Little Blue Run in Chester West Virginia is gone 8/8/2004: The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes about Little Blue Run: Dangerous disposal, by Alyson Walls . Benjy was a pretty big item in the hospital, his mother says with a grin. 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. The Informant learned this information from her brother, when he returned home after his first semester at school. ( Returnto the corrected sentence.). The West Virginia motto is Montani semper liberi, and the state is one of the most mountainous in the country; sometimes it is called the "little Switzerland" of America, and once I heard an irreverent local citizen call it the "Afghanistan of the United States."The precipitous upland nature of the terrain makes naturally for three things: (1) poor communications; (2) fierce sectionalism; (3 . These people arent related to the Fugates: Also fake. Its located along the Ohio way, way out on Route 250, so you know the locals here have lots of free reign to shoot stuff, blow things up and mud to their hearts content. Dr. Cawein injected the dye into the volunteers, and they were amazed to see how quickly their skin changed from blue to a healthy pink, then gradually to a Caucasian white. Laurel Wheeler and family, Buena Vista, Rockbridge County, Virginia. By 1850, approximately half of Kanawha County's slaves worked in the salt industrymany mined coal to fuel the furnaces. The 2010 survey revealed that there were 1,852,994 people living in West Virginia, which represented a modest rise of just 2.5% on the numbers declared at the 2000 census. But there around 10 or 15 Dollar Stores in the area. It wasn't always this way. Its common. In the isolated hollows of rural Kentucky, they were known as the blue Fugates and the blue Combses. All lived in isolation from the world, bunched in log cabins up and down the hollows, and so it was only natural that a boy married the girl next door, even if she had the same last name. Oh, and they had blue skin. 15,898 100 A Cinephile's Guide to Biographical Films. Additional comment actions. Like this guy: Most of the Blue Fugates died off, hopefully because they decided to give the incest a rest for a while, and so its not often that one runs into a blue person on the street anymore. He injected the Ritchie siblings with 100 milligrams of the blue dye and didn't have to wait long to see results. 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. Their offspring, often marrying each other, then brought two copies of the recessive gene into the family line, making it much more likely to express itself in their children. 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. Have you ever heard of the blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek? she asked the doctors. Even so, Cawein still gets calls for advice. What he got from Martin Fugate was dark blue skin. 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. As the story goes, Martin Fugate, a French orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentucky's Troublesome Creek around 1820 to claim a land grant. Some of the blue people thought the doctor was slightly addled for suggesting that a blue dye could turn them pink. They wouldnt come into the waiting room. It like to scared me to death! While the substance isn't harmful, large amounts of it will tint any tissue that has blood flowing to it a blue color. There are even video games about rednecks. And shop at Walmart. When they settled this country back then, there was no roads. In the 1880s and 1890s, writers such as Mary Noailles Murfree and John Fox Jr. traveled across Appalachia, looking for local color, and overstated the degree to which mountain populations lived in isolation. The blue skin gene is a recessive gene that only appears when both parents are carriers of the gene. In 2019, the percentage of foreign-born citizens in West Virginia was 1.66%, meaning that the rate has been decreasing. As it was, the Fugates stayed in the same area well into the 20th century. Methemoglobinemia is a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methomoglobin (metHb) in the blood. Cawein, in researching the family lines in Perry County, Kentucky and with the help of Fugate Family Bibles, found in fact, that the Fugates had married Fugates, had married first cousins, and had intermarried with families whose surnames were: Combs, Smith, Ritchie, and Stacy. Bessie had an iron pot of clothes boiling in her front yard, but she graciously allowed the doctor to draw some of her blood. Cawein, Madison and E.J. Google Maps. 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. astounding ignorance toward his own countrymen, [are neither] unique [n]or particularly common to the region. Called methaemoglobinaemia (commonly known as met-H), the condition reduces the individuals ability to carry oxygen in their blood. The antidote worked quickly but patients were required to take daily doses as it passed quickly through the urine. 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. The odds against it were incalculable, but Martin Fugate managed to find and marry a woman who carried the same recessive gene. You might actually call Hurricane home of the rednecks with paychecks. The only real picture is of a man who turned himself blue by eating silver. February 16, 2012 by Tap Vann. 2022 Science Classroom Teacher Resources. It was caused, Scott speculated, by an absence of the enzyme diaphorase from their red blood cells. History Timeline of the Native Indians of West Virginia. Two days of tests produced no explanation for skin the color of a bruised plum. The risk skyrockets if you're sharing blood.". So is the Walmart factor, which is the number of Walmarts per person. Funding was made available through a $75 million facilities bond, $25 million in private donations through the Mountaineer Athletic Club and $6 million from West Virginia's multimedia rights contract with IMG. 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 If enough blood is "infected" with this faulty type of hemoglobin, it changes from red to an almost purple-ish dark blue. Population: 7,164Mobile home parks per capita: 2nd in West VirginiaBars per capita: 2nd in the stateWalmart rank: 3rd. Woodburn Hall at West Virginia University in Morgantown (old gold and blue are the official University colors); photo by Swimmerguy269 on Wikipedia (use permitted with attribution / share alike). References She and her husband Alva have a strong sense of family. All them old fellers way back then was blue. The clinic doctors only saw her a few times in her life and never for anything serious. This brief history has been gleaned from old family records, correspondence with other members, and histories of Ritchie, Barbour, Harrison and Randolph Counties, West Virginia. Fortunately, Cawein was able to find an antidote for the blood disorder - methylene blue which acted as an electron donor. 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 . 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. Why can colloidal silver turn your skin blue? Lives in the south or midwest (or West Virginia), Walmarts, Golden Corrals, Bass Pro Shops, and Dollar Generals nearby. Google Maps. Typically, the blue is isolated to one part of the body. The boy inherited his fathers lankiness and his mothers slightly nasal way of speaking. 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: 5,258Walmart rank: 1stChew factor: 1stAmmo per capita: 9th. Scott also concluded that the condition was inherited as a simple recessive trait. Of their seven children, four were reported to be blue. Blue human aren't possible. Methemoglobinemia is a blood condition, not a skin condition. 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.. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. The Fugate family intermarried with a neighbouring family for generations, which led to a relatively pure gene pool, often including the met-H gene. If the blue people did have methemoglobinemia, the next step was to find out the cause. This results in brown blood giving Caucasian patients a bluish hue to their skin. The small coal mining town in McDowell County received national attention. Madison Cawein began hearing rumors about the blue people when he went to work at the University of Kentuckys Lexington medical clinic in 1960. Blue Grass Riding Club Of West Virginia, Inc. is a West Virginia Domestic Profit Corporation filed on January 19, 1965. 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 ". "For the first time in their lives, they were pink. Wheeling's city flag checks all the boxes for an [] (Martian Survivors). What neither she nor Martin could have known is that they both carried the recessive gene for a rare hereditary blood disorder called methemoglobinemia. Its blue, and their people have always had blue skin because of all the intermarrying and incest. Book is out of print, borrowed from Special Collections at the St. Louis County Library, St. Louis, MO. The area was never. Cawein drew lots of blood from the Ritchies and hurried back to his lab. One of the girls, the Informant, was discussing an upcoming trip to visit her brother at West Virginia University. What Happened to the Blue People? "She had been out in the cold and she was just blue!" recalls Pendergrass, who is now 69 and retired from nursing. Benjy lost his blue tint within a few weeks, and now he is about as normal looking a seven-year-old boy as you could hope to find. 1 talking about this. 8 November 2021. It is the color of oxygen-depleted blood seen in the blue veins just below the skin. This is redneck wonderland. Cawein and his colleagues published their research on hereditary diaphorase deficiency in the Archives of Internal Medicine (April, 1964) in 1964. *. They were really embarrassed about being blue, he said. Normally diaphorase converts methemoglobin back to hemoglobin. They were like any other 1800s family except theyliked inbreeding. Blue People of Kentucky Why the Fugate Family Had Blue SkinA Frenchman arrived in Kentucky in 1820, bringing with him his strange blue skin. If their blood had a lower concentration of methemoglobin, they might only blush blue in cold weather, while people with higher concentrations of methemoglobin were bright blue from head to toe. The range of blue that could express itself in the blue Fugates ranged from light blue to dark blue like a blueberry, with even darker blue on the lips and fingernail beds. The search for blue people ensued. The condition is called methemoglobinemia, which is a disorder that reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood and body tissues, therefore making the skin appear 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. "I started asking them questions: 'Do you have any relatives who are blue?' My grandmother Luna on my dads side was a blue Fugate. Methemoglobin which is blue, is a nonfunctional form of the red hemoglobin that carries oxygen. Still, what a crazy world we live in. Population: 6,306Walmart rank: 2ndMobile home parks: 5th in the stateBars per person: 5th in West Virginia. H & S Sporting Goods, Princeton, WV. If theyd immigrated to other areas, even other areas of Kentucky, they likely would have married non-relatives, and the condition would have faded out of the family long before it did. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Informant: "So, what my brother told me is that there's a story that there are people in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia, near the campus I guess, and there is skin is blue. 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. It is bordered by Pennsylvania to the north, Maryland and Virginia to the east, Kentucky to the southwest, and Ohio to the northwest. 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. It has nothing to do with melanin, the amino acid that gives people darker skin tones. 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. Correction, June 9, 2008: The article originally stated that a handful of states allow marriages between first cousins. Major Occupational Groups in West Virginia ( Note --clicking a link will scroll the page to the occupational group): 00-0000 All Occupations 11-0000 Management Occupations 13-0000 Business and Financial Operations Occupations 15-0000 Computer and Mathematical Occupations 17-0000 Architecture and Engineering Occupations If the condition were inherited as a recessive trait, it would appear most often in an inbred line. The Fugate family of Kentucky once lived in the isolated community of Troublesome Creek. The Blue People of Kentucky were first diagnosed with methemoglobinemia in the 1960s by Dr. Madison Cawein, a noted hematologist. Somebody with only one gene would not have the condition but could pass the gene to a child. During the same time period, missionaries reported pervasive ignorance and poverty, with large families living together in ramshackle cabins. 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. As a bonus, theres a Golden Corral, several Dollar Stores and many Waffle Houses in the area. Soon, the Fugates became known as the Blue Fugates of Kentucky. Princeton is located down on I-77, before you make the climb into Virginia. In 1980, a counter-intuitive solution was discovered where the blue person drinks a chemical-filled solution that is itself blue. The Fugate family didnt leave the area for generations, continually intermarrying with relatives. He hasnt studied the condition for years. The Fugate family of Kentucky has been known for their blue skin color for generations. The reasons for this almost have to do entirely with coal. One of them even married his own aunt, and most of them had a lot of children who also married their cousins. See the video below. Wait. Got a question about todays news? The inbreeding caused the recessive gene to appear in both parents. It is home to so much creativity, and has been a place of devastating poverty. But Cawein knew from earlier studies that the body has an alternative method of converting methemoglobin back to normal. Had you guys just ditched school even more, you might have won this whole thing. 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. 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. For the record, West Virginia has strict anti-incest laws. Cawein got lucky when a brother and sister named Patrick and Rachel Ritchie walked into a Hazard County clinic. When you click through real estate links on our site, we earn an affiliate commission. I was actually born with my twin sisters fetus inside me. Google Maps. There are other ways to get blue skin without inheriting it, though. He was involved as a law enforcement officer in the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, the West Virginia Mine Wars and the destruction of moonshine stills. Most of the Fugates didnt seem to mind being blue. 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. Once he had the enzyme deficiency isolated, methylene blue sprang to Caweins mind as the perfectly obvious antidote. When asked ahout it, he shakes his head and stares steadfastly ahead. "They were bluer'n hell," said Cawein in a 1982 interview with Science 82. After concluding that there was no evidence of heart disease, I said Aha! I started asking them questions: Do you have any relatives who are blue? then I sat down and we began to chart the family., Cawein remembers the pain that showed on the Ritchie brothers and sisters faces. 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 . People wore jackets and hats that had the slogan "Northfork West Virginia Basketball Capital of the United States." I just knew that patient was going to die right there in the health department, but she wasnt atall alarmed. The afflicted were embarrassed about their condition and adamant about talking to Cawein. 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). Blah. by Cathy TrostScience82, November, 1982. Is there anything really wrong with being called a West Virginia redneck? Elkins is way out in the middle of nowhere south of Morgantown, at the base of the Appalachians. The notion of widespread inbreeding was at least in part the result of crude assumptions about how these isolated forest people might have been perpetuating their communities. The good news for those who may still be born expressing the blue gene is that there is a treatment. He knew the same thing was happening in this secluded corner of Appalachia. by F. William Sunderman, J.B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia PA, 1964. Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. Cawein, Madison, et. Habitat: Thick shrubbery and areas with tall trees. Population: 10,486Mobile home parks in area: 3rd in WVBars per capita: 3rdGun stores per capita: 5th in West Virginia. But as Kentucky became more populated and more genes came into the Fugate family tree, there were far fewer children born blue. 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 . Well, as you can imagine, I really examined them. Its 97% white, very blue collar, and there are lots of places to get guns, ammo and chew. 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. No mention of his skin color is made in the early histories of the area, but family lore has it that Martin himself was blue. Martin Fugate arrived in the unsettled frontier of Kentucky in 1820. One could inherit the gene, not get the blood disorder, but pass the gene on to a child. Patrick was all hunched down in the hall. 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. The Appalachian region of the US is a beautiful place with a rich and sometimes tragic history. He married a red-haired American named Elizabeth Smith with a very pale complexion. Cancel any time, no strings attached. Where is this area located in eastern KY? 3 of 10 isnt good enough; think of how high you wouldve finished on this list had more of you ditched class to head to the hills on Friday mornings like a lot of your friends. This information supplied by John Graves whose uncle was the father of the child. As coal mining and the railroads brought progress to Kentucky, the blue Fugates started moving out of their communities and marrying other people. From California herself, the informant was very curious to hear about what the people of West Virginia were like. Have you ever heard the song, Blue Moon of Kentucky? Its pretty well-known and popular. The doctors finally came to the conclusion that Benjys color was due to blood inherited from generations back.. 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. That iron atom binds with oxygen, which is how red blood cells circulate oxygen throughout the body. The gene would most likely appear in an inbred line. The doctor gave each blue family a supply of methylene blue tablets to take as a daily pill. However, the disorder didn't seem to cause any special health problems. 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. It is almost certain that Martin was a descendant of the Fugate family of Russell County, Virginia and probably of French origin. 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. The lightness or darkness of the blue depends on the amount of the substance the person has circulating in them from birth. She was a sister to one of the Fugate women. About this same time, another of the blue Combses, named Luke, had taken his sick wife up to the clinic at Lexington. In the early 1960's, this blue malady caught the attention of Madison Cawein, an inquisitive hematologist from the University of Kentucky. 5,600 views made by Rocco. Embarrassed by their bluish hue, the families retreated even further from society, which only exacerbated the problem. For some, though, there was a pain not seen in lab tests. She had been out in the cold and she was just blue! recalls Pendergrass, who is now 69 and retired from nursing. 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 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. They were real, and they really were blue, thanks to a recessive genetic condition. When Two Strangers Lost the Genetic Lottery Martin Fugate arrived in the unsettled frontier of Kentucky in 1820. 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. The blueness increases with increasing methemoglobin levels. Theyre prominently featured in reality television. Excise tax on bottled soft drinks, syrups and dry mixtures; disposition thereof. Benjamin Stacy was the last of the Fugate family members to have blue skin and lived a healthy life. West Virginia: County: Tyler: Elevation. The people of West Virginia are deeply proud and they don't particularly like change of any kind. Have you ever heard of the blue people of Kentucky? The ZTF scans the entire Northern sky . She was as blue a woman as I ever saw.. It began whenMartin Fugate, aFrench orphan, settled on the banks of eastern Kentuckys Troublesome Creek to claim a land grant in the early 19th century. What is a redneck anyways? If this conversion continued, all the bodys hemoglobin would eventually be rendered useless. Luke was just as blue as Lake Louise on a cool summer day, doctor Charles H. Behlen II told the Tri-City Herald in 1974. Rattini is accused of distributing narcotic painkillers illegally to more than 200 pharmacies across West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee. They have the 2nd most bars and the 2nd most trailer/mobile home parks per capita in the state. In fact, change is seen as a negative to many West Virginians and disruptive to their way of life. 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. When West Virginia University decided to put "Black Lives Matter" decals on the back of their football helmets, the reaction by the people of . 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. Faris, David. The region's first coal miners primarily were African Americans, both enslaved and free. The drugs effects are temporary, as methylene blue is normally excreted in the urine. A new playing surface, FieldTurf Revolution 2.5, was installed in 2016, giving West Virginia one of the country's safest and most . Theyre normal people theyre good people. In 2014, the lowest-cost bronze plan in the WV exchange was an average of $280/month, higher than the national average of $249. 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 New Martinsville has the 2nd most places to buy guns, the 2nd most fishing/bait shops and several places to get chew. Cawein would have no part of it, and he related with glee the news that a film crew sent to Kentucky from Hollywood fled the two mean dogs in every front yard without any film. He came from where the sun don't shine. Sit back, relax, and read the amazing but true genetic tale of the Blue People of Kentucky. Regardless, this place might be the whitest, redneckest of them all. In the 1950s more than a fifth of the working population worked in the coal . 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. Google Maps. This then turns the carriers blood into a normal red hue which is then reflected in a change in skin tone. She gets upset at all the talk of inbreeding among the Fugates. There was a Zachariah Fugate who was married to a Mary Smith; both carried the gene which resulted in blue children. Its post office is closed in 1935. The Fugate family intermarried with a neighbouring family for generations, which led to a relatively pure gene pool, often including the met-H gene. But as Kentucky became more populated and more genes came into the Fugate family tree, there were far fewer children born blue. When you look at the numbers, its clear that most of Moundsville is a buncha fun-lovin rednecks. We use data, analytics, and a sense of humor to determine the dirt on places across the country. Martin and Elizabeth had seven children, four of whom were "bright blue" according to Fugate family lore. 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. 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. The gold of the helmet did not reflect the gold utilized in our colors today. John Stacy still lives on Lick Branch of Ball Creek. He was a French orphan who knew nothing of his lineage. Patrick and Rachel Ritchie, who lived in Hardburly, were also blue. RoadSnacks is reader-supported. Of their seven children, four were blue. In another neighborhood of this rust-belt city of 46,000, Pam and Ted Keesee have their own. Google Maps. The only thing Stacy cant or wont remember is that his wife Luna was blue. Besides the number of bars, mobile home parks and places to buy shotguns, its at the base of the hills, where you know the deer and turkey probably walk right into town. Most lived to their 80s and 90s without serious illness associated with the skin discoloration. Luna was bluish all over. The last known "blue" Fugate descendant was born in 1975. Dennis 4 Comments. Written family records do not indicate Martin's skin color, but family legend says he was blue. It was real bad in her, Alva Stacy, the boys father, explained. They were bluern hell, Cawein says. Add to calendar. Methemoglobin levels over 50% may result in seizures, coma, and death. They are known for being carriers of a genetic trait that led to the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, causing the skin to appear blue. Many is more accurate since the practice is legal, or legal under certain circumstances, in more than 20 states. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. We see fit that they will grow up to be strong holler girls or boys. You have the most bars and trailer parks per capita in the state, and your high school graduation rate is 70%. He was born in the 1970s in a maternity ward of Hazard, Kentucky. Google Maps, Cowboy Up Bar, Bluefield, WV. And they married the people who lived closest to them, the Combses, Smiths, Ritchies, and Stacys. The number of tobacco stores per capita (we call it the chew factor) is the highest in West Virginia here in Charles Town. Fairmont is a short truck drive down from Morgantown. You could tell how much it bothered them to be blue.. 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. And by God, they didnt have the enzyme diaphorase. Cawein advised giving the child methylene blue and not worrying about it. 5 years ago when I was on a swingerparty she got pregnant with me. 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. 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. Inbreeding in eastern Kentucky has been turning offspring blue since the early 1880s. Chasing Chains, LLC. Come on, Grafton rednecks. Luna Stacy possessed the good health common to the blue people, bearing at least 13 children before she died at 84. Stacy courted her, married her, and moved over from Troublesome Creek to make a living in timber on her daddys land. Everyone knew the blue Fugates were healthy people. At 30%, nausea, difficulty breathing, and an elevated heart rate start to appear. Well, there are more intriguing blue things in Kentucky than just the moon. One relative describes her as blue all over, and another calls Luna the bluest woman I ever saw.. Fear that more inflation will cost jobs. Luna has been dead nearly 20 years now, but her widower survives. As a result, their blood is darker than the color typically found running through peoples veins. 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. Rachel was leaning against the wall. 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. He had to drive eight hours back to Hazard to search out the Ritchies, who lived in a tapped-out mining town called Hardburly. The Blue Fugates have essentially now gone from reality to legend. We do not feel less-fortunate. It's a vote cast not just out of allegiance. Cawein packed his black bag and rounded up Nurse Pendergrass for the big event. Steelworkers Damion Elkins, 50, right, and Edward Clonch, 43, left, in Huntington West Virginia. 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. That total makes West Virginia the 38th most populous state in the country. Whoo-whee, New Martinsville! As travel became easier, more people moved into and out of the Fugates area of Kentucky, including some actual Fugates. 3. Little did they know that their union would create shades of blue people! By. As a result of a coincidental meeting of recessive genes . 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. 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. So I knew we had the defect defined.. This condition does, in fact, cause blue-tinted. Definitely not a poaching bunch, these Hurricane rednecks. Her lips were as dark as a bruise. valley in the mountains in West Virginia with a barn and cows visible Stephanie Pittman 561 followers More information Blue People of West Virginia | . The mystery behind the astonishing picture of the Fugates, which has been baffling people for years, appears to have finally been solved. Sometimes they married first cousins. Only adopted cousins are allowed to marry, while in Vermont, Virginia, and many other states, first cousins can tie the knot. Intermarrying with people other than close relatives meant the likelihood of any Fugate descendant being born with the condition reduced. The doctor was recently approached by the producers of the television show Thats Incredible. They wanted to parade the blue people across the screen in their weekly display of human oddities. It was almost purple, his father recalls. Upon further research, I saw that the original story was based on a specific family that was said to be suffering from blue-tinted skin. Luna is buried at the top of the hollow. Levy married a Ritchie girl and bought 200 acres of rolling land along Ball Creek. Oxygen, or a lack of oxygen, is what turns the blood from red to blue in people with methemoglobinemia. Since there werent any roads or trains near their small community, the kidswere married off to the only people who lived nearby: their cousins. In people with methemoglobinemia, the skin appears blue because the veins beneath the skin are coursing with dark blue blood. 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. 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. 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. 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.". That five-star symbol is the same as the one on the Friendly City flagwhich is drawing approval well outside of West Virginia. "But if you're marrying your cousin, it's one in eight. Edit Old Gold & Blue Page Their inbreeding led to several medical problems and recessive genes being passed down through each child, such as one that gave some of the offspring blue skin. Tests for abnormal hemoglobin were negative. One look at Luke was enough to get those doctors down here in a hurry, says Pendergrass, who joined Cawein to look for more blue people. He tested first for abnormal hemoglobin, but the results were negative. Cawein cheers their bad luck not out of malice but out of a deep respect for the blue people of Troublesome Creek. Answer (1 of 3): Depends on what you mean by blue. Learn how your comment data is processed. For the Fugates, family members expressed the gene to varying degrees. She looked like she was having a heart attack. Start your free trial today to learn more about your ancestors using our powerful and intuitive search. Martin Fugate, who was orphaned as a child in France, began the American Fugate clan. (Baltimore: Gateway Press 1986). As three bald and blue men explore our world, together we'll discover music, laughter and surprises at every turn. Levels at or above 70% are considered life-threatening and are accompanied by erratic heartbeats and circulatory problems. 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. Admitted to the union as the 35th state in 1863, it is a relatively small state. Then he began to construct the family genealogy and traced their roots back to Martin and Elizabeth Fugate. 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. More than a cent. In his research, he found a 1960 article by E. M. Scott that was reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as info-tainment. Google Maps. "If you took any random person in the population, maybe one in 100,000 would carry this gene, if that many," says Ricki Lewis, a science writer and author of the textbook "Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications," now in its 13th edition. Elizabeth Smith, apparently, was as pale-skinned as the mountain laurel that blooms every spring around the creek hollows. Appearance: Blue grosbeaks are medium birds about 8 long, large, bright blue, with large silver bills, and chestnut wingbars. 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. Martin Fugate was a French orphan who emigrated to Kentucky in 1820 to claim a land grant on the wilderness banks of Troublesome Creek. The methylene blue he used on them is a dye a blue dye, ironically. Yep, thats right. They were poor people, concurs Nurse Pendergrass, but they were good.References1. Hereditary diaphorase deficiency and methemoglobinemia. Martin and Elizabeth set up housekeeping on the banks of Troublesome and began a family. Hemoglobin gets its red color from a compound called heme that contains an iron atom. 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. Her face and her fingernails were almost indigo blue. 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. Zach took the doctor even farther up Copperhead Hollow to see his Aunt Bessie Fugate, who was blue. Before Cawein ended his study of the blue people, he returned to the mountains to patch together the long and twisted journey of Martin Fugates recessive gene. 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. Green human are possible. After ruling out heart and lung diseases, the doctor suspected methemoglobinemia, a rare hereditary blood disorder that results from excess levels of methemoglobin in the blood. By the time theyd get to the top, the person would be gone. Laughing, the Informant launched into a story of the West Virginia Blue People, a story about a genetic condition the resulted from intermarriage. His car gave out on the dirt road to Zachs house, and the doctor had to borrow a Jeep from a filling station. 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. You couldve done even better than that. Blue skin. Rednecks are hailed as being great in our song lyrics. However, now that the Fugate gene pool is more diverse, there is less need for this treatment, as fewer blue children are being born. 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. 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. Which means lots of weekend warriors probably live here; its the families that have boats and who book nice family hunting trips. "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. They werent sick; it was just the way they look. Stumped, the doctor turned to the medical literature for a clue. Blood cells always looked so beautiful to me, he says. It reduced the brightness of the blue on their skin. 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. Population: 5,373Tobacco stores per capita: 5th in West VirginiaGun stores per capita: 2ndFishing/bait shops per capita: 2nd. But his first love, which he developed as an Army medical technician in World War II, was hematology. And when you look at the data, its clear this is a really solid place for a redneck to make home. 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