Proudly Made: A Story of Reinvention in the Big Woods and Small Towns of the Pennsylvania Wilds

Winner of a Silver award from The Nonfiction Book Awards

As more communities look to leverage the country's growing outdoor recreation economy, a forgotten expanse of America's tapestry, in Pennsylvania's Appalachian Mountains, has emerged as a leader.

"No initiative exists in the country on this scale and level of strategic thinking," the Society of American Travel Writers said of the Pennsylvania Wilds in 2008.

Now the inspiring backstory of this rural movement is told from the perspective o...