Culture
West Virginia bottler wins silver award at international water competition
BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. — Le Sage Natural Water, of Lesage, has been awarded a silver medal for its purified water at the 36th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting competition in the eastern panhandle of the Mountain State. The world’s most prestigious...
The house that vanished overnight: West Virginia’s Neerly House haunting
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — At least two mysteries tangle in the tale of the Neerly house. What happened to...
Jan. 15 marks Midwinter Day, but the most wintry weather is ahead in West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — By mid-January, many West Virginians will notice a subtle but welcome change:...
The horrors of Skull Run recounted by late West Virginia historian
SKULL RUN, W.Va. — A traveler motoring through the pastures in this wooded section off the Ohio...
Giant skeletons and buried copper plates—a strange Marion County folktale
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — In the hills and river bottoms of Marion County in north-central West Virginia, stories have long circulated that blur the line between frontier memory and myth. Few are as strange or as enduring as a tale recorded by the late historian Glenn D....
Beloved story of “Frosty the Snowman” was born in snowy highlands of West Virginia
KEYSER, W.Va. — One of America’s most enduring holiday songs—and the animated television specials it inspired—has roots that trace back to the snowy Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia. Though its lyrics never name a place, “Frosty the Snowman” was co-written by a...
Frank James entered a West Virginia bank in 1872 — and left without robbing it
PRINCETON, W.Va. — In 1872, when the name Frank James still carried the weight of fear and notoriety across the border states, the older brother of Jesse James quietly rode into Princeton, West Virginia, and walked straight into the Bank of Princeton—not to rob it,...
Colonel Ludington’s legendary giant ox was real, and it weighed 4,450 pounds
FRANKFORD, W.Va. — Long before viral videos and roadside attractions, West Virginia produced a creature so outsized that stories about him drifted into legend. Yet, despite decades of exaggeration, the animal at the center of the tale did exist. According to the late...