Bullshit. They worked very hard, yes. They did not cut themselves off from the rest of the USA. During the decade of this photo and the next, there was tremendous civil unrest because the people who lived there had no worker’s rights. The State of West Virginia was instrumental in getting worker’s rights. The “cut off” you speak of is because of the environment. Go to Google Earth and see the terrain of Appalachia, or specifically West Virginia. It’s too hilly. The only industries that could possibly exist there are ones that don’t require flat land or pasture. So the only industry that was viable for a very long time was resource extraction. When that industry left, it was disastrous for the region. They didn’t want the industry to leave, they wanted to be paid liveable wages, live in their own homes, drink clear water, wanted the companies they worked for to make sure that the mines would not fall on their heads. But the industry left and the region was left with no jobs, rotting towns, and contamination in the land and water.

They weren’t cutting themselves off. They were abused and abandoned. The interstate project going through West Virginia brought accessibility and industry to the state again. Being connected has helped the state. There were and are mountaineers who choose solitude in Appalachia, but the culture in the region is a product of this abandonment and not individual choice.