Eastern Ky.’s eroding population to shift political borders
Update: 2021-11-04
Description
Once a year, children race black and orange woolly worms up taut strings in Beattyville, Ky., goading them to the top by blowing with straws or clapping. Legend has it you can predict how severe a winter will be by observing the coloration of the 13-segmented caterpillar, really the larval form of the tiger moth. And people come from far and wide to celebrate the furry oracles during Beattyville’s annual Woolly Worm Festival, when the 1,300-person town in the foothills of Appalachia jumps by about 10,000 people for the weekend. But Beattyville’s Lee County is one of more than half of Kentucky’s counties that lost population over the last 10 years, dropping by 6.2% according to the decennial Census .
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