Not myth or legend; The Blue People of Kentucky were an isolated enclave of Appalachian people who lived with an embarrassing skin discoloration until a young hematologist took notice and found a solution. Cawein cheers their bad luck not out of malice but out of a deep respect for the blue people of Troublesome Creek. It's a vote cast not just out of allegiance. However, it has the ability to change the blue hemoglobin back to a normal color, and remove the blue tone from their skin almost instantly. Incredibly, Benjy had inherited a gene dating back over 162 years! 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. 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.". Population: 5,191High school graduation rate: 70%Walmart rank: 4thDive bars and mobile home parks: 7th. But as Kentucky became more populated and more genes came into the Fugate family tree, there were far fewer children born blue. Films That People Feel Guilty for Not Seeing. Book is out of print, borrowed from Special Collections at the St. Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO. They were really embarrassed about being blue, he said. 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. Upon discovering the blue members of the Fugate family were perfectly healthy in every other way, Cawein decided to try some experiments to see if the blue color could be treated. 5 years ago when I was on a swingerparty she got pregnant with me. We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. When you click through real estate links on our site, we earn an affiliate commission. What is a redneck anyways? Tests for abnormal hemoglobin were negative. The gold of the helmet did not reflect the gold utilized in our colors today. Most of them old people went by that name the blue Fugates. Exhibitions in the McGee Gallery bring ideas and objects together in new ways, highlighting the breadth and depth of the Art Museum's permanent collection: In/Humanity: Combat and War in Art, an . The region's first coal miners primarily were African Americans, both enslaved and free. The couple had eight children, including Luna. Published. 1995-2022 Ancestral Findings, LLC. Legend has it that Martin himself may have had a blue tinge to his skin, but not the dark blue color of later Fugates. Lunas father, Levy Fugate, was one of Zachariah Fugates sons. West Virginia's House congressional districts run from east to west, creating a three-way split that fractures pockets of blue support in the far northern and southwestern parts of the state . Hearing this story and conducting some research of my own led me to believe that people love to come up with their explanation for things they cannot explain, no matter how perplex. Methemoglobinemia can also be caused by reactions to certain topical pain relievers like benzocaine and xylocaine. 7000 BC: Archaic Period in which people built basic shelters and made stone weapons and stone tools Dunlaps Gun & Pawn, Hurricane, WV. New Martinsville has the 2nd most places to buy guns, the 2nd most fishing/bait shops and several places to get chew. The odds against it were incalculable, but Martin Fugate managed to find and marry a woman who carried the same recessive gene. the blue color was gone from their skin," Cawein said. Whoo-whee, New Martinsville! Exaggeration-prone outsiders. by F. William Sunderman, J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia PA, 1964. In the 1950s more than a fifth of the working population worked in the coal . 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. Yep, thats right. By Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh Fast Facts Nickname: The Mountain State Statehood: 1863; 35th state Population (as of July, 2016): 1,831,102. In people with methemoglobinemia, the skin appears blue because the veins beneath the skin are coursing with dark blue blood. The Appalachian region of the US is a beautiful place with a rich and sometimes tragic history. Its 97% white, very blue collar, and there are lots of places to get guns, ammo and chew. 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 The solution, oddly enough, was a commonly used dye called methylene blue. It run in that generation who lived up and down Ball [Creek]., They looked like anybody else, cept they had the blue color, Stacy says, sitting in a chair in his plaid flannel shirt and suspenders, next to a cardboard box where a small black piglet, kept as a pet, is squealing for his bottle. A mutated gene causes their bodies to build up a rare form of hemoglobin called methemoglobin that can't bond with oxygen. Her name was Ruth Pendergrass, and she had been trying to stir up medical interest in the blue people ever since a dark blue woman walked into the county health department one bitterly cold afternoon and asked for a blood test. Population: 18,763Bars per capita: 6th in West VirginiaFishing/bait shops per capita: 4thMobile home parks per capita: 5th. Google Maps. Fugates married other Fugates. Some sources claim their are no blue . The search for blue people ensued. When they settled this country back then, there was no roads. Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. Have you ever heard of the blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek? she asked the doctors. The condition that made the Fugates blue causes large amounts of methemoglobin (which is a blue type of hemoglobin) to circulate in the blood. As coal mining and the railroads brought progress to Kentucky, the blue Fugates started moving out of their communities and marrying other people. Theres a debate as to what percentage of Hurricane is white. In response, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia railed against the veep, accusing him of astounding ignorance toward his own countrymen. Howd West Virginia get a reputation for inbreeding? It is home to so much creativity, and has been a place of devastating poverty. So, hold our beers and watch this. Have you ever heard of the blue people of Kentucky? The area was never entirely cut off, but many people lived in remote closed communities with little incoming or outgoing migration. Madison Cawein began hearing rumors about the blue people when he went to work at the University of Kentuckys Lexington medical clinic in 1960. Cawein, Madison and E.J. Called methaemoglobinaemia (commonly known as met-H), the condition reduces the individuals ability to carry oxygen in their blood. Born Jan. 16, 1869, in Marion County, Ephraim Franklin Morgan went on to become one of West Virginia's governors. After a 1997 survey, the boundary line between Jefferson County, West Virginia, and Loudoun County, Virginia, was declared to be the watershed line of the top of the ridge of the Blue Ridge mountains, as documented in the survey. Cut off from contact with the wider population, they married cousins, aunts and other closely related kin, which greatly increased the odds of inheriting the condition. 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. Population: 9,277High school graduation rate 73%Chew factor: 3Gun stores: 5th. Stacy courted her, married her, and moved over from Troublesome Creek to make a living in timber on her daddys land. Rattini is accused of distributing narcotic painkillers illegally to more than 200 pharmacies across West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. You might actually call Hurricane home of the rednecks with paychecks. It like to scared me to death! 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. She has lived in the primitive dwelling without running water or electricity on the slopes of Dead Fall Mountain her entire life. Research on intrafamilial marriage in such enclaves is slim. There was a Zachariah Fugate who was married to a Mary Smith; both carried the gene which resulted in blue children. Scott also concluded that the condition was inherited as a simple recessive trait. Between 1880 and 1920, southern West Virginia's population grew from 93,000 to 446,000, due almost entirely to the coal industry. Studying the problem, Cawein figured out that he could convert methemoglobin to hemoglobin without the enzyme. Legend has it that Martin himself may have had a blue tinge to his skin, but not the dark blue color of later Fugates. As a result of a coincidental meeting of recessive genes . In the Inuit communities, scientists had pinpointed the problem, a deficiency of an enzyme that converted methemoglobin to hemoglobin. 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.) Scotts Alaskans seemed to match Caweins blue people. Methemoglobin levels over 50% may result in seizures, coma, and death. 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. Her name was Ruth Pendergrass, and she had been trying to stir up medical interest in the blue people ever since a dark blue woman walked into the county health department one bitterly cold afternoon and asked for a blood test. Is there anything really wrong with being called a West Virginia redneck? We do not feel less-fortunate. One of em I remember seeing him when I was just a boy Blue Anze, they called him. Even so, Cawein still gets calls for advice. Im a hematologist, so something like that perks up my ears, Cawein says, sipping on whiskey sours and letting his mind slip back to the summer he spent tromping around the hills looking for blue people.. It was caused, Scott speculated, by an absence of the enzyme diaphorase from their red blood cells. 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. 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. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: Dave Roos 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. Typically, the blue is isolated to one part of the body. Everyone around here knows about the blue Fugates, says Hilda Stacy who, at 26, looks more like a sister than a mother to her children. For the Fugates, family members expressed the gene to varying degrees. I can see that old blue running out of my skin, he confided. He hasnt studied the condition for years. Researchers believe this to truly be the case, a result of the family suffering from a genetic condition called methemoglobinemia, which is an excess of methemoglobin in the red blood cells of the body. Population: 7,164Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West VirginiaBars per capita: 2nd in the stateWalmart rank: 3rd. 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. Oxygen, or a lack of oxygen, is what turns the blood from red to blue in people with methemoglobinemia. For the record, West Virginia has strict anti-incest laws. 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 By 1850, approximately half of Kanawha County's slaves worked in the salt industrymany mined coal to fuel the furnaces. Ballengee testified in earlier civil depositions. Generations later, a descendant of Martin Fugate, Benjy Stacy, would be born "blue". You couldve done even better than that. Despite those incredible odds, this is exactly what happened with the Fugates. We use data, analytics, and a sense of humor to determine the dirt on places across the country. The entry was on the blue men, not of West Virginia, but of the Mountain State's neighbor, Kentucky, . 1 talking about this. Population: 5,373Tobacco stores per capita: 5th in West VirginiaGun stores per capita: 2ndFishing/bait shops per capita: 2nd. 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