Feuding for Fitness in the Mountains

Let's scale this up, boys. Let teams from all over the country compete.  Make it a year-round event. Turn it into the biggest tourist attraction between the Washington Monument and the Kentucky Derby.

Mary Meehan at the Herald:

One of the country's most well-known family conflicts is being used for a positive purpose as residents from Kentucky and West Virginia compete in the Hatfield-McCoy Healthy Feud.

Residents of six West Virginia counties and Pike County in Kentucky are pledging to walk 100 miles in 100 days. The event runs through Dec. 17.

Technically, all the Kentuckians would walk as McCoys and the West Virginians would stroll as Hatfields. The feuding families were generally geographically split by the Tug Fork River, the boundary between the two states, said Adam Flack, executive director of West Virginia on the Move, one of several community groups in both states promoting the challenge.

The story of the long-simmering and often deadly feud has a real resonance with people in the area, Flack said.

"There are a lot of descendants, and they are very proud of it," he said.

Those outside the families apparently find the history of the feud fascinating too. Last year, a History Channel miniseries on the feud, which lasted from 1865 to 1891, was a ratings bonanza and inspired a new wave of tourism and interest in the region related to the conflict.