Overview

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 of one of its chief instigators, a woman whose childhood was shaped by the region's economic challenges and natural beauty as surely as its high plateau was carved by water. A new mom and former journalist returning to reclaim her rural roots, Ta Enos sees the promise of nature tourism, but must first overcome insecurities to value who she is and her own ability to lead. Ta crafts an empowering blueprint of how after decades of population loss, rural PA came together to leverage two of its greatest assets - its people and its public lands - to create a brighter future for its communities. PROUDLY MADE captures the story of an independent woman and region reinventing themselves on their own terms, and the special landscape and shared history that helps them bridge traditional divides. From Alaska to Pennsylvania, it takes readers on an unforgettable 20-year journey that shaped the storyteller as much as she shaped it, heralding the difference one person with a little mettle can make, and the greater good that can come when many of us work together.

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Reviews

Sam MacDonald, Author, The Urban Hermit and Agony of an American Wilderness: ""Ta's gripping personal story--in all its struggle, perseverance and redemption--is the story of the Pennsylvania Wilds. This book is a testament not only to the progress of one person, but of a people. Equal parts literary memoir and activist template, it advances the great tradition of American place-based writers like Henry David Thoreau, Zora Neale Hurston, Annie Dillard and Dean MacCannell. This is a compelling and important book, whether you were born and raised in the Pennsylvania Wilds, or dream of building such a place wherever you call home."" Ed McMahon, Author, Balancing Nature and Commerce in Gateway Communities: ""Ta Enos' new book is a remarkable story about a special person and a special place. Reminiscent of Cheryl Strayed's storytelling in WILD: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, PROUDLY MADE tells the story of the PA Wilds, a beautiful but neglected region in Pennsylvania's Appalachian Mountains. It is about the hardy people and wild places that make this region unique, but it is also a story of self-discovery and reinvention and a primer on entrepreneurship in rural America. The parallel stories of a region and a person rediscovering themselves is a story anyone can relate to, but especially other rural areas that are trying to make their way in a rapidly changing world. I found myself cheering for Ta and the PA Wilds Initiative. You will too."" Kristine Gasbarre, #1 New York Times bestselling writer - ""As a child of the Pennsylvania Wilds (born and raised there long before it had that name), to me what's most remarkable about Ta's drive and impact isn't just that we come from one of those places where it's uniquely hard to influence change-but that it's still nearly impossible to get people to listen to you if you're a woman. That's a huge part of her triumph with PROUDLY MADE. In an era that's testing the strength of women-Mother Nature most of all-this is a story, in a time, that needs to be told."" Tony Pipa, Brookings Institution, founder of the Reimagining Rural Policy initiative, and host of the Reimagine Rural podcast: ""Ta Enos's memoir is a gripping story full of grit, creativity, and an unrelenting belief in a place and its people, including herself. It's a story about the myriad gifts that rural PA has to offer its residents and visitors; Ta's gift is in showing what that experience can mean for us all."" Chris Perkins, Vice President Programs, Outdoor Recreation Roundtable: ""PROUDLY MADE is a testament not just to Ta Enos, a devoted mother, community advocate, storyteller, and coalition builder, but also to the deep-rooted gumption shared between rural people that has carried the Pennsylvania Wilds through the great unknown and transformed the region into national recognition. When we work to illustrate the benefits of the $1.1 trillion outdoor recreation economy to members of Congress and state governments around the country, Ta's work and the Wilds tell the story better than we could ever hope for.""

Author Information

Ta Enos is founder and CEO of a regional nonprofit that is helping to revitalize the rural Pennsylvania Wilds region through intentional outdoor recreation development. A fourth-generation native of Warren County, in the Pennsylvania Wilds, Ta has worked on the movement for close to two decades and loves what she does. Prior to founding the nonprofit in 2013, Ta served as the PA Wilds Small Business Ombudsman for five years, helping rural entrepreneurs connect to resources and leverage the region's public lands and growing visitation. Before that, she helped her sister build an outfitting business in the Pennsylvania Wilds. Ta has been recognized nationally for being a practitioner on the cutting edge of rural development. She has a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Public Communications from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Prior to moving home to Pennsylvania in 2006, she spent ten years as a news reporter and editor in Alaska, writing for the Anchorage Daily News, Anchorage Press, Dutch Harbor Fisherman, Bristol Bay Times and other publications, earning writing awards from the Alaska Press Club and the Society for Professional Journalists.Ta and her husband are raising three boys on sixty-five acres in the PA Wilds.

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