Holler

This is an informal geographic term – it seems to be slang or patois for “hollow,” but some resources reject that and claim it has a definition all its own.

It’s an Appalachian term for valley. The University of South Carolina defines it as:

A small, sheltered valley that usually but not necessarily has a watercourse.

Deep in Appalachia, most towns were built in valleys next to rivers, thus they became the natural social designations, like “neighborhood” or “block” in an urban setting.

This recollection frames it in more social terms.

I lived in Graveyard Holler for six years in the 1940s. It had a dirt road, and there were 18 coalminers’ houses in there. The school bus wouldn’t even come up the holler to pick us up.

A holler has a head and a mouth. The head is as far as you can go, and the mouth is where the creek runs into a larger stream of water.

A holler can have houses spaced out on both sides of the road. You can ‘holler’ from one house to the other to tell the latest news. It may have several branches of forks.

A holler may have a small grocery store at its mouth, and if you see someone walking to the store, give them some money and your list and they will bring your groceries back with them. Or, let them check your mail.

Why I Looked It Up

I can’t remember. It came up in some book I was reading. I understood it from context, but wondered if there was a formal definition.