Cawein would drive back and forth between Lexington and Hazard an eight-hour ordeal before the tollway was built and scour the hills looking for the blue people hed heard rumors about. Its post office is closed in 1935. In 1980, a counter-intuitive solution was discovered where the blue person drinks a chemical-filled solution that is itself blue. 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. Then he began to construct the family genealogy and traced their roots back to Martin and Elizabeth Fugate. In 2019, the percentage of foreign-born citizens in West Virginia was 1.66%, meaning that the rate has been decreasing. Blue People of West Virginia | . The company's filing status is listed as Revoked (Failure To File Annual Report) and its File Number is 45369. The American Heart Association had a clinic in Hazard, and it was there that Cawein met a great big nurse who offered to help. Mary (Dawley) Fugate, who answers quite a few queries and also helped compile the genealogy book, indicates that the siblings of Martin Fugate were not blue but he must have been a carrier. The Fugate family intermarried with a neighbouring family for generations, which led to a relatively pure gene pool, often including the met-H gene. The gold of the helmet did not reflect the gold utilized in our colors today. (Martian Survivors). For the Fugates, family members expressed the gene to varying degrees. H & S Sporting Goods, Princeton, WV. 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. When they settled this country back then, there was no roads. 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. Blue People of Kentucky Why the Fugate Family Had Blue SkinA Frenchman arrived in Kentucky in 1820, bringing with him his strange blue skin. However, only 89% are white, and a whopping 83% finished high school. 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 . Book is out of print, borrowed from Special Collections at the St. Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO. Appearance: Blue grosbeaks are medium birds about 8 long, large, bright blue, with large silver bills, and chestnut wingbars. It's true that, through the 19 th century, transportation networks developed slowly in the rugged, westernmost portion of Virginia (incorporated as West Virginia in 1863). Cancel any time, no strings attached. This is redneck wonderland. Genetic Causes When you click through real estate links on our site, we earn an affiliate commission. It is the color of oxygen-depleted blood seen in the blue veins just below the skin. Eventually, a nurse named Ruth Pendergrass heard of them, and, along with a hematologist named Madison Cawein III, decided to go meet these locally famous blue people in person. Its a part of our culture. by F. William Sunderman, J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia PA, 1964. While the substance isnt harmful, large amounts of it will tint any tissue that has blood flowing to it a blue color. Meghan. I just knew that patient was going to die right there in the health department, but she wasnt atall alarmed. Answer (1 of 3): Depends on what you mean by blue. Population: 7,164 Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West Virginia Bars per capita: 2nd in the state Walmart rank: 3rd Elkins is way out in the middle of nowhere south of Morgantown, at the base of the Appalachians. They were really embarrassed about being blue, he said. Set in West Virginia, it features cannibalistic mountain men, horribly disfigured from generations of incest. If youre curious enough, here are the least redneck places in West Virginia (if thats even possible): We aim to deliver infotainment about where you live that your real estate agent won't tell you. the blue color was gone from their skin, the doctor said. It is home to so much creativity, and has been a place of devastating poverty. They were real, and they really were blue, thanks to a recessive genetic condition. Luna Stacy possessed the good health common to the blue people, bearing at least 13 children before she died at 84. The marriage of one of their blue boys, Zachariah, to his mothers sister triggered the line of succession that would result in the birth, more than 100 years later, of Benjy Stacy. Methemoglobin which is blue, is a nonfunctional form of the red hemoglobin that carries oxygen. My grandmother Luna on my dads side was a blue Fugate. Finally, one day when the frustrated doctor was idling inside the Hazard clinic, Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked in. The blood disorder is inherited as a simple recessive trait - meaning that to get the disorder, a person would have to inherit two genes, one from each parent. 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 . His two room log cabin sits in the middle of Laurel Fork Hollow. Zach took the doctor even farther up Copperhead Hollow to see his Aunt Bessie Fugate, who was blue. "There is a clan of partly-colored people in Barbour County often called Guineas, under the erroneous presumption that they are Guinea negroes," observed WV historian Hu Maxwell in the 1890s. But by 3 years old and . One day, one of the older mountain men cornered the doctor. She had been out in the cold and she was just blue! recalls Pendergrass, who is now 69 and retired from nursing. "For the first time in their lives, they were pink. Stacy courted her, married her, and moved over from Troublesome Creek to make a living in timber on her daddys land. The inbreeding caused the recessive gene to appear in both parents. Where people wear camo to church. One of the supermarket tabloids once sent a reporter to find out about the blue people, and she was distressed with his preoccupation with intermarriages. 2 It seems as if this area is generally, more wealthy than the other cities on this list. He had to drive eight hours back to Hazard to search out the Ritchies, who lived in a tapped-out mining town called Hardburly. Google Maps. Settling in the remote hills of Kentucky, there werent a lot of other people nearby, and marrying people who were closely related became common among the Fugates. When Two Strangers Lost the Genetic Lottery, Special Offer on Antivirus Software From HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security, Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications, reactions to certain topical pain relievers. Some sites say 100%. The region's first coal miners primarily were African Americans, both enslaved and free. That five-star symbol is the same as the one on the Friendly City flagwhich is drawing approval well outside of West Virginia. The couple had eight children, including Luna. In 1820, Martin Fugate, who is believed to have been blue, moved to Troublesome Creek from France and just happened to shack up with Elizabeth Smith, who also carried the gene. He married a red-haired American named Elizabeth Smith who had a very pale complexion and their union formed a genetic mutation that resulted in their descendants being born with blue skin. Yes, West Virginia is among the poorest if not the poorest state in the union as well as one of the most uneducated and least economically developed. 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. Chapter 1: The Climate of Post-War America Chapter 2: West Virginia - The Violent Heritage Chapter 3: Political Maneuvering Chapter 4: The Creative Act of 1919 Chapter 5: Getting Organized PART II Chapter 6: The Mine Wars, 1919-1929 Chapter 7: Depression and Recovery, 1929-1939 Chapter 8: War Service, 1939-1949 The railroad didnt come through eastern Kentucky until the coal mines were developed around 1912, and it took another 30 or 40 years to lay down roads along the local creeks. Most lived to their 80s and 90s without serious illness associated with the skin discoloration. The famous painting of the blue Fugates is not based on an actual family photograph, but was a composite illustration created by artist Walt Spitzmiller for a 1982 magazine article. Scotts Alaskans seemed to match Caweins blue people. Regardless, this place might be the whitest, redneckest of them all. Add to calendar. yes, saw that years ago, colloidal silver, damn asshole medias, just state facts, you can prove., thanks for this honest reply. The Blue Ridge was reached in 1670, and in 1671 another expedition encountered the first westward-flowing stream, the New River, in southwestern Virginia. Soon, the Fugates became known as the Blue Fugates of Kentucky. He came from where the sun don't shine. They were delighted., They changed colors! remembered Pendergrass. On a hypothesis, he gave a substance called methylene blue to family members who were willing to take it. Stumped, the doctor turned to the medical literature for a clue. He tested first for abnormal hemoglobin, but the results were negative. 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.". The Fugate familys condition caused the blue members to be missing that enzyme; because their methemoglobin couldnt be converted, large amounts of it built up in the blue Fugates, even before birth, causing a very obvious blue tone to their skin. Dont freak out. type to search . The entry was on the blue men, not of West Virginia, but of the Mountain State's neighbor, Kentucky, . Theyre prominently featured in reality television. Curiosity drove him to Hazard where he was introduced to a nurse, Ruth Pendergrass, who had met a "dark blue" woman. Some of us finished high school and became the "dreaded wife and mother"-as society portrays it. Martin Fugate, who was orphaned as a child in France, began the American Fugate clan. They lived in isolation and married the girl next door, even if they had the same last name, and consequently passed the gene on to many generations. Its nothing.. West Virginia had just one carrier in its exchange in 2015 - Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield - although the carrier only offered 12 plans in 2014, and bumped that up to 14 in 2015. According to the official dictionary definition of a redneck, and based on stereotypes that the internet says are true, using science to determine the most redneck cities in a state cant be too far off. Give the gift of knowledge with our official 'did you know' book. Due to all this inbreeding, there were a lot of blue people running around the backwoods of Kentucky. Within a few minutes. As it was, the Fugates stayed in the same area well into the 20th century. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. At last they were free of their "blue" shade and were no longer embarrassed. What is a redneck anyways? "But if you're marrying your cousin, it's one in eight. He injected the Ritchie siblings with 100 milligrams of the blue dye and didn't have to wait long to see results. Google Maps. The methaemoglobinaemia condition, or met-H, reduces someones ability to carry oxygen in the blood, leaving it darker than the colour typically found in veins. Cawein and his colleagues published their research on hereditary diaphorase deficiency in the Archives of Internal Medicine (April, 1964) in 1964. Art Museum of West Virginia University, McGee Gallery View map. The family was first discovered in 1958 when one of the blue men, Luke Combs, who was a descendant of another branch of the Fugate family, took his white wife to the University of Kentucky Hospital and doctors paid more attention to him than his wife. "They were bluer'n hell," said Cawein in a 1982 interview with Science 82. Population: 18,763Bars per capita: 6th in West VirginiaFishing/bait shops per capita: 4thMobile home parks per capita: 5th. The strain of inherited blue began to disappear as the recessive gene spread to families where it was unlikely to be paired with a similar gene. Population: 9,277High school graduation rate 73%Chew factor: 3Gun stores: 5th. Studying the problem, Cawein figured out that he could convert methemoglobin to hemoglobin without the enzyme. Eventually, the recessive gene began to disappear once coal mining and the railroad opened the community to outsiders. Folklore maintained the Fugates were blue due to heart disease or lung problems. These people arent related to the Fugates: Also fake. Have you ever heard of the blue people of Kentucky? 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. They took the doctor to see their uncle, who was blue, too. Having blue children did not concern them. the blue color was gone from their skin," Cawein said. They wouldnt come into the waiting room. Well, as you can imagine, I really examined them. Dern it, Princeton. The Fugate family of Kentucky once lived in the isolated community of Troublesome Creek. Because of the dispersion of fluids, the solution only lasts for about a day so the carrier would have to drink a serving every day. 2,999 100 . It was caused, Scott speculated, by an absence of the enzyme diaphorase from their red blood cells. I'm going to assume that by blu. One came from a blue Flugate whod joined the Army and been sent to Panama, where his son was born bright blue. Aside from the stark discoloration of the carriers skin, there are no serious problems associated with the disease. In other words, to get the disorder, a person would have to inherit two genes for it, one from each parent. Despite those incredible odds, this is exactly what happened with the Fugates. There was a Zachariah Fugate who was married to a Mary Smith; both carried the gene which resulted in blue children. Google Maps. 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.. Hilda Stacy (nee Godsey) is fiercely protective of her son. there is no "blue-soloution" that turns them back to a "normal" color. His car gave out on the dirt road to Zachs house, and the doctor had to borrow a Jeep from a filling station. Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company. History Timeline of the Native Indians of West Virginia. Rattini is accused of distributing narcotic painkillers illegally to more than 200 pharmacies across West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. 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. Matt Harvey Dan Cunningham was born Jan. 16, 1850, in Jackson County. 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. We see fit that they will grow up to be strong holler girls or boys. For the first time in their lives, they were pink. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. So you can tell if someone is a product of incest if their skin is blue! 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. Days of testing provided no answers; but then Benjy's grandmother told the doctor a story about the "blue" Fugates. By. In most people, there is an enzyme present called diaphorase that converts methemoglobin back into a usable form of hemoglobin. Typically, the blue is isolated to one part of the body. He was born in the 1970s in a maternity ward of Hazard, Kentucky. He recounted how, after hearing the story for the first time, he and his roommates would make a show of continuously checking to see if their other friends lips or skin ever looked blue. Population: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita: 9th. Patrick and Rachel Ritchie, who lived in Hardburly, were also blue. Because the Fugate family lived in such an isolated part of the Kentucky, they intermarried with a neighboring family for generations which led to a relatively pure gene pool where the met-H gene appeared much more frequently. Martin and Elizabeth set up housekeeping on the banks of Troublesome and began a family. And by God, they didnt have the enzyme diaphorase. Six generations after a French orphan named Martin Fugate settled on the banks of eastern Kentuckys Troublesome Creek with his redheaded American bride, his great-great-great great grandson was born in a modern hospital not far from where the creek still runs. They sing in the Stacy Family Gospel Band and have provided their children with a beautiful home and a menagerie of pets, including horses. The boy inherited his fathers lankiness and his mothers slightly nasal way of speaking. Elizabeth had pale white skin, almost translucent. Using Yelp and Google Maps, this is the criteria we used: Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a citys border, as well as within a short driving distance. Why can colloidal silver turn your skin blue? Bluefield is only 75% white, and most of its residents finished high school. 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 . Blue skin. Laughing, the Informant launched into a story of the West Virginia Blue People, a story about a genetic condition the resulted from intermarriage. Inbreeding in eastern Kentucky has been turning offspring blue since the early 1880s. Blue Man Group will rock your world. West Virginia, constituent state of the United States of America. The enzyme eventually builds to normal levels in most children and to almost normal levels in those like Benjy, who carry one gene. 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. Methemoglobinemia can also be caused by reactions to certain topical pain relievers like benzocaine and xylocaine. Stacys son has built a modern house next door, but the old logger wont hear of leaving the cabin he built with timber he personally cut and hewed for Luna and their 13 children. Explainer thanks Edwin Arnold of Appalachian State University, Anthony Harkins of Western Kentucky University, and David Hsiung of Juniata College. Blow your mind. Blood is also likely to be a chocolate brown color instead of bright red in patients with methemoglobinemia. The number of tobacco stores per capita (we call it the chew factor) is the highest in West Virginia here in Charles Town. 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. June 18, 2015. Cawein needed fresh blood to do an enzyme assay. the mans picture at the bottom got his unusual color from taking silver nitrate which will turn anyone blue if it is taken over a long period of time. With Fugate blood on both his mothers and his fathers side, the boy could have received genes for the enzyme deficiency from either direction. There are still blue people around today, but some of them developed their blueness from ingesting colloidal silver. 1980, a counter-intuitive solution was discovered where the blue Ridge Mountains a. 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