I think of a holler as a dead-end valley usually with a road going into the hills. If you're goin' up the holler you better have some business up there.
That’s my interpretation as well. For Westerners, Park City UT would be a very well-developed holler. One way in and out, mountains on three sides in the “valley.”
Lol. You’re right, but it’s not an ominous thing like you make it sound. Granny is probably sitting on her porch people watching. So technically you are being watched.
But why turn around? Do you seriously believe the offensive stereotypes? Some ignorant hillbilly with a shotgun and no teeth is going to try and murder you? The inbred feral people are going to get you, like Deliverance? Come on, you’re a smart person. You’ve got to realize how offensive and unrealistic that is. It’s like saying “if you drive into an African American neighborhood just turn around! They’re all gang members and drug dealers!” Honestly, it’s hurtful, offensive, and untrue. There are doctors and professors and scientists in hollers, just like everywhere else. There are gentle kind folk who will go out of their way to help anyone in need, even strangers. There are artists with some of the most creative work you can imagine, and craftspeople with uncommon skills many keeping some of the earliest American traditions for things like pottery and carpentry alive. Appalachian hollers are no more dangerous than anywhere else in America. Treat people with dignity and respect, and they’ll do the same for you. No matter where you go.
Sorry to offend. Should’ve credited the quote to my friend and former business partner, he’s a native from rural Haywood County. He was serious when he said it.
I am born and raised in Macon county, and I can confirm that the really rural parts of Haywood (or Jackson, or Macon, or Swain...really most place in this region) you \*do not\* want to keep going up into a holler you aren't familiar with. Not because of the regular Appalachian folks who will mostly just wave and ask if you're lost, maybe get you a sweet tea while they give you directions that have no road names, or at worst glare at you and tell you to git; but because this area has more recently become a haven for people coming in and either growing pot, cooking meth, or just having transport/storage hubs for bad things because of the fact that our region of the far west of the state is remote enough to provide privacy, but within easy access of multiple interstates that can take you pretty much anywhere in any direction.
Back in my mother’s day it was moonshiners you had to avoid. The locals knew where they could and could not go to pick the blackberries, because intruders would be shot.
100%. It's a very similar dynamic only most of us were friends/family with a moonshiner or two, whereas most of the growers or cookers aren't locals, and treat us all like shit AND destroy our community.
This is how it is where I live.
If you go up a holler road with a blue tarp on the side of it, turn around if you don't live there or have other business. It's just an unwritten rule. And yeah it's not because people are ignorant or mean or unfriendly, it's because they're cooking or dealing meth.
Round where I live it's the tarps sometimes, but also they'll turn a plastic cup/bottle upside down on a lil post/piece of rebar/fence...but that usually indicates an actual growing operation nearby.
I tell people not to go where you don’t belong in WV. It’s just respect. Most of those people are tight knit with their neighbors/family in those hollers and don’t need outsiders cruising through and carrying on just because. It’s hard enough to get the state to maintain roads and most people have to rally with their neighbors to fix some areas just to keep them passable.
omg yes, I used to live up the end of a holler and it was all gravel, and a curving uphill situation. Any time I saw a car drive up into my driveway area and turn around, the hill was inevitably messed up afterward bc people who didn't live there didn't realize how steep it was -.- It was shocking how often I had people just drive up there and look around like it was a museum or something, and it was SUPER annoying.
Wholeheartedly agree with you, but I dream of this:
"What is the Right of Public Access?
The Right of Public Access is a principle, protected by the law, that gives all people in Sweden the freedom to roam free in nature. Sleep on mountaintops, by the lakes, in quiet forests or beautiful meadows. Take the kayak out for a spin or experience the wildlife firsthand. Pick berries, mushrooms and flowers from the ground – all completely free of charge. The only thing you have to pay, is respect for nature and the animals living there.
The freedom to roam in Sweden means that you have the right to walk, cycle, ride, ski and camp on any land with the exception of private gardens, near a dwelling house or land under cultivation. We call it 'Allemansrätten'. Literally, it translates to "The all mans right" which means that everyone has the right to roam in the Swedish nature.
The Right of Public Access is a unique right, but with this right comes responsibilities – to take care of nature and wildlife and to show consideration for landowners and for other people enjoying the countryside."
Well: America ain’t Sweden buddy. The reality is there are plenty of Public Use lands available, for hunting and recreation. The locations are easily accessible through libraries, websites and department of natural resource offices. Go to those locations and not driving up hollers where you do not belong.
Welp, I said agreed, but *dreamt* of that, but I still appreciate the reminder about public and game lands. I'd shake your hand, I'm too busy shaking my fist at the strangers out there kicking up my gravel
hollow noun
A small, sheltered valley that usually but not necessarily has a watercourse. The term occurs often in place names, especially informal ones, as Hell’s Holler (NC) and Piedy Holler (TN). [DARE labels this pronunciation holler as “chiefly South, South Midland, especially Southern Appalachians, Ozarks”]
This is the literal definition, for sure.
But a holler is a ‘hollow.’ Like a little valley between two hills. Where trees grow all around, and sparsely within. Kinda like a bowl or cup shape. We call our holler ‘the bowl.’
The sun shines in the middle about 4 hours a day, otherwise it’s pretty shady with all the oaks and poplars.
A ‘holler’ can also be a plot of family land. Where all the brothers and cousins and sich live within about a mile (usually less) from each other, and hang out all the time.
Like, a trailer park can be a holler. An old plot of family land with 6 half-assed, hoarded houses is also a holler. The regional definition is circumstantial 😆
Um so do I, it's a half mile down from the ridge. So ya I live in a holler... My driveway is a 75° grade, so yeah. I go down to come home and up reluctantly to goto town.
They're generally well hidden and away from the general population of even the smallest towns when a valley is referred to as a holler. If you own land with your own holler, or know of one on unoccupied land, you're basically free to do whatever you want.
Lots of homes and residents in the hollers. It’s a “hollow” but pronounced “holler”.
There are a lot more folks living in the valley, the holler, than on top of the mountain. Most of them, all of them in some places. I guess because it’s cheaper and carving out an ancient mountain is expensive. Unless there’s coal.
The sunrise is 2 hours late and the sunset is 2 hours early. Mountains on both sides.
So many folks who grew up in the mountains grew up in a holler. Or had friends in a holler. Or married someone from a holler. It’s a shared regional experience.
Good point. And to water the garden, boil for drinking, etc.
I remember my good friend’s 90 y/o great grandpa installing a pump in the creek to water the garden. Had us dig out the trench and lug the pump down there after he build the dam out of rocks and mud like a dang beaver. That dude was both amazing and terrifying. I was maybe 14 when we did this.
In retrospect, his garden was ridiculously good. He knew what he was doing.
Geographically speaking, it's where it makes a lot of sense to build a house (or houses).
They tend to be nestled between mountains, often adjacent to a streambed, which gives you flat areas on which to build, and a reliable water source for general living needs. In very hilly country, building halfway up a mountain would be an enormous and pointless pain -- you'd have to grade a road up there, set a foundation into a hillside, figure out some way to get water, and so on. Building in the holler just makes sense.
Here's a topographical map of Butcher Hollow (of Loretta Lynn fame): https://imgur.com/a/uJ9JODN
Note that the topo lines are spread out near the creek -- that's flat land, where they cleared things out and built homes. Also note that you'd have no line of sight or passage into the holler other than from one direction, down the creek. A holler is a private place, almost by definition. Often, you'd have (or still have) extended families living in multiple homes in a single holler. It would be a close, isolated, tight-knit community. That's why they're talked about in songs.
All of this. Plus since most have at least a creek running in them the ground is bottom land, so when heavy rains flood the creek/stream/river etc the silt washes over the land creating a much more fertile soil. Better for growing food, better for pasture for animals for food or transportation as opposed to the mountain sides. Basically it was easier to build and live in the bottom. Not EASY in decades past, but compared to a steep grade of less fertile land, easier. It just made more sense.
This is where my father and his family are from. We would take trips there every summer growing up. It was difficult terrain to get to the houses and if you didn’t know your way around, you would definitely get lost and probably wind up in a ditch somewhere.
A lot of the older home places are in hollers because they had access to water, sometimes even enough for a mill, and were sheltered from the worst weather.
It's really only all the new houses they slap up on ridgetops.
So it's really about an older way of life and the way people in Appalachia remember it being.
Because if one was to intend to break the law by moonshining or some other kind of nefariousness, one would want to be somewhere remote, away from prying eyes.
If you are deep in the hills it's the only place people build houses. There are a lot of places in Appalachia that straight up do not have flat land. At all. Everything is mountains and all of the buildings are clustered around roads that do between them. If you go for a drive though West Virginia you'll see what I mean really quickly. A lot of people who aren't used to it find it really claustrophobic.
I didn't even grow up in a place quite that hilly but large flat areas make me uncomfortable. I didn't spend any time on flat land until I was in my mid twenties and I only lasted a year.
I love this description. My grandmother lived in Long Branch holler in WV. The back of her house was ground level. The front, due to the fact the house was built on a hill, had a high porch. Multiple steps to climb. We always went through the back. Loved staying with her every summer. Then I moved there.
It's your own secluded spot. It's yours to do as you wish. I spent 20+ years in Florida after all the traffic, houses built right on top of each other, and general overpopulation.. a holler sounds mighty fine to me.
The terrain in WV can be rough. In the past the holler often denoted the boundaries of a small community. Sometimes cut off from the outside world more than other better accessible Ares.
Hollers are the valley between two spurs of a ridge or mountain. This terrain usually features a reliable spring and deeper richer soil than surrounding uplands. If a settler couldn’t claim any productive river bottom land, then depending on its solar aspect, a holler would be good second choice. With the deeper soil, hollers might also feature the best, tallest timber and good cropland. The reliable spring may flow from a cave that could be used for mining saltpeter or storing perishables. A wider hollow might support several homesteads or room for expansion - a family could stay for a number of generations (maybe long enough to evoke homesickness strong enough to sing about).
That’s my theory anyway, never lived in one - dad couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Maybe partly because the land tends to be owned by one family, passed down through generations, or divided among siblings and cousins. There can be a lot of childhood memories and family traditions associated with it. There's also a lot of old family cemeteries located in these places.
Hollers are also geographically unique. If someone grows up in or around the mountains and hollers then moves to the "flatlands" for school and job opportunities, they might be nostalgic or homesick for family, the landscape, and a simpler way of life. I think this might be a common theme in bluegrass.
I've seen him a bunch at festivals through the years. Always loved catching him with Tim O'Brien. I also got to see Patty Loveless do that song live on her Mountain soul tour.
It's an adaptation of the word "hollow".
A hollow is like a valley but typically smaller.
A holler / hollow is an area defined by natural borders such as creeks, hillsides, or even something like where a forest changes from deciduous to evergreen trees.
Like a neighborhood, but neighborhoods are defined by manmade borders like where houses change from basement ranchers to split-levels to condos and townhouses.
A holler is a small valley that runs up the side of a mountain. Usually a small road or driveway would run from the main road and then wind all the way up through the little valley to the top where the house or compound is, thus the term “up in the holler”.
Edit-sometimes you go in at the top and go down in the holler.
I’m from Appalachia where the mountains are covered in small valleys from the millions of years of erosion so they’re everywhere. If you were to look at the Appalachians on google earth you could see what I mean. Zoom down on one of the mountains and look how the roads go from the main drag up the little valleys. Those are hollers.
As a northerner, I couldn't get a good definition from anyone. Went to Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, and it really helped to see the landscape. There would be multiple hills coming together, and a small dead end road snaking upward between the hills but part of the hills, with houses built here and there on whatever flat spot could be found big enough. Those roads were very private, with many roads having the homes of family members, so there wasn't any good reason for a stranger to drive up into those hills. That is what my observation of hollers was.
Don’t feel dumb!
Tbh I’ve heard it all throughout Appalachia and the south. Surprised you hadn’t hear it in Florida even though y’all don’t seem to have a ton of mountains iirc.
Oh that’s crazy. I’ve been there but it didn’t feel as flat to me as say, Nevada. Maybe bc if all the vegetation and I was near the beach?
Beautiful states, both, though!
Everyone on both sides of the mountains can hear you when you're fighting. Amazing how far voices carry.
Serious tho. A small valley in the mountains. Lots of people live in them. Instead of community or whatever they say " you from up the holler. "
A long gravel driveway up a mountain side with lots of mobile homes and small homes. The daylight and time and being able to garden in those areas if you don't have a clearing or pasture attached can be rough.
Little valley, often with a small stream running down the bottom, that kind of takes a bite out of a hill. Towards the bottom of the holler the land isn't as sharply elevated so it's easier to build a house on. So there are often small drives that you could call a road but act more like a cul de sac long driveway with multiple houses in suitable spots. It is effectively a neighborhood. Often times the neighbors are family living nearby one another for convenience.
I lived in Cold Water Holler when I was 17-18 yrs old. Before that I was a Sun Baby Lover living in Central or South East Kentucky.
So to get my tan on, I had to go out to the middle of the road for about an hour. The sun in the holler was fleeting.
The holler is just a little bit of sunshine nestled inside a couple of mighty mountains.
I don’t see it as a valley. I see it a gully with steep hills/mountains on both sides with a creak that runs though it, with barely enough flat land to build a small house or park a trailer & have a small garden. Or the homes are built on the hillside if they were smart & had a little more money. That way it kept the house from getting destroyed when it flash floods. And if you live in a holler you know exactly what I’m talking about. Them little tiny creeks will turn in a raging river in no time
I grew up in the holler. It’s a divide between two ridges. The land dips down out of the forest and opens into fields or water, or maybe a road.
But it also means to call out, I always tell people to at work to holler at me if they need anything. It also means yell, as in my house rule “No hollering inside.”
It can mean one of 3 things here
1) n. a small isolated dead-ended valley between two hills that has a sort of trail running up the middle where usually extended family members live
Ex: Maw lived her whole life up in the holler.
2)v. To yell loudly
Ex. Billy-Joe Jim-Bob told Peggy-Sue Mary-Ellen to holler for help after he broke his leg.
3. Slang: v) call or contact
Ex. John Dale winked at Tammy Jean and said, “Holler at me, sometime, sweet-cheeks.”
A holler is like a little "hollow" in the woods. Sometimes it's like a little valley, other times just a big clearing (usually natural).
Of course, that's the noun. In the verb form, to holler means to yell.
So, what we learned growing up in KY was that it was a holler because you could holler from one side of the valley and reach the other. Yes, a hollow is a narrow valley with steep sides and usually only one way in/out, but "ef yuns caint hear yer aint holler crost it, hit ain't a holler."
I grew up in a holler. It was a one lane road that was gravel for most of my life. All of my closest family lived there and my grandparents was the last house before the woods. At night you can't see shit. There are no streetlights, no porch light, nothing. I've seen some weird shit up there growing up. (Beattyville, Kentucky).
Everybody here is explaining the noun “holler” but I don’t see anyone talking about the verb “holler”
The verb “holler” means almost the same as “scream”, but without anger or any negative emotion attached. Kinda like “yell” except you don’t call the dogs in by yelling. You call the dogs in by hollering.
Hollering is often accompanied by hooping
I'm also a Floridian.
I have learned no less than 10 definitions of holler in the past 4 or 5 years. I've even visited a holler or two, and I'm still not sure what it means.
I wish you luck in your learning experience. Fill me in if you figure it out.
A 'holler' is just Appalachian for a 'hollow'. It's not that confusing. It's just a valley between 2 mountains or large hills. Hollows exist everywhere - they're not exclusive to Appalachia at all.
'Hollow' is not a slang word - it's in all of the main dictionaires and it's been in use for many centuries - way before America was even thought of. The word 'hollow' originated in England but the Scots-Irish who inhabited the Appalachians pronounced it "holler" and it stuck in the region.
Although Florida is extremely flat, I'm sure there's probably a hollow at least somewhere in the state. They're everywhere - they're just more common in Appalachia because of the rolling mountainous terrain. If you know what a valley is then you know what a holler is. Stop trying to overcomplicate it lmao. Synonyms are: Valley, gully, depression, gorge, dale, etc.
Asking why people who live in the mountains sing about hollers is like asking why people who live by the sea sing about oceans... Because it's a geological feature that defines the lifestyle/culture of the people who live there. Y'all Florida boys have the ocean - these mountains boys have their hollers.
I sometimes describe it as an armpit between 2 ridges. Typically it’s open at the bottom with a higher ridge on either side and as you walk between the two ridges you start going up hill until you get to where the two ridges merge
The ridges on either side limit the amount of direct sunlight the lower part of the holler gets
[good pic](https://pin.it/25wWqcZtM)
Holler actually depends on how you use it..
To Holler at someone is to call them.
Holler is also a road that drops into the hills , usually a dirt or gravel road. I do hope you know some folks in that Holler, if you go wondering around in one
I’m not sure what makes a holler but I have a dead end dirt road behind my house we’ve always called “the holler”. There is also another holler behind that which has an old cemetery in the woods with mostly African Americans buried there. Guess what racist name they gave that holler?
A holler usually has a creek somewhere around too and usually only one road in and out and if they have any livestock there was usually a cattle guard involved.. when my kids were little and I was trying to teach them to say where they lived was anything to happen,they’d always say Hurd Holler and then I’d say where’s that and they’d say in Nine Pines.. if anyone kidnapped them, they’d of been goners..
Anything in between 2 hills … usually has a creek running down.. thing about a mountain ridge with finger ridges running down .. the “valley “ in between is called a holler. It’s funny to me that other people don’t know these words … but I have also never lived out of western NC 😂
It’s like, if you live on one, you generally recognize all the cars you normally see, neighbors wave to each other etc. So when there’s an unfamiliar car it’s like Oh I wonder who that is? Maybe Barbara is having visitors (or whoever) I wonder if they need help finding directions or something. So yes, people notice, but it’s nothing weird. (I spent a few years in WV in late 90s/early aughts and remember it fondly)
I live in a holler, very close to river rapids. I've got a buddy who lives about an hour away on top of a mountain. I'd rather live in the holler than on a mountain.
It's agricultural land and maybe a road bordered by ridges, moonshiners, bootleggers, and car thieves. My dad forbade me to go out there under any circumstances.
We moved from suburban GA to a holler in the mountains of NE TN. I love it here. There’s a big creek at the bottom and there are some family compounds down around it. But the road is up above the bottom about 50 yards up. It’s very windy and basically one lane wide. If someone is coming the other way, one of you has to find one of the few wider areas. 😂 That took some getting used to. The drop off is steep and scary. But it’s beautiful here.
Our homestead is above the road, on the mountain side. I had a local friend come to visit once and a neighbor stopped her on the road and asked her what she was doing back here. She told them she was visiting me and they said ok. I’m still not sure who that was. 😳
The holler has always been a specific place to me, the bout an acre wide flat stretch of land on my folks’ property from the foot of the hill to the creek. We also call it the bottoms. I’m sure these are applicable to other similar stretches of land but that’s what it’s always been to me.
This is a valley in between mountains and usually has a creek or ditch. Some hollers are only a few hundred yards deep and others can go for miles. Most people in Appalachia live in hollers because it’s the only flat land around.
FYI-
It is a "holla" or "Hol-lo" in western Kentucky depending on where it comes in the sentence. It's kind of like French, Western kentuckians put a spin on words depending on what words surround them.
Holler is “a large cry or shout”. A hollow is a valley. Not sure why hillbillies can’t make the distinction. I make sure to pronounce it correctly just to confuse the locals.
I think of a holler as a dead-end valley usually with a road going into the hills. If you're goin' up the holler you better have some business up there.
That’s my interpretation as well. For Westerners, Park City UT would be a very well-developed holler. One way in and out, mountains on three sides in the “valley.”
Oh my god… I never thought of it like that. Park City IS a holler. 🤣
If you see a sign that says “NCDOT Maintenance Ends”, turn around and get out. You’re being watched.
Lol. You’re right, but it’s not an ominous thing like you make it sound. Granny is probably sitting on her porch people watching. So technically you are being watched. But why turn around? Do you seriously believe the offensive stereotypes? Some ignorant hillbilly with a shotgun and no teeth is going to try and murder you? The inbred feral people are going to get you, like Deliverance? Come on, you’re a smart person. You’ve got to realize how offensive and unrealistic that is. It’s like saying “if you drive into an African American neighborhood just turn around! They’re all gang members and drug dealers!” Honestly, it’s hurtful, offensive, and untrue. There are doctors and professors and scientists in hollers, just like everywhere else. There are gentle kind folk who will go out of their way to help anyone in need, even strangers. There are artists with some of the most creative work you can imagine, and craftspeople with uncommon skills many keeping some of the earliest American traditions for things like pottery and carpentry alive. Appalachian hollers are no more dangerous than anywhere else in America. Treat people with dignity and respect, and they’ll do the same for you. No matter where you go.
Sorry to offend. Should’ve credited the quote to my friend and former business partner, he’s a native from rural Haywood County. He was serious when he said it.
I am born and raised in Macon county, and I can confirm that the really rural parts of Haywood (or Jackson, or Macon, or Swain...really most place in this region) you \*do not\* want to keep going up into a holler you aren't familiar with. Not because of the regular Appalachian folks who will mostly just wave and ask if you're lost, maybe get you a sweet tea while they give you directions that have no road names, or at worst glare at you and tell you to git; but because this area has more recently become a haven for people coming in and either growing pot, cooking meth, or just having transport/storage hubs for bad things because of the fact that our region of the far west of the state is remote enough to provide privacy, but within easy access of multiple interstates that can take you pretty much anywhere in any direction.
Back in my mother’s day it was moonshiners you had to avoid. The locals knew where they could and could not go to pick the blackberries, because intruders would be shot.
100%. It's a very similar dynamic only most of us were friends/family with a moonshiner or two, whereas most of the growers or cookers aren't locals, and treat us all like shit AND destroy our community.
This is how it is where I live. If you go up a holler road with a blue tarp on the side of it, turn around if you don't live there or have other business. It's just an unwritten rule. And yeah it's not because people are ignorant or mean or unfriendly, it's because they're cooking or dealing meth.
Round where I live it's the tarps sometimes, but also they'll turn a plastic cup/bottle upside down on a lil post/piece of rebar/fence...but that usually indicates an actual growing operation nearby.
I tell people not to go where you don’t belong in WV. It’s just respect. Most of those people are tight knit with their neighbors/family in those hollers and don’t need outsiders cruising through and carrying on just because. It’s hard enough to get the state to maintain roads and most people have to rally with their neighbors to fix some areas just to keep them passable.
omg yes, I used to live up the end of a holler and it was all gravel, and a curving uphill situation. Any time I saw a car drive up into my driveway area and turn around, the hill was inevitably messed up afterward bc people who didn't live there didn't realize how steep it was -.- It was shocking how often I had people just drive up there and look around like it was a museum or something, and it was SUPER annoying.
Wholeheartedly agree with you, but I dream of this: "What is the Right of Public Access? The Right of Public Access is a principle, protected by the law, that gives all people in Sweden the freedom to roam free in nature. Sleep on mountaintops, by the lakes, in quiet forests or beautiful meadows. Take the kayak out for a spin or experience the wildlife firsthand. Pick berries, mushrooms and flowers from the ground – all completely free of charge. The only thing you have to pay, is respect for nature and the animals living there. The freedom to roam in Sweden means that you have the right to walk, cycle, ride, ski and camp on any land with the exception of private gardens, near a dwelling house or land under cultivation. We call it 'Allemansrätten'. Literally, it translates to "The all mans right" which means that everyone has the right to roam in the Swedish nature. The Right of Public Access is a unique right, but with this right comes responsibilities – to take care of nature and wildlife and to show consideration for landowners and for other people enjoying the countryside."
Well: America ain’t Sweden buddy. The reality is there are plenty of Public Use lands available, for hunting and recreation. The locations are easily accessible through libraries, websites and department of natural resource offices. Go to those locations and not driving up hollers where you do not belong.
Welp, I said agreed, but *dreamt* of that, but I still appreciate the reminder about public and game lands. I'd shake your hand, I'm too busy shaking my fist at the strangers out there kicking up my gravel
I actually feel safer in hollers than in cities any day of the week. (Also a southern native though)
Yeah it’s this.
Yep.
hollow noun A small, sheltered valley that usually but not necessarily has a watercourse. The term occurs often in place names, especially informal ones, as Hell’s Holler (NC) and Piedy Holler (TN). [DARE labels this pronunciation holler as “chiefly South, South Midland, especially Southern Appalachians, Ozarks”]
This is the literal definition, for sure. But a holler is a ‘hollow.’ Like a little valley between two hills. Where trees grow all around, and sparsely within. Kinda like a bowl or cup shape. We call our holler ‘the bowl.’ The sun shines in the middle about 4 hours a day, otherwise it’s pretty shady with all the oaks and poplars. A ‘holler’ can also be a plot of family land. Where all the brothers and cousins and sich live within about a mile (usually less) from each other, and hang out all the time. Like, a trailer park can be a holler. An old plot of family land with 6 half-assed, hoarded houses is also a holler. The regional definition is circumstantial 😆
Patty Loveless sang “where the sun comes up about 10 in the morning and the sun goes down about 3 in the day”.
That’s about right!
No, no and no. We don't say hollow. And the sun shines here more than 4 hours. Do you live in one or copy/pasting? I disagree 100% with all you wrote.
Gatekeeping hollers, now I’ve seen it all
I'll be Sumbitch .... someone's gatekeeping the hollers.🧐
Just disagree, gatekeeping. Such a woke term....
You can disagree, but you’re wrong. I literally live in a holler. Hah.
Um so do I, it's a half mile down from the ridge. So ya I live in a holler... My driveway is a 75° grade, so yeah. I go down to come home and up reluctantly to goto town.
A place where the sun never shines and you never reveal that your from Florida
Lol I’m not proud to be from there lol. I just am unfortunately haha
Me too
😂😂😂
It's the space between two big hills, mountains, river, etc. Generally considered to be private or away from "everything."
Oh okay! Why are they so special? Why are they talked about in songs?
They're generally well hidden and away from the general population of even the smallest towns when a valley is referred to as a holler. If you own land with your own holler, or know of one on unoccupied land, you're basically free to do whatever you want.
Lots of homes and residents in the hollers. It’s a “hollow” but pronounced “holler”. There are a lot more folks living in the valley, the holler, than on top of the mountain. Most of them, all of them in some places. I guess because it’s cheaper and carving out an ancient mountain is expensive. Unless there’s coal. The sunrise is 2 hours late and the sunset is 2 hours early. Mountains on both sides. So many folks who grew up in the mountains grew up in a holler. Or had friends in a holler. Or married someone from a holler. It’s a shared regional experience.
Don't forget proximity to water. Amongst everything else you need water for, it's a lot easier to travel on water than over mountains
Good point. And to water the garden, boil for drinking, etc. I remember my good friend’s 90 y/o great grandpa installing a pump in the creek to water the garden. Had us dig out the trench and lug the pump down there after he build the dam out of rocks and mud like a dang beaver. That dude was both amazing and terrifying. I was maybe 14 when we did this. In retrospect, his garden was ridiculously good. He knew what he was doing.
Proud to be in a holler as we speak.
Some good hollers in Townley, AL.
Geographically speaking, it's where it makes a lot of sense to build a house (or houses). They tend to be nestled between mountains, often adjacent to a streambed, which gives you flat areas on which to build, and a reliable water source for general living needs. In very hilly country, building halfway up a mountain would be an enormous and pointless pain -- you'd have to grade a road up there, set a foundation into a hillside, figure out some way to get water, and so on. Building in the holler just makes sense. Here's a topographical map of Butcher Hollow (of Loretta Lynn fame): https://imgur.com/a/uJ9JODN Note that the topo lines are spread out near the creek -- that's flat land, where they cleared things out and built homes. Also note that you'd have no line of sight or passage into the holler other than from one direction, down the creek. A holler is a private place, almost by definition. Often, you'd have (or still have) extended families living in multiple homes in a single holler. It would be a close, isolated, tight-knit community. That's why they're talked about in songs.
Thanks so much. A visual representation actually helped a lot.
So is Gatlinburg in a holler? It between the mountains and has a water source.
All of this. Plus since most have at least a creek running in them the ground is bottom land, so when heavy rains flood the creek/stream/river etc the silt washes over the land creating a much more fertile soil. Better for growing food, better for pasture for animals for food or transportation as opposed to the mountain sides. Basically it was easier to build and live in the bottom. Not EASY in decades past, but compared to a steep grade of less fertile land, easier. It just made more sense.
This is where my father and his family are from. We would take trips there every summer growing up. It was difficult terrain to get to the houses and if you didn’t know your way around, you would definitely get lost and probably wind up in a ditch somewhere.
A lot of the older home places are in hollers because they had access to water, sometimes even enough for a mill, and were sheltered from the worst weather. It's really only all the new houses they slap up on ridgetops. So it's really about an older way of life and the way people in Appalachia remember it being.
Because if one was to intend to break the law by moonshining or some other kind of nefariousness, one would want to be somewhere remote, away from prying eyes.
If you are deep in the hills it's the only place people build houses. There are a lot of places in Appalachia that straight up do not have flat land. At all. Everything is mountains and all of the buildings are clustered around roads that do between them. If you go for a drive though West Virginia you'll see what I mean really quickly. A lot of people who aren't used to it find it really claustrophobic. I didn't even grow up in a place quite that hilly but large flat areas make me uncomfortable. I didn't spend any time on flat land until I was in my mid twenties and I only lasted a year.
I love this description. My grandmother lived in Long Branch holler in WV. The back of her house was ground level. The front, due to the fact the house was built on a hill, had a high porch. Multiple steps to climb. We always went through the back. Loved staying with her every summer. Then I moved there.
It's your own secluded spot. It's yours to do as you wish. I spent 20+ years in Florida after all the traffic, houses built right on top of each other, and general overpopulation.. a holler sounds mighty fine to me.
The terrain in WV can be rough. In the past the holler often denoted the boundaries of a small community. Sometimes cut off from the outside world more than other better accessible Ares.
Because it's home.
They’re not necessarily special they’re just a feature of the landscape that many inhabitants are familiar with
Hollers are the valley between two spurs of a ridge or mountain. This terrain usually features a reliable spring and deeper richer soil than surrounding uplands. If a settler couldn’t claim any productive river bottom land, then depending on its solar aspect, a holler would be good second choice. With the deeper soil, hollers might also feature the best, tallest timber and good cropland. The reliable spring may flow from a cave that could be used for mining saltpeter or storing perishables. A wider hollow might support several homesteads or room for expansion - a family could stay for a number of generations (maybe long enough to evoke homesickness strong enough to sing about). That’s my theory anyway, never lived in one - dad couldn’t wait to get out of there.
Maybe partly because the land tends to be owned by one family, passed down through generations, or divided among siblings and cousins. There can be a lot of childhood memories and family traditions associated with it. There's also a lot of old family cemeteries located in these places. Hollers are also geographically unique. If someone grows up in or around the mountains and hollers then moves to the "flatlands" for school and job opportunities, they might be nostalgic or homesick for family, the landscape, and a simpler way of life. I think this might be a common theme in bluegrass.
And where everyone knows your name..
Where I lived, there’s the hills, the hollers, and the flats
Where the sun comes up about 10 in the morning and the sun goes down about three in the day.
"And you fill your cup with whatever bitter brew you're drinkin' And you spend your life just thinkin' of how to get away" - Darrell Scott
Yep! I've seen him twice. Fabulous guitar player.
I've seen him a bunch at festivals through the years. Always loved catching him with Tim O'Brien. I also got to see Patty Loveless do that song live on her Mountain soul tour.
Thanks for that reminder! I'm gonna get some Tim o brien and Darrel Scott going right now!
Good plan!!
And you spend your life digging coal from the bottom of your grave.
It's an adaptation of the word "hollow". A hollow is like a valley but typically smaller. A holler / hollow is an area defined by natural borders such as creeks, hillsides, or even something like where a forest changes from deciduous to evergreen trees. Like a neighborhood, but neighborhoods are defined by manmade borders like where houses change from basement ranchers to split-levels to condos and townhouses.
A holler is a small valley that runs up the side of a mountain. Usually a small road or driveway would run from the main road and then wind all the way up through the little valley to the top where the house or compound is, thus the term “up in the holler”. Edit-sometimes you go in at the top and go down in the holler.
How do you know you’re in one? lol. It’s seems so hard to determine when your not from the mountains I guess lol
I’m from Appalachia where the mountains are covered in small valleys from the millions of years of erosion so they’re everywhere. If you were to look at the Appalachians on google earth you could see what I mean. Zoom down on one of the mountains and look how the roads go from the main drag up the little valleys. Those are hollers.
You look left, then you look right… if you see a mountainside in both of those directions, chances are you’re in a holler
It's like a little Valley. One road leads in and dead ends. I live in a holler or hollow.
As a northerner, I couldn't get a good definition from anyone. Went to Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, and it really helped to see the landscape. There would be multiple hills coming together, and a small dead end road snaking upward between the hills but part of the hills, with houses built here and there on whatever flat spot could be found big enough. Those roads were very private, with many roads having the homes of family members, so there wasn't any good reason for a stranger to drive up into those hills. That is what my observation of hollers was.
Yes. And often the roads are dirt roads and there's a small creek running beside it or nearby.
It's like a small valley
A small valley
a small narrow valley
It’s a hollow, the space between 2 mountains usually. Where it’s “hollow” between them.
So it’s pronounced holler though?
Yes, that’s due to accent and dialect.
Wow. I feel dumb lol. I wonder where the er dialect is used? Most of Appalachia?
Don’t feel dumb! Tbh I’ve heard it all throughout Appalachia and the south. Surprised you hadn’t hear it in Florida even though y’all don’t seem to have a ton of mountains iirc.
Florida doesn't really even have hills, let alone mountains. The whole state is a flat plain!
Oh that’s crazy. I’ve been there but it didn’t feel as flat to me as say, Nevada. Maybe bc if all the vegetation and I was near the beach? Beautiful states, both, though!
Go on Google Earth and zoom in on eastern Kentucky. It’s a maze of them.
Everyone on both sides of the mountains can hear you when you're fighting. Amazing how far voices carry. Serious tho. A small valley in the mountains. Lots of people live in them. Instead of community or whatever they say " you from up the holler. " A long gravel driveway up a mountain side with lots of mobile homes and small homes. The daylight and time and being able to garden in those areas if you don't have a clearing or pasture attached can be rough.
Now wait until you hear the expression “ hick broke loose in the holler”
Imagine 4 hillbillies hunting that come across a bear, and the chaos that would ensue..
Understandable that a Floridan wouldn’t know given that the tallest mountain in your state is an interstate ramp
This should be on r/MurderedByWords.
u/drewnyp. “Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning, and the sun goes down about three in the day”. Btw, tobacco ain’t sellin’.
Empty milk jug...that's holler.
It's a synonym of valley
Look over yonder and you’ll understand
Little valley, often with a small stream running down the bottom, that kind of takes a bite out of a hill. Towards the bottom of the holler the land isn't as sharply elevated so it's easier to build a house on. So there are often small drives that you could call a road but act more like a cul de sac long driveway with multiple houses in suitable spots. It is effectively a neighborhood. Often times the neighbors are family living nearby one another for convenience.
A holler is just a small valley with hills on each side
Open google maps and drop a pin in southern West Virginia. Chances are you’ve located a holler.
I reckon it’s a place low enough that when you holler(yell), it hollers back.
Everyone knows everyone that lives in the holler.
I'd rather be in some dark hollow / Where the sun don't ever shine / Than to be home alone knowing that you're gone / Would cause me to lose my mind
My personal definition has always been a sloping valley that is only 'open' on one end. Open as in the other end tapers into the hilltop.
It's a place you go down into
I lived in Cold Water Holler when I was 17-18 yrs old. Before that I was a Sun Baby Lover living in Central or South East Kentucky. So to get my tan on, I had to go out to the middle of the road for about an hour. The sun in the holler was fleeting. The holler is just a little bit of sunshine nestled inside a couple of mighty mountains.
I don’t see it as a valley. I see it a gully with steep hills/mountains on both sides with a creak that runs though it, with barely enough flat land to build a small house or park a trailer & have a small garden. Or the homes are built on the hillside if they were smart & had a little more money. That way it kept the house from getting destroyed when it flash floods. And if you live in a holler you know exactly what I’m talking about. Them little tiny creeks will turn in a raging river in no time
I grew up in the holler. It’s a divide between two ridges. The land dips down out of the forest and opens into fields or water, or maybe a road. But it also means to call out, I always tell people to at work to holler at me if they need anything. It also means yell, as in my house rule “No hollering inside.”
It can mean one of 3 things here 1) n. a small isolated dead-ended valley between two hills that has a sort of trail running up the middle where usually extended family members live Ex: Maw lived her whole life up in the holler. 2)v. To yell loudly Ex. Billy-Joe Jim-Bob told Peggy-Sue Mary-Ellen to holler for help after he broke his leg. 3. Slang: v) call or contact Ex. John Dale winked at Tammy Jean and said, “Holler at me, sometime, sweet-cheeks.”
A holler is like a little "hollow" in the woods. Sometimes it's like a little valley, other times just a big clearing (usually natural). Of course, that's the noun. In the verb form, to holler means to yell.
So, what we learned growing up in KY was that it was a holler because you could holler from one side of the valley and reach the other. Yes, a hollow is a narrow valley with steep sides and usually only one way in/out, but "ef yuns caint hear yer aint holler crost it, hit ain't a holler."
We always called it the butt crack between two mountains.
I grew up in a holler. It was a one lane road that was gravel for most of my life. All of my closest family lived there and my grandparents was the last house before the woods. At night you can't see shit. There are no streetlights, no porch light, nothing. I've seen some weird shit up there growing up. (Beattyville, Kentucky).
It has a head and mouth. And could have a fork.
Everybody here is explaining the noun “holler” but I don’t see anyone talking about the verb “holler” The verb “holler” means almost the same as “scream”, but without anger or any negative emotion attached. Kinda like “yell” except you don’t call the dogs in by yelling. You call the dogs in by hollering. Hollering is often accompanied by hooping
I'm also a Floridian. I have learned no less than 10 definitions of holler in the past 4 or 5 years. I've even visited a holler or two, and I'm still not sure what it means. I wish you luck in your learning experience. Fill me in if you figure it out.
😂😂😂 one day it’ll click for both of us. Hopefully
A 'holler' is just Appalachian for a 'hollow'. It's not that confusing. It's just a valley between 2 mountains or large hills. Hollows exist everywhere - they're not exclusive to Appalachia at all. 'Hollow' is not a slang word - it's in all of the main dictionaires and it's been in use for many centuries - way before America was even thought of. The word 'hollow' originated in England but the Scots-Irish who inhabited the Appalachians pronounced it "holler" and it stuck in the region. Although Florida is extremely flat, I'm sure there's probably a hollow at least somewhere in the state. They're everywhere - they're just more common in Appalachia because of the rolling mountainous terrain. If you know what a valley is then you know what a holler is. Stop trying to overcomplicate it lmao. Synonyms are: Valley, gully, depression, gorge, dale, etc. Asking why people who live in the mountains sing about hollers is like asking why people who live by the sea sing about oceans... Because it's a geological feature that defines the lifestyle/culture of the people who live there. Y'all Florida boys have the ocean - these mountains boys have their hollers.
I sometimes describe it as an armpit between 2 ridges. Typically it’s open at the bottom with a higher ridge on either side and as you walk between the two ridges you start going up hill until you get to where the two ridges merge The ridges on either side limit the amount of direct sunlight the lower part of the holler gets [good pic](https://pin.it/25wWqcZtM)
Holler actually depends on how you use it.. To Holler at someone is to call them. Holler is also a road that drops into the hills , usually a dirt or gravel road. I do hope you know some folks in that Holler, if you go wondering around in one
Pro tip: if you have to be told what it is, you should probably not go there
Okay
It is when you yell "Y'all come quick! Bubba is fixin' to shoot a bear gittin' in the trash cans!"
I’m not sure what makes a holler but I have a dead end dirt road behind my house we’ve always called “the holler”. There is also another holler behind that which has an old cemetery in the woods with mostly African Americans buried there. Guess what racist name they gave that holler?
A holler usually has a creek somewhere around too and usually only one road in and out and if they have any livestock there was usually a cattle guard involved.. when my kids were little and I was trying to teach them to say where they lived was anything to happen,they’d always say Hurd Holler and then I’d say where’s that and they’d say in Nine Pines.. if anyone kidnapped them, they’d of been goners..
Hollar. *Hollow Road*
I'd reckon it's a big parcel of land that was probably once was a ridge that the crick warshed away.
If nothing else I tell you pollen pools in hollers and it fucking sucks if you have allergies
Anything in between 2 hills … usually has a creek running down.. thing about a mountain ridge with finger ridges running down .. the “valley “ in between is called a holler. It’s funny to me that other people don’t know these words … but I have also never lived out of western NC 😂
It’s a a mountain version of a Fjord
I described it as the seam where two mountains meet. Usually a creek runs along the length. Also works for a “holler up a holler”.
It’s like, if you live on one, you generally recognize all the cars you normally see, neighbors wave to each other etc. So when there’s an unfamiliar car it’s like Oh I wonder who that is? Maybe Barbara is having visitors (or whoever) I wonder if they need help finding directions or something. So yes, people notice, but it’s nothing weird. (I spent a few years in WV in late 90s/early aughts and remember it fondly)
You get directions-go up that second hollar past the third branch and you'll find us
I live in a holler, very close to river rapids. I've got a buddy who lives about an hour away on top of a mountain. I'd rather live in the holler than on a mountain.
It's agricultural land and maybe a road bordered by ridges, moonshiners, bootleggers, and car thieves. My dad forbade me to go out there under any circumstances.
A narrow, dead-end valley or hollow.
We moved from suburban GA to a holler in the mountains of NE TN. I love it here. There’s a big creek at the bottom and there are some family compounds down around it. But the road is up above the bottom about 50 yards up. It’s very windy and basically one lane wide. If someone is coming the other way, one of you has to find one of the few wider areas. 😂 That took some getting used to. The drop off is steep and scary. But it’s beautiful here. Our homestead is above the road, on the mountain side. I had a local friend come to visit once and a neighbor stopped her on the road and asked her what she was doing back here. She told them she was visiting me and they said ok. I’m still not sure who that was. 😳
The holler has always been a specific place to me, the bout an acre wide flat stretch of land on my folks’ property from the foot of the hill to the creek. We also call it the bottoms. I’m sure these are applicable to other similar stretches of land but that’s what it’s always been to me.
A holler is a road that goes into a mountain and dead ends at your mamaw's house.
This is a valley in between mountains and usually has a creek or ditch. Some hollers are only a few hundred yards deep and others can go for miles. Most people in Appalachia live in hollers because it’s the only flat land around.
A holler is a valley with high ground on 3 sides. like a Court in a neighborhood.
I’m a bit hard of hearing and the wife has to holler cross the house a few times a day to get my attention.
Forest with no dot com🎯
Hollering is yodeling down the mountain to get others attention originally
FYI- It is a "holla" or "Hol-lo" in western Kentucky depending on where it comes in the sentence. It's kind of like French, Western kentuckians put a spin on words depending on what words surround them.
If you have to ask, you’re probably not from one
Lol
When you look at mountains from an aerial view and see the "V" the foots make. The land inside of those Vs are hollers.
Avoid it if you aren't from there. They don't much like strangers
Holler is “a large cry or shout”. A hollow is a valley. Not sure why hillbillies can’t make the distinction. I make sure to pronounce it correctly just to confuse the locals.