At least, that's the image that locals of Welch, West Virginia ... At minimum, the town wants to prevent itself from transforming into a legit ghost town along the lines of Burke, Idaho.

McDowell County, West ... Virginia and eastern Kentucky, underwent one of the sharpest collapses. In 1986, US Steel abruptly closed down operations in Gary, a company-founded town near Welch.

West Virginia had the highest rate of opioid-related deaths of all states in 2015, at 41.5 per 100,000 people. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported that the McDowell County town of Welch filed a ...