Dayton

DAYTON They were drawn to the northern industrial cities by the hundreds of thousands, both during and after World War II. Companies needing employees even set up recruiting offices, just like the military, all over the Cumberland Plateau, where the three states come together. But the emigrants all had one trait in common, they still kept one foot stuck in the rocky soil of the mountains. Everybody wanted to make their pile, then head back "down home." But for most it never happened. The interrupted lives, learning of new cultures, and separated families, took their toll. Some men worked all their adult lives "up north," while their wives never left the mountains-raising a bunch of kids, and seeming reasonably happy. And through it all there was the returning, then leaving again.