joke copper wire

I don't know who sent this to me, or even who wrote it. It was one of those jokes which got passed around through a bunch of forwarded emails. I received it awhile back, but it tickled me to such an extent, that I saved it in a word doc. I am rather proud to be an Appalachian, and so, I hope my fellow Appalachians don't see this joke as too disparaging...

After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago. Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, a California archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after, a story in the LA Times read: "California archaeologists, after finding 200 year old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers." One week later, the Virginia Mountaineer newspaper in Grundy, VA reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 feet in his pasture on Backbone Ridge near Haysi, VA, a self-taught archaeologist reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, that part of Virginia had already gone wireless." Hillbillies are such a proud bunch.