You've reached 'the mountains' the eastern coalfield and the Cumberland Plateau. A region of ridges and hollows, valleys and coves, sky and forest, rocks and soil, springs, creeks and rivers, animals and plants; Kentucky's eastern boundary to Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The splendor of the Appalachian Mountainous area is rich in natural resources. In addition to coal and natural gas other minerals can be found here. The region is heavily forested, is legendary for its mountain vistas; supports more varieties of plant life than all of europe, harbors a variety of wildlife, and water is abundant. One of the greatest sounds on earth is the wind blowing through the trees. Through out the spring time, flowering dogwood and red bud trees appear in abundance above the mountain laurel of pink and white and honeysuckle-wild azalea of orange. Summers are warm on the valley floors and at the higher elevations cool. The fall of the year brings mother nature's wonderful chemical paint brush of multi colors to this hardwood broad leaf forest of trees. These mountains and its people have existed for generations. At times isolated from the urban areas of Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee by narrow winding roads that limited these Appalachian folk to social and cultural horizons and access to higher education, better health care, and other services provided by the respective departments of state government. These Appalachian Mountains are a land of contradiction. Land resources are slowly becoming exhausted with little or no return. Appalachia is an illustration of our society in general. Very Rich yet Very Poor, Always Exploited yet Underdeveloped. The mountains have been bled of their veins of coal and the hillsides, abandoned and scarred from invasive strip mining yet they remain so beautiful.