Lost and abandoned america

Over the past 60 years McDowell County has lost nearly 80% of its population dropping from nearly 99,000 people in 1950 to 20,448 in 2014.  In 1985 in a move to save money in a  tight budget the McDowell County Board of Education voted to consolidate Northfork High school with Mt View High School 13 Miles away in Welch However, this did not happen without a fight.  The residents of Northfork even went so far as to hire a lawyer to fight this school closing.  The fight went all the way to the state Supreme Court which eventually sided with the school board, and the home of the blue demons was converted to a middle school and renamed Northfork Middle School. It served as the middle school from 1985 until 2002, when the second of two floods within 10 months exposed asbestos and damaged the building.   Northfork Middle School was then closed and their students were dispersed to area schools According to online sources much of the contents of this school and the structure itself were damaged beyond repair during floods in 2002.  Flooding was so severe that year in McDowell County that school officials had to cut the school year short due to so many structures being damaged