Wild Wonderful West Virginia | Free Documentary

This is an expedition to the original and sinister sides of the remote mountain state, telling stories of the hard life of the miners, a sheriff who fights against the opioid epidemic with its thousands of dead, and of an environmental activist and Cherokee Indian who is threatened by powerful corporations. “Wild, Wonderful West Virginia” is what people call their state in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. But under the idyll hides a black hell: a labyrinth of low tunnels in which miners have to crawl on their hands and knees all day long in the dark. The open conversations with the miners make us understand why lifelong democrats suddenly entrusted their hopes for the future to Donald Trump. “I’m proud to be a hillbilly.” This is a look into America. Forever fascinating, forever puzzling because honestly, it is the land of extremes. Extremely innovative and forward thinking; extremely conservative and well, hillbilly too.

My father was born and raised in the mountains of WV. Had it not been for WW2 I know he would have became a miner because there were no other options. After he served 4 years in the Army during the war, he re-enlisted and made the military his life. These WV miners are the backbone on the USA, God Bless every single miner and please God look over them.

I work In a coal mine in Southern Illinois I love it glad people still like to learn about our work and the respect that we have for our coworkers

I stayed in West Virginia twice and drove through the length of the state. Coming from urbanized NJ, this state has become something special to me. Truly wild and wonderful.

I grew up near this place and my father was a coal miner. Thanks for showing an honest look at these suffering communities.

I watch the Most Dangerous Roads series and was just saying the other day how they should do an episode about the roads on WV, then today this appears on my feed. Even though I know this isn't about our roads, I'm interested in seeing what they have to say.(I live in the Southwestern part of the state.)

West Virginia is absolutely beautiful 😍. Its like a hidden gem and reminds me of Oklahoma...another absolutely beautiful state . The good people of WV are straight from the heart. They will do whatever they can to help and support others. My family moved to the WV panhandle in 93 and have been there ever since .....love that place. Thank you for this documentary.

Wow....my heart goes out to these communities that are really going through hell...

Born and raised here. Now raising my 2 sons with my wife. Ive traveled a decent amount for a wv boy and enjoyed that very much. It also showed me how special this place is and im glad we stayed here. Im only an hour from Pittsburgh so my area of wv is a bit different than others. But it's still wv and we are very proud. God bless

The struggle is the same whether you live in the inner cities or in the Appalachians, cause we all want a better life for ourselves and our families. Love is the same regardless of the which areas you are from. No need to really have political and ideological fights. I love West Virginia as I love California :)

Documentaries like this are eye opening the lady that refused to sale her land to the greedy evil doers is one tough cookie 👍 It's despicable how society treats the less fortunate I have so much respect for the blokes that go into those coal mines over blokes that destroys families by selling drugs.

These guys are truly men, my heart rate is climbing from watching these guys in there on their hands and knees..wow they cant even stand up my clostrophobia is going off the tracks just watching, man you guys have my respect :)

Much respect and gratitude to the ones who worked and still work the mines. Thank you.

My daddy is from West Virginia- and this such a great insight into the Lives of people who lives in these areas. People forget that we are still humans ourselves

Have done 4 tours between iraq n Afghanistan and was blown up 3 times.. I would do that all over again before I could do one shift in these mines. Hats off to y’all.

I have a huge amount of respect for the miners and their families.

Team Kenya 🇰🇪 represented and following 👏👏👏👏

Thank you Free Documentary for showing this part of forgotten America. Heart goes out to these hearty people as half my family heritage comes from McDowell County (Davy and Asco WV)

Pieces of history we never learned in school. I love Wild wonderful West Virginia! I love going to visit my kinfolk there.

I'm from Kentucky and much like this family, God's people for sure ❤