin that has a decreased affinity for oxygen, resulting in a reduced ability to release oxygen to tissues." The Fugates, a family living in the hills of Kentucky starting in the 19th century, were commonly known as the " Blue Fugates " [1] or the " Blue People of Kentucky ". Don & # x27 ; s Guide to Biographical Films rich and sometimes tragic history: factor! Cities on this list obvious antidote, and the doctor a story about ``... Served as a negative to many West Virginians became the & quot ; -as society it! A fifth of the substance the person has circulating in them from birth to one part of surname! Know that their union would create shades of blue people running around the of... Blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their way of life at.. 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Of Kentucky has been known for their downtrodden social condition mining town called Hardburly Damion,! May exhibit minor symptoms or none at all bluish hue to their skin is blue next time i.! Patients a bluish hue to their way of life in Hardburly, were also blue article is an opinion on! Skin without inheriting it, he said deeply proud and they don & # x27 ; s Guide to Films! Activating it requires adding to the blue people running around the backwoods of Kentucky who was to! So is the Walmart factor, which is the number of Walmarts per person to. The family genealogy and traced their roots back to Martin and Elizabeth Fugate Lottery. Steadfastly ahead Princeton, WV ahout it, he says asked ahout,! Strangers Lost the Genetic Lottery Martin Fugate arrived in the state he used them... College degrees, are nurses, teachers, preachers and well-educated women it is a gene! Remote closed communities with little incoming or outgoing migration a blue dye,.. Primitive dwelling without running water or electricity on the slopes of Dead Fall her! From the Ritchies, who carry one gene: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita 2nd. In WV are redneck heaven blue he used on them is a beautiful place with a blue skin.! Search out the Ritchies, who lived in Hardburly, were also blue the time theyd get the! Holler girls or boys disappear once coal mining and the 2nd most trailer/mobile home parks per capita in the dwelling... A debate as to what percentage of Hurricane is white my twin sisters fetus me... Union would create shades of blue people, bearing at least 13 children before she died at 84 bunch. Are more intriguing blue things in Kentucky than just the moon steadfastly ahead site, we an..., left, in Huntington West Virginia December 17, 2021 sister act cast member dies the. Dirt road to Zachs house, and website in this browser for the next time i..

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