Portal:West Virginia

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The West Virginia Portal

Panorama northwest, northeast and east from a ridge along West Virginia Route 42 between Elk Garden and Sulphur City in Mineral County, West Virginia (2016)

West Virginia is a landlocked state in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast, Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, and Ohio to the northwest. West Virginia is the 10th-smallest state by area and ranks as the 12th-least populous state, with a population of 1,793,716 residents. The capital and most populous city is Charleston with a population of 49,055.

West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key border state during the American Civil War. It was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state, one of two states (along with Nevada) admitted to the Union during the Civil War, and the second state to separate from another state, after Maine separated from Massachusetts in 1820. Some of its residents held slaves, but most were yeoman farmers, and the delegates provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in the new state constitution. The state legislature abolished slavery in the state, and at the same time ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery nationally on February 3, 1865.

West Virginia's northern panhandle extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio to form a tristate area, with Wheeling, Weirton, and Morgantown just across the border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Huntington in the southwest is close to Ohio and Kentucky, while Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry in the eastern panhandle region are considered part of the Washington metropolitan area, between Maryland and Virginia. West Virginia is often included in several U.S. geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, and the Southeastern United States. It is the only state entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission; the area is commonly defined as "Appalachia". (Full article...)

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Literary Hall, viewed from the south, facing West Main Street in Romney

Literary Hall is a mid-19th-century brick library, building and museum located in Romney, a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is located at the intersection of North High Street (West Virginia Route 28) and West Main Street (U.S. Route 50). Literary Hall was constructed between 1869 and 1870 by the Romney Literary Society.

Founded in 1819, the Romney Literary Society was the first literary organization of its kind in the present-day state of West Virginia, and one of the first in the United States. In 1846, the society constructed a building which housed the Romney Classical Institute and its library. The Romney Literary Society and the Romney Classical Institute both flourished and continued to grow in importance and influence until the onset of the American Civil War in 1861. (Full article...)

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Lea Ann Parsley (born June 12, 1968) is a retired American skeleton racer from Granville, Ohio. She was the first female skeleton athlete to win a world cup medal for the United States and earned a silver medal in the women's skeleton event, a first in Olympic history, during the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. She was also one of eight athletes chosen to carry the World Trade Center flag into the Opening Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various West Virginia-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1A slave woman tending to a white baby in West Virginia, 1865 (from West Virginia)
Image 2Seneca Rocks, Pendleton County (from West Virginia)
Image 3From left, Senator Joe Manchin, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and Representative David McKinley (2017) (from West Virginia)
Image 4The Linsly Institute building in Wheeling, West Virginia, which served as the state's first capitol building from statehood in 1863 until March 28, 1870, when the capitol was transferred to Charleston, West Virginia (from History of West Virginia)
Image 51751 Fry-Jefferson map showing early ferries and established colonial borders before the French And Indian War (from History of West Virginia)
Image 6Harpers Ferry alternated between Confederate and Union rule eight times during the American Civil War, and was finally annexed by West Virginia. (from West Virginia)
Image 7Child labor in the coal mines of West Virginia, 1908 (from West Virginia)
Image 8State of Westylvania proposed to the U.S. Congress (from West Virginia)
Image 9Counties (in blue) approving Virginia's secession from the U.S. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 10John S. Carlile, a leader during the First Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 11Votes by county in the October 1861 statehood vote (from West Virginia)
Image 12Saturday afternoon street scene, Welch, McDowell County, 1946 (from West Virginia)
Image 13Map of Virginia dated June 13, 1861, featuring the percentage of slave population within each county at the 1860 census and the proposed state of Kanawha (from West Virginia)
Image 14Bituminous coal seam in southwestern West Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 15Escaped slave broadside, Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1845 (from West Virginia)
Image 16West Virginia population density map (from West Virginia)
Image 17Historical coat of arms of West Virginia (illustrated, 1876) (from West Virginia)
Image 18Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, changed hands a dozen times during the American Civil War. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 19Turnout by county in the October 24, 1861, West Virginia statehood vote (from History of West Virginia)
Image 20The West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston is home to the West Virginia Legislature. (from West Virginia)
Image 21A view of the New River in West Virginia, the world's third-oldest river geologically (from History of West Virginia)
Image 22The Veterans Memorial Bridge carries US 22 from Weirton WV into Ohio. (from West Virginia)
Image 23Packed circles diagram showing estimates of the ethnic origins of people in West Virginia in 2021. (from West Virginia)
Image 24Spruce Knob is the highest point in West Virginia and the Allegheny Mountains. (from West Virginia)
Image 251715 Nicolas de Fer map showing the Native American areas known as Tionontatacaga and Calicuas (from History of West Virginia)
Image 26Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from History of West Virginia)
Image 27Bluefield, a major center for coal mining, in 2014 (from West Virginia)
Image 28West Virginia Independence Hall, site of the Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 29Francis H. Pierpont, a leader during the Second Wheeling Convention (from West Virginia)
Image 30Shaded relief map of the Cumberland Plateau and Ridge-and-valley Appalachians (from West Virginia)
Image 31A toll plaza on the West Virginia Turnpike (from West Virginia)
Image 32Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a statue on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol (from West Virginia)

Racial plurality in West Virginia by county, per the 2020 U.S. census

Legend

Non-Hispanic White

70–80%

80–90%

90%+

(from West Virginia)

Image 34The iconic New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville (from West Virginia)
Image 35West Virginia is situated in the Appalachian Mountains, bounded by Allegheny Mountains, Ohio and Big Sandy rivers, and the Cumberland Mountains. (from West Virginia)
Image 36Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 37Köppen climate types of West Virginia, using 1991-2020 climate normals (from West Virginia)

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... that professor Ruth Ann Davis made the largest-ever single contribution to Potomac State College of West Virginia University to support nursing scholarships in memory of her mother?
... that the California Golden Bears men's basketball team won the 1959 NCAA University Division Basketball Championship Game by a single point over West Virginia?
... that the China Folk House Retreat dismantled a Chinese folk house and rebuilt it in West Virginia?
... that after Lew Dickey Sr. broke into the radio business by buying a station in West Virginia, his son would go on to own Cumulus Media?
... that James Dillon Armstrong was a Virginia state senator, a delegate to West Virginia's constitutional convention, and a circuit court judge while serving for more than 43 years as a Presbyterian church elder?
... that part of West Virginia's Princeton–Deepwater District railway was so steep that only shortened coal trains could ascend it?

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