West Virginia

West Virginia
State
Country	United States
Admitted to the Union	June 20, 1863 (35th)
Capital	Charleston
Largest city	Charleston
Government
• Governor	Joe Manchin (D)
• Upper house	{{{Upperhouse}}}
• Lower house	{{{Lowerhouse}}}
U.S. senators	Robert Byrd (D) Jay Rockefeller (D)
Population
• Total	1,770,403
• Density	75/sq mi (29.0/km2)
Language
• Official language	English
Latitude	37°10'N to 40°40'N
Longitude	77°40'W to 82°40'W

West Virginia, nicknamed The Mountain State, is a state of the United States. West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War and was admitted to the Union as a separate state on June 20, 1863.

The Census Bureau considers West Virginia part of the South because of its location below the Mason-Dixon Line, while the USGS designates it as a Mid-Atlantic state. Many in the state's Northern Panhandle feel an affinity for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, those in the Eastern Panhandle feel a connection with the Washington, D.C. suburbs in western Maryland and Virginia, and southern West Virginians often consider themselves southerners. The state is noted for its timber and coal mining heritage, and labor union organizing mine wars in particular.

The state has a rich, lush beauty reflecting its temperate topography. Tourist sites include the New River Gorge Bridge, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and many state parks. The Greenbrier hotel and resort, originally built in 1778, has long been considered a premier hotel frequented by numerous world leaders and U.S. Presidents over the years. West Virginia is also home to the Green Bank Telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Geography

Main article: Geography of West Virginia

See also: List of counties in West Virginia

Shaded relief map of Cumberland Plateau and Ridge and Valley Appalachians

West Virginia is bordered by Pennsylvania to the north, by Ohio to the north and west, by Kentucky to the west, by Maryland to the north and east, and by Virginia to the east and south. The Ohio and Potomac rivers form parts of the boundaries.

West Virginia is the only state in the nation located entirely within the Appalachian Mountain range, and in which all areas are mountainous; for this reason it is nicknamed The Mountain State. About 75% of the state is within the Cumberland and Allegheny Plateaus regions. Though the relief is not high, the plateau region is extremely rugged in most areas.

On the southeastern state line with Virginia, high peaks in the Monongahela National Forest region give rise to an island of colder climate and ecosystems similar to those of northern New England and eastern Canada. The highest point in the state is atop Spruce Knob, which at 4,863 feet (1482 m) is covered in a boreal forest of dense spruce trees at altitudes above 4,000 feet (1,220 m). Spruce Knob lies within the Monongahela National Forest and is a part of the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area. A total of six wilderness areas can also be found within the forest. Outside the forest to the south, the New River Gorge is a 1,000 feet (304 m) canyon carved by the New River. The National Park Service manages a portion of the gorge and river which has been designated as the New River Gorge National River, one of only 15 rivers in the U.S. with this level of protection.

The summit of Spruce Knob is often covered in clouds.

The native vegetation for most of the state was originally mixed hardwood forest of oak, chestnut, maple, beech, and white pine, with willow and American sycamore along the state's waterways. Many of the areas are rich in biodiversity and scenic beauty, a fact that is appreciated by native West Virginians, who refer to their home as Almost Heaven.

The underlying rock strata are sandstones, shales, bituminous coal beds, and limestones laid down in a near shore environment from sediments derived from mountains to the east, in a shallow inland sea on the west. Some beds illustrate a coastal swamp environment, some river delta, some shallow water. Sea level rose and fell many times during the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian eras, giving a variety of rock strata. The Appalachian Mountains are some of the oldest on Earth having been formed over 300 million years ago.

History

Main article: History of West Virginia

Prehistory

The area now known as West Virginia was a favorite hunting ground of numerous Native American peoples before the arrival of European settlers. Many ancient man-made earthen mounds from various mound builder cultures survive, especially in the areas of Moundsville, South Charleston, and Romney. Although little is known about these civilizations, the artifacts uncovered in these give evidence of a complex, stratified culture that practiced metalurgy.

European exploration and settlement

Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia

In 1671, General Abram Wood, at the direction of Royal Governor William Berkeley of the Virginia Colony, sent a party which discovered Kanawha Falls. In 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood with about thirty horsemen made an excursion into what is now Pendleton County. John Van Metre, an Indian trader, penetrated into the northern portion in 1725. The same year German settlers from Pennsylvania founded New Mecklenburg, the present Shepherdstown, on the Potomac River, and others followed.

King Charles II of England, in 1661, granted to a company of gentlemen the land between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers, known as the Northern Neck. The grant finally came into the possession of Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, and in 1746 a stone was erected at the source of the North Branch Potomac River to mark the western limit of the grant. A considerable part of this land was surveyed by George Washington between 1748 and 1751. The diary kept by the surveyor indicates that there were already many squatters, largely of German origin, along the South Branch Potomac River. Christopher Gist, a surveyor in the employ of the first Ohio Company, which was composed chiefly of Virginians, explored the country along the Ohio River north of the mouth of the Kanawha River between 1751 and 1752. The company sought to have a fourteenth colony established with the name Vandalia. Many settlers crossed the mountains after 1750, though they were hindered by Native American depredations. Presumably, few Native Americans lived within the present limits of the state, but the region was a common hunting ground, crossed also by many war trails. During the French and Indian War the scattered settlements were almost destroyed. In 1774, the Crown Governor of Virginia, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, led a force over the mountains, and a body of militia under General Andrew Lewis dealt the Shawnee Indians under Cornstalk a crushing blow during the Battle of Point Pleasant at the junction of the Kanawha and the Ohio rivers. Native American attacks continued until after the American Revolutionary War. During the war the settlers in Western Virginia were generally active Whigs and many served in the Continental Army.

Trans-Allegheny Virginia, 1776-1861

Further information: Virginia

Social conditions in western Virginia were entirely unlike those in the eastern portion of the state. The population was not homogeneous, as a considerable part of the immigration came by way of Pennsylvania and included Germans, Protestant Ulster-Scots, and settlers from the states farther north. During the American Revolution the movement to create a state beyond the Alleghanies was revived and a petition for the establishment of "Westsylvania" was presented to Congress, on the ground that the mountains made an almost impassable barrier on the east. The rugged nature of the country made slavery unprofitable, and time only increased the social, political and economic differences between the two sections of Virginia.

The convention which met in 1829 to form a new constitution for Virginia, against the protest of the counties beyond the mountains, required a property qualification for suffrage, and gave the slave-holding counties the benefit of three-fifths of their slave population in apportioning the state's representation in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a result every county beyond the Alleghanies except one voted to reject the constitution, which nevertheless passed due to eastern support. Though the Virginia constitution of 1850 provided for white male suffrage, the distribution of representation among the counties continued to give control to the section east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Another grievance of the West was the large expenditure for internal improvements at state expense by the Virginia Board of Public Works in the East compared with the scanty proportion allotted to the West.

Separation from Virginia

Main article: West Virginia in the Civil War

File:Carlilejohn.jpg

John Carlile, a leader during the First Wheeling Convention

In 1861, only nine of the forty-six delegates from the area located in present state of West Virginia voted to secede. Almost immediately after the vote to proceed with secession prevailed in the Virginia General Assembly, a mass meeting at Clarksburg recommended that each county in north-western Virginia send delegates to a convention to meet in Wheeling on May 13, 1861. When this First Wheeling Convention met, four hundred and twenty-five delegates from twenty-five counties were present, but soon there was a division of sentiment. Some delegates favored the immediate formation of a new state, while others argued that, as Virginia's had not yet been passed by the required referendum, or become effective, such action would constitute revolution against the United States. It was decided that if the ordinance was adopted (of which there was little doubt) another convention including the members-elect of the legislature should meet at Wheeling in June. At the election (May 23, 1861) secession was ratified by a large majority in the state as a whole, but in the western counties 40,000 votes out of 44,000 were cast against it.

The Second Wheeling Convention met as agreed on June 11 and declared that, since the Secession Convention had been called without the consent of the people, all its acts were void, and that all who adhered to it had vacated their offices. An act for the reorganization of the government was passed on June 19. The next day Francis H. Pierpont was chosen governor of Virginia, other officers were elected and the convention adjourned. The legislature, composed of the members from the western counties who had been elected on May 23 and some of the holdover senators who had been elected in 1859, met at Wheeling on July 1, filled the remainder of the state offices, organized a state government and elected two United States senators who were recognized at Washington, D.C. At that point, therefore, there were two state governments in Virginia, one owning allegiance to the United States and one to the Confederacy.

The Wheeling Convention, which had taken a recess until the August 6, then reassembled (August 20) and called for a popular vote on the formation of a new state and for a convention to frame a constitution if the vote should be favorable. At the election (October 24, 1861) 18,489 votes were cast for the new state and only 781 against. The convention began on November 26, 1861 and finished its work on February 18, 1862, and the instrument was ratified (18,162 for and 514 against) on April 11, 1862.

Harpers Ferry (as it appears today) changed hands a dozen times during the American Civil War.

On May 13, the state legislature of the reorganized government approved the formation of the new state. An application for admission to the Union was made to Congress, and on December 31, 1862 an enabling act was approved by President Lincoln admitting West Virginia, on the condition that a provision for the gradual abolition of slavery be inserted in the Constitution. The Convention was reconvened on February 12, 1863, and the demand was met. The revised constitution was adopted on March 26, 1863, and on April 20, 1863 President Lincoln issued a proclamation admitting the state at the end of sixty days (June 20, 1863). Meanwhile officers for the new state were chosen, and Governor Pierpont removed his capital to Alexandria where he asserted jurisdiction over the counties of Virginia within the Federal lines.

The question of the constitutionality of the formation of the new state was brought before the Supreme Court of the United States in the following manner: Berkeley and Jefferson counties lying on the Potomac east of the mountains, in 1863, with the consent of the Reorganized government of Virginia voted in favor of annexation to West Virginia. Many voters absent in the Confederate Army when the vote was taken refused to acknowledge the transfer upon their return. The Virginia General Assembly repealed the act of secession and in 1866 brought suit against West Virginia asking the court to declare the counties a part of Virginia. Meanwhile Congress on March 10, 1866 passed a joint resolution recognizing the transfer. The Supreme Court in 1871 decided in favor of West Virginia, and there has been no further question.

During the American Civil War, West Virginia suffered comparatively little. McClellan's forces gained possession of the greater part of the territory in the summer of 1861, and Union control was never seriously threatened, in spite of Lees attempt in the same year. In 1863 General John D. Imboden, with 5,000 Confederates, overran a considerable portion of the state. Bands of guerrillas burned and plundered in some sections, and were not entirely suppressed until after the war was ended.

File:FirstConfederateMemorial.JPG

First Confederate Memorial, Romney.

The area which became West Virginia furnished about 36,000 soldiers to the Federal armies and somewhat less than 10,000 to the Confederate. The absence in the army of the Confederate sympathizers helps to explain the small vote against the formation of the new state. During the war and for years afterwards partisan feeling ran high. The property of Confederates might be confiscated, and in 1866 a constitutional amendment disfranchising all who had given aid and comfort to the Confederacy was adopted. The addition of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution caused a reaction, the Democratic party secured control in 1870, and in 1871 the constitutional amendment of 1866 was abrogated. The first steps toward this change had been taken, however, by the Republicans in 1870. In 1872 an entirely new constitution was adopted (August 22).

Beginning in Reconstruction, and for several decades thereafter, the two states disputed the new state's share of the pre-war Virginia government's debt, which had mostly been incurred to finance public infrastructure improvements, such as canals, roads, and railroads under the Virginia Board of Public Works. Virginians led by former Confederate General William Mahone formed a political coalition which was based upon this theory, the Readjuster Party. Although West Virginia's first constitution provided for the assumption of a part of the Virginia debt, negotiations opened by Virginia in 1870 were fruitless, and in 1871, that state funded two-thirds of the debt and arbitrarily assigned the remainder to West Virginia. The issue was finally settled in 1915, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that West Virginia owed Virginia $12,393,929.50. The final installment of this sum was paid off in 1939.

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

Hidden resources

After Reconstruction, the new state benefited from development of its mineral resources more than any other single economic activity. Salt mining activity had been underway since the 18th century. However, it had largely played out by the time of the American Civil War, when the red salt of Kanawha County was a valued commodity of first Confederate, and later Union forces. However, there was a greater treasure not yet developed. It would fuel much of the Industrial Revolution in the U.S., as well as the steamships of many of the navies of the world.

The residents (both Native Americans and early European settlers) had long-known of the underlying coal, and the fact that it could be used for heating and fuel. However, very small "personal" mines were the only practical development. After the War, with the new railroads came a practical method to transport large quantities of coal to expanding U.S. and export markets. As the anthracite mines of northwestern New Jersey and Pennsylvania began to play out during this same time period, investors and industrialists focused new interest in West Virginia. Geologists such as Dr. David T. Ansted surveyed potential coal fields and invested in land and early mining projects.

The completion of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) across the state to the new city of Huntington on the Ohio River in 1872 opened access to the New River Coal Field. Soon, the C&O was building its huge coal pier at Newport News, Virginia on the large harbor of Hampton Roads. In 1881, the new Philadelphia-based owners of the former Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O) which stretched across Virginia's southern tier from Norfolk, had sights clearly set on the Mountain State, where the owners had large land holdings. Their railroad was renamed Norfolk and Western (N&W), and a new railroad city was developed at Roanoke to handle planned expansion. After its new President Frederick J. Kimball and a small party journeyed by horseback and saw firsthand the rich bituminous coal seam which his wife named "Pocahontas," the N&W redirected its planned westward expansion to reach it. Soon, the N&W was also shipping from new coal piers at Hampton Roads.

In the northern portion of the state and elsewhere, the older Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) and other lines also expanded to take advantage of coal opportunities as well. By 1900, only a large area of the most rugged terrain of southern West Virginia was any distance from the existing railroads and mining activity.

Beginning in 1898, Dr. Ansted's protégé William Nelson Page, a civil engineer and mining manager in Fayette County, teamed with investors to take advantage of the undeveloped area. They acquired large tracts of land in the area, and Page began the Deepwater Railway, a short-line railroad which was chartered to stretch between the C&O at its line along the Kanawha River and the N&W at Matoaka, a distance of about 80 miles. Although the Deepwater plan should have provided a competitive shipping market via either railroad, leaders of the two large railroads did not appreciate the scheme. In secret collusion, each declined to negotiate favorable rates with Page, nor did they offer to purchase his railroad, as they had many other short-lines. However, unknown to the C&O and N&W, one of the the silent investors Page had enlisted was millionaire industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers, a principal in John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust and an old hand at competitive "warfare" with deep pockets. Instead of giving up, Page and Rogers quietly planned and then built their tracks all the way east to across Virginia, using Rogers' private fortune to finance the $40 million cost. When their Virginian Railway was completed in 1909, no less than three railroads were shipping ever-increasing volumes of coal to export from Hampton Roads. West Virginia coal was also under high demand at Great Lakes ports as well.

As coal mining and related work became a major employment activities in the state, there was was considerable labor strife as working conditions and safety issues, as well as economics arose. Even in the 21st century, mining safety and ecological concerns were challenging to the state whose coal continued to power electrical generating plants in many other states.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of West Virginia

Historical populations
Census year	Population
1790	55,873
1800	78,592
1810	105,469
1820	136,808
1830	176,924
1840	224,537
1850	302,313
1860	376,688
1870	442,014
1880	618,457
1890	762,794
1900	958,800
1910	1,221,119
1920	1,463,701
1930	1,729,205
1940	1,901,974
1950	2,005,552
1960	1,860,421
1970	1,744,237
1980	1,949,644
1990	1,793,477
2000	1,808,344

As of 2005, West Virginia has an estimated population of 1,816,856, which is an increase of 4,308, or 0.2%, from the prior year and an increase of 8,506, or 0.5%, since the year 2000. This includes a natural decrease since the last census of 3,296 people (that is 108,292 births minus 111,588 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 14,209 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 3,691 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 10,518 people.

Only 1.1% of the state's residents were foreign-born, placing West Virginia last among the 50 states in that statistic. It has the lowest percentage of residents that speak a language other than English in the home (2.7%).

The racial makeup of the state is:

• 94.7% White non-Hispanic
• 3.1% Black
• 0.7% Hispanic
• 0.5% Asian
• 0.2% Native American
• 0.9% Mixed race

The five largest ancestry groups in West Virginia are: American (23.2%), German (17.2%), Irish (13.5%), English (12%), Italian (4.8%).

Many West Virginians identify their ancestry as "American." It is the largest reported ancestry in most counties in the state, and the state has the highest percentage of residents of "American ancestry" in the nation. This choice often corresponds to Scots-Irish heritage.

Large numbers of people of German ancestry are present in the northeastern counties of the state.

5.6% of West Virginia's population were reported as under 5, 22.3% under 18, and 15.3% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51.4% of the population.

Economy

Main article: Economy of West Virginia

Bituminous coal seam in southwestern West Virginia

The economy of West Virginia is one of the weakest of any U.S. state. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, West Virginia is Third from the bottom in per capita income, ahead of only Arkansas and Mississippi. It is also the Last state in median household income. One major contributor to the state's low economic rankings is the low educational level of its population. The proportion of West Virginia's adult population with a bachelor's degree is the lowest in the country, at 15.3%.

One of the major resources in West Virginia's economy is coal. West Virginia also engaged in drilling oil, but currently only has small/medium sized scatter natural gas fields. Farming is also practiced in West Virginia.

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in West Virginia

Law and government

Main article: Law and government of West Virginia

West Virginia's capital and seat of government is the city of Charleston, located in the southwest area of the state.

Legislative Branch

Further information: West Virginia Legislature

The West Virginia Legislature is bicameral, consisting of the House of Delegates and the Senate. It is a citizen's legislature, meaning that legislative office is not a full-time occupation, but rather a part-time position. Consequently, the legislators often hold a full-time job in their community of residence.

Typically, the legislature is in session for 60 days between January and early April. The final day of the regular session ends in a bewildering fury of last-minute legislation in order to meet a constitutionally imposed deadline of midnight. During the remainder of the year, legislators gather periodically for 'special' sessions when called by the governor.

Executive Branch

File:Joe Manchin official portrait.jpg

Joe Manchin was inaugurated as governor in 2005.

Further information: List of Governors of West Virginia

The governor is elected every four years, on the same day as the president, sworn in during January. The current governor, inaugurated in 2005, is Democrat Joe Manchin.

Judicial Branch

West Virginia is one of only a handful of states that does not have a death penalty for any crime.

For the purpose of courts of general jurisdiction, the state is divided into 31 judicial circuits. Each circuit is made up of one or more counties. Circuit Judges are elected in partisan elections to serve eight-year terms.

West Virginia’s highest court is the Supreme Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia is the busiest appellate court of its type in the United States. West Virginia is one of 11 states with a single appellate court. The state constitution allows for the creation of an intermediate court of appeals, but the Legislature has never created one. The Supreme Court is made up of five justices, elected in partisan elections to 12-year terms.

Politics

File:Capitolbuilding.jpg

The West Virginia State Capitol

Main article: Politics of West Virginia

From the 1930s through the 1990s, West Virginia's politics were largely dominated by the Democratic Party, and Democrats still dominate most local and state offices. West Virginia also has a very strong tradition of union membership. While the state continued its Democratic tradition by supporting Bill Clinton by large margins in 1992 and 1996, a majority of West Virginia voters supported George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Bush easily won the state's five electoral votes in 2004 by a margin of 13 percentage points with 56.1% of the vote.

The most consistent support for Democrats is found in the coal fields of Southern West Virginia (especially McDowell, Mingo, Logan, Wyoming, and Boone Counties), while Republicans are most numerous to the east of the Allegheny Mountains, especially in the state's Eastern Panhandle and Potomac Highlands.

Important cities and towns

See also: List of cities in West Virginia, List of towns in West Virginia, List of villages in West Virginia, List of census-designated places in West Virginia

Charleston is West Virginia's most populous city

Large cities (+ 10,000 population)

Charleston, 53,421 (2004 estimate: 51,685) Huntington, 51,475 (2004 estimate: 49,891) Parkersburg, 33,099 (2004 estimate: 32,159) Wheeling, 31,419 (2004 estimate: 29,891) Morgantown, 26,809 (2004 estimate: 28,160) Weirton, 20,411 (2004 estimate: 19,691) Fairmont, 19,097 (2004 estimate: 18,992)

Beckley, 17,254 (2004 estimate: 16,994) Clarksburg, 16,743 (2004 estimate: 16,522) Martinsburg, 14,972 (2004 estimate: 15,635) South Charleston, 13,390 (2004 estimate: 12,869) St. Albans, 11,567 (2004 estimate: 11,173) Bluefield, 11,451 (2004 estimate: 11,222) Vienna, 10,861 (2004 estimate: 10,767)

Towns and small cities

Barboursville Berkeley Springs Bridgeport Buckhannon Bunker Hill Charles Town Ranson Dunbar

Elkins Fayetteville Follansbee Franklin Grafton Grantsville Harpers Ferry Hinton

Hurricane Kenova Keyser Kingwood Lewisburg Madison Marlinton Moorefield

Moundsville Mullens New Martinsville Nitro Oak Hill Paden City Petersburg Philippi

Pleasant Valley Point Pleasant Princeton Ravenswood Richwood Ripley Romney Salem

Shepherdstown Summersville Teays Valley Welch Weston Westover White Sulphur Springs Williamson

Metropolitan Statistical Areas

Charleston, WV MSA Cumberland, MD-WV MSA Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV MSA Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH MSA Morgantown, WV MSA

Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna, WV-OH MSA Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH MSA Wheeling, WV-OH MSA Winchester, VA-WV MSA

Micropolitan Statistical Areas

Beckley, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area Bluefield, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area Clarksburg, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area

Fairmont, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area Oak Hill, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area Point Pleasant, WV-OH Micropolitan Statistical Area

Education

Main article: Education in West Virginia

Colleges and universities

Further information: List of colleges and universities in West Virginia

Alderson-Broaddus College Appalachian Bible College Bethany College Bluefield State College Concord University Davis and Elkins College Fairmont State University Glenville State College Marshall University Mountain State University Ohio Valley University Salem International University

Shepherd University University of Charleston West Liberty State College West Virginia Northern Community College West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine West Virginia State University West Virginia University Potomac State College of West Virginia University West Virginia University Institute of Technology West Virginia University at Parkersburg West Virginia Wesleyan College Wheeling Jesuit University

High schools

Further information: List of high schools in West Virginia

Professional sports teams

Main article: Sports in West Virginia

• Minor league baseball
  • Bluefield Orioles (Advanced Rookie League Appalachian League), Bluefield
  • Princeton Devil Rays (Appalachian League), Princeton
  • West Virginia Power (Class A South Atlantic League), Charleston

• Minor league hockey
  • Wheeling Nailers (East Coast Hockey League), Wheeling

• Basketball
  • West Virginia Wild (International Basketball League), Charleston

• Indoor football
  • Huntington Heroes (American Indoor Football League), Huntington
  • Ohio Valley Greyhounds (United Indoor Football), Wheeling

• Soccer
  • West Virginia Chaos (USL Premier Development League), Charleston

Symbols and designations

State colors	Old Gold and Blue	1963
State motto	Montani Semper Liberi ("Mountaineers Are Always Free")	1863
State nickname	Mountain State, Panhandle State (unofficial)
State slogan	Wild and Wonderful
Flora
State flower	Rhododendron Rhododendron maximum	1903
State tree	Sugar Maple Acer saccharum	1949
State fruit	Golden Delicious Apple Malus domestica	1995
Fauna
State bird	Cardinal Richmondena cardinalis	1949
State animal	Black Bear Ursus americanus	1973
State fish	Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis	1973
State butterfly	Monarch Butterfly Danaus plexippus	1995
State insect	Honey Bee Apis mellifera	2002
Geological
State gem	Silicified Mississippian Fossil Coral Lithostrotionella	1990
State soil	Monongahela Silt Loam	1997
Music
State songs	"The West Virginia Hills", "This Is My West Virginia", "West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (unofficial)	1963

Culture

See also: List of people from West Virginia

Film

See also: List of television shows and movies in West Virginia

Music

Main article: Music of West Virginia

Appalachian Music

West Virginia's folk heritage is a part of the Appalachian folk music tradition, and includes styles of fiddling, ballad singing, and other styles that draw on Scots-Irish music. Camp Washington-Carver, a Mountain Cultural Arts Center located at Clifftop in Fayette County, hosts an annual Appalachian String Band Festival [2]. The Capitol Complex in Charleston hosts The Vandalia Gathering, where traditional Appalachian musicians compete in contests and play in impromptu jam sessions and evening concerts over the course of the weekend [3].

Musical Innovation

West Virginia's few urban centers are prominent spots of musical innovation. The Capitol Music Hall, in Wheeling, is the oldest performing place of its kind in the state, and has hosted a wide variety of acts, from national tours to the local Wheeling Symphony Orchestra.

The West Virginia Cultural Center in Charleston is home to the West Virginia Division of Culture and History which helps underwrite and coordinate a large number of musical activities. The Center is also home to Mountain Stage, the internationally broadcast live-performance music radio program established in 1983. The program also travels to other venues in the state such as the West Virgina Creative Arts Center in Morgantown.

The Center hosts concerts sponsored by the Friends of Old Time Music and Dance (FOOTMAD), which brings an assortment of acoustic roots music to West Virginians. The Center also hosts the West Virginia Dance Festival, which features classical and modern dance.

Other music institutions in West Virginia include the Mountaineer Opera House in Milton. The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1939, as the Charleston Civic Orchestra, before becoming the Charleston Symphony Orchestra in 1943. The first conductor was William R. Wiant, followed by the prominent conductor Antonio Modarelli.

The town of Glenville has long been home to the annual West Virginia State Folk Festival.

Notes and references

General references

• Charles H. Ambler, A History of Education in West Virginia From Early Colonial Times to 1949 (1951), 1000 pages
• Charles H. Ambler and Festus P. Summers. West Virginia, the Mountain State (1958) a standard history
• Jane S. Becker, Inventing Tradition: Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930-1940 1998.
• Richard A. Brisbin, et al. West Virginia Politics and Government (1996)
• James Morton Callahan, History of West Virginia (1923) 3 vol
• John C. Campbell, The Southern Highlander and His Homeland (1921)reissued 1969.
• Richard Orr Curry, A House Divided: A Study of Statehood Politics and Copperhead Movement in West Virginia (1964)
• Donald Edward Davis. Where There Are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians 2000.
• Ronald D, Eller. Miners, Millhands, and Mountaineers: Industrialization of the Appalachian South, 1880–1930 1982.
• Carl E. Feather, Mountain People in a Flat Land: A Popular History of Appalachian Migration to Northeast Ohio, 1940–1965. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1998.
• Thomas R. Ford ed. The Southern Appalachian Region: A Survey. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1967.
• Horace Kephart, Our Southern Highlanders. Rev. ed. New York: Macmillan, 1922. Reprinted as Our Southern Highlanders: A Narrative of Adventure in the Southern Appalachians and a Study of Life among the Mountaineers . With an Introduction by George Ellison. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1976.
• Gerald Milnes, Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999.
• Otis K. Rice, The Allegheny Frontier: West Virginia Beginnings, 1730-1830 (1970),
• Otis K. Rice and Stephen W. Brown, West Virginia: A History, 2d ed. ( Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1993), standard
• Curtis Seltzer, Fire in the Hole: Miners and Managers in the American Coal Industry (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1985), conflict in the coal industry to the 1980s.
• Joe William Trotter Jr., Coal, Class, and Color: Blacks in Southern West Virginia, 1915-32 (1990)
• John Alexander Williams, West Virginia: A History for Beginners. 2nd ed. Charleston, W.Va.: Appalachian Editions, 1997.
• John Alexander Williams. West Virginia: A Bicentennial History (1976)
• John Alexander Williams. West Virginia and the Captains of Industry 1976.
• John Alexander Williams. Appalachia: A History (2002)

Primary Sources

• Elizabeth Cometti, and Festus P. Summers. The Thirty-fifth State: A Documentary History of West Virginia. Morgantown: West Virginia University Library, 1966.

See also

• West Virginia State Highways
• List of West Virginia wildlife management areas
• List of West Virginia state parks
• List of newspapers in West Virginia
• List of television stations in West Virginia
• Lost counties, cities, and towns of Virginia

External links

• State of West Virginia Government
• West Virginia Cyclopedia Wiki-Site
• West Virginia Online
• Ohio Valley Roads
• West Virginia Visitor's Guide
• West Virginia's Historical Markers
• West Virginia Division of Culture and History - West Virginia Archives and History