Keystone West Virginia: Sodom & Gomorrah of Appalachia

Thanks for watching! Love hearing from y'all in the comments, what'd you think of Keystone?

So they're literal Keystone Kops? 😂 The irony is too much!

I've lived in eastern West Virginia for 75 of my 85 years and I never heard of Keystone, let alone its history. This is one very interesting presentation.

My father was station manager for a major airline in Charleston, WV, the stories he told me about the corruption and incompetence of the airport political authority still haunts me to this day!

Don't freak out. This is nothing compared to what happens where the filthy rich live ....... except their debauchery is kept secret.

I'm a direct descendant of a blood line that has inhabited Appalachia since the mid 1700s. Love the content! Definitely helps shed a light on a way of life and population typically not given much thought by history. Keep it up, and I'll keep watching and waiting for you to make it to my ancestral neck of the woods!

My dad always said if not for the crooked politicians West Virginia would be one the richest states.

Things sure were different when the mines were open. This area is my home. My family has had a business here since the 1860's and its still going on now. I am always shocked when I come across these YouTube channels about where I live. My dad really protected us back in the day and I see why now. I am old and it was different back then. I can remember there were certain people and places that were forbidden. Some of us are good folks, back then and now. Its a shame no one ever talks about the good things, like we have a lot of good musicians and Artists and quilters. I saw one video where a YouTuber stood right in front of the Bluefield Arts and Crafts museum and did not show it and acted like nothing good was in the town. It kinda bothers me. I guess the Vice stories are more interesting.😔

So crooked cops and corrupted government has always been the genesis a city's demise.

Cinder Bottom was rough back in the day, my dad used to talk about it. Mining was a hard life.

My dad was from McDowell County. My grandfather ran a company store. I've heard stories of keystone most of my life.

This was such a good episode! I had no idea about what all went on down there, other than the bank. I’m so glad you talked about that!! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything made about the Keystone Bank, so this was really cool to see. Phenomenal work, Josh👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

This stuff happened and still happens nationwide. Nothing new. Same games different faces. Big cities small towns.

Thanks for protecting and sharing American history! Awesome production as always.

This place can't hold a candle to Washington DC for being wicked.

"They that sow to the flesh, shall reap corruption." Galatians 6:8

My grandfather owned all the property in Northfork, property in Bramwell and Keystone. I used to go there when I was a kid. My grandmother told me about the brothels in Keystone and how wild the town was. I always thought “That podunk place?”

As a former employee of Keystone bank, accounts were insured up to $100,000. However, many ignored that and had accounts well in excess of it and therefore lost it.

My mom's side of the family is from Meybeury, Anawalt, Keystone, & Gary. There are also kin over toward Pie in Mingo County. There is a lot of history, but a lot of seedy stories that were never meant to see the light of day.

I’m half Appalachian this way of life was in my moms family for generations from brothels to corrupt cops coil mining boot legging cans who knows what else my dads family was totally different from Massachusetts my mom left Virginia at 16 ran off with my dad who came from money and I was raised in north shore Massachusetts and visited my moms family later in life in Pennington gap Va . The family I met were all nice people all the women were RN nurses and the men worked for CSX or local government none of them were hillbilly’s that you see on tv but they were definitely country folk and a lot of the men died of black lung and were treated by their own family members who worked in the black lung clinics which are still there in 2024 Amazingly