That You Remember: Telling the Story Buffalo Creek Couldn’t Keep

In the early morning hours of February 26, 1972, a wall of black water tore through a narrow Appalachian hollow in Logan County—erasing communities, taking lives, and leaving behind a silence that still echoes today. The Buffalo Creek Mine Disaster wasn’t just a tragedy—it was a moment that changed families, reshaped a region, and raised questions that have never fully settled.

But history doesn’t always capture what it felt like to live there… to lose everything… to remember.

In this episode of Appalachian Shine, we sit down with Isabel Reddy, author of That You Remember, a powerful novel inspired by the people and stories of Buffalo Creek. Through fiction rooted in a real tragedy, Reddy explores the emotional aftermath of disaster—the grief, the resilience, and the burden of memory carried by those who survived.

Together, we talk about the real communities that were lost, the responsibility of telling stories drawn from tragedy, and what it means for Appalachia to remember—not just what happened, but who it happened to.

Because some places don’t disappear…they live on in the stories we choose to tell. 

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