Supported by the West Virginia Humanities Council and MountainMade.com, this project was initially the "brain child" of West Virginia media-maker Topper Sherwood.

Topper Sherwood has been a journalist, editor, and publisher in West Virginia for more than 20 years. His 1994 co-authored a book on southern West Virginia life and politics (Just Good Politics: The Life of Raymond Chafin, Appalachian Boss) is in print with the University of Pittsburgh Press. His byline has appeared in Time, Business Week, the Boston Globe, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Smithsonian Air & Space magazines. In 1989-90, he lived in Berlin, covering the fall of the Berlin Wall for U.S. publications. Topper's media/communications clients include the U.S. Department of Energy, the Smithsonian, Verizon, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Subaru, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. His imprint, Appalachian Editions, has published the work of John Alexander Williams (West Virginia: A History for Beginners), David Corbin (The West Virginia Mine Wars: An Anthology), and Richard Lunt (Law & Order vs. the Miners).

Project adviser John Alexander Williams is the author of six books of American and Appalachian history. A native of Greenbrer County, West Virginia, Dr. Williams is a professor of history at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. He has taught history at Yale, Notre Dame, the University of Illinois, and West Virginia University. He was an assistant director atthe National Endowment for the Humanities and a consultant for the Library of Congress. Dr. Williams is a graduate of Tulane University and studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science before earning his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale.

Charles Kleine has engineered sound for such clients as ESPN, NBC, and ABC's Good Morning America. Charles' documentary credits include Crossing Borders (on the influence of Celtic music to Appalachian music) featuring Nancy Griffith, John Prine, Tim O'Brian, and Larry Gross. Charles also has produced television sound for West Virginia Public Broadcasting's Mountain Stage.

Larry Dowling is a director of photography/videographer for West Virginia Public Broadcasting, and has done shooting for such clients as the Food Network, History Channel, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and ESPN. Larry is a regular contributor to Outlook, a weekly statewide magazine show. Recent projects include Crossing Borders, a documentary on Celtic music in Appalachia. Mr. Dowling has a Master's degree in Journalism from West Virginia University.