David Sibray
Winter in West Virginia is a delightfully varied season. The Ohio and Potomac lowlands and sheltered southern valleys witness only a few blanketing snowfalls, though the Allegheny Mountains, rising to more than 4,000 feet above sea level, are practically Canadian in climate and can be beset by blinding squalls long into spring. Photographer Rick Burgess … Read more
FAYETTEVILLE, W. Va. — The nation’s newest national park, the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, is full of secrets, surprises, historic sites, and charming quirks, and chances are good that all of these are within just a day’s drive. The park is within an eight-hour drive of nearly 60 percent of the U.S. … Read more
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice and the Governor’s Highway Safety Program have announced that the state seat belt use rate for 2022 came in at 92.5 percent, a new record. The rate exceeds the national average of 90 percent. “It just doesn’t get better than being able to say West Virginians are using their … Read more
PETERSBURG, W.Va. — Roads leading through Dolly Sods in northern West Virginia will close to motor vehicles for the winter beginning on January 3, 2023, according to officials with the Monongahela National Forest. Rangers will close the gates on Forest Roads 19 and 75 to prevent emergencies in the high-elevation environment, according to Jim Morgan, … Read more
BECKLEY, W.Va. — Former West Virginians are increasingly interested in art that recalls the past in the Mountain State, says an artist launching a series of Christmas sketches he created more than a quarter-century ago. Seay Earehart, who is perhaps best known as the artist who creates monsters in the Stranger Things television series, says … Read more
INSTITUTE, W.Va. — West Virginia State University and Diversified Energy Co. are partnering to plant more than 10,000 trees around West Virginia in the coming year, thanks to a $125,000 donation Diversified made to fund the initiative. University President Ericke S. Cage said the project will engage many Mountain State communities, for which he is … Read more
State officials are urging West Virginians to help ensure broadband access across the Mountain State by confirming or challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s map of state broadband infrastructure, which appears to include mistakes. The West Virginia Office of Broadband and the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council are asking West Virginians to review their location and … Read more
RIPLEY, W.Va. — A community known for its events—including the state’s premiere arts-and-crafts festival—the City of Ripley is ushering in the Christmas season with a line-up that expands well beyond the usual. A two-mile race, a classical ballet, an old-fashioned parade, a World War II Christmas play, and a prize-filled “snowball drop” in the town’s … Read more
HARPERS FERRY, W.Va. — On December 3 and 4, 2022, visitors to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park are invited to explore a historical reenactment of the town during the 1864 Christmas season when it was a Union-garrisoned community. Park staff and volunteers will portray Federal soldiers and civilian workers who will talk about the town’s … Read more
CAIRO, W.Va. — With thorns the size of knives, this bizarre cousin of the black locust tree that’s common throughout West Virginia might have arrived in what’s now the Mountain State by prehistoric mastodon. Master naturalist Doug Wood has observed the species— known as the honey locust or thorny locust—in northern West Virginia along the … Read more
