West Virginia Explorer West Virginia Explorer News
Browse

History / Prehistory

The history and prehistory of West Virginia reveal a fascinating journey from ancient Native American cultures to its role in America’s story. Prehistoric sites, such as the Grave Creek Mound, showcase the region’s mound-building cultures that left behind impressive burial mounds and earthworks. Later, European settlers ventured into the rugged Appalachian Mountains, forging frontier communities and thriving amidst challenging terrain. During the American Civil War, West Virginia famously seceded from Virginia to remain loyal to the Union, becoming the 35th state in 1863. Coal mining played a vital role in shaping West Virginia’s economy and identity, fueling America’s industrial growth and leaving a lasting legacy in the state’s communities and culture. Today, visitors can explore historic towns, Civil War battlefields, and preserved pioneer homesteads that tell the rich, enduring story of West Virginia’s resilient spirit and deep mountain roots.

Coal miners pose with a mine locomotive at the drift mouth at Kaymoor in the New River Gorge. Coal companies established and named hundreds of mining communities across West Virginia during the industry's expansion. National Park Service photo.
History / Prehistory

Industrialization created a new naming system across West Virginia coalfields

by David Sibray

SKELTON, W.Va. — Industrialization changed the names on the map in parts of West Virginia on a scale that researchers have found unusual even among other American coal-producing regions. As railroads and coal companies developed the state’s coalfields in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they established hundreds of communities and became a major … Read more

Bones of Megalonyx illustrated in Caspar Wistar’s 1799 paper accompanying Thomas Jefferson’s account of fossils discovered in what is now West Virginia. The specimens helped scientists identify the animal as an extinct giant ground sloth. Courtesy Biodiversity Heritage Library/Public Domain.
History / Prehistory

West Virginia cave fossils helped Thomas Jefferson discover an extinct giant

by David Sibray

UNION, W.Va. — Fossil bones discovered in a West Virginia cave in 1796 and sent to Thomas Jefferson helped scientists identify an extinct giant, although researchers now believe the fossils came from a different cave than the one traditionally associated with the discovery. Local tradition attributed the fossils to Organ Cave in Greenbrier County, but … Read more

An artist’s interpretation of the “Panther Killer” legend associated with Ephraim “Big Eaf” Hatfield, father of William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield. A 1952 Logan County history related a tradition that Hatfield killed a panther with a hunting knife near present-day Red Jacket, West Virginia. Contemporary evidence establishing the episode as fact has not been found.
History / Prehistory

Before Devil Anse Hatfield, there was a giant

by David Sibray

RED JACKET, W.Va. — Long before William Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield became one of the most famous figures in Appalachian history, another Hatfield was remembered as a mountain giant along the Tug Fork. His name was Ephraim Hatfield, though generations knew him better as “Big Eaf.” He was the father of Devil Anse and several … Read more

The Ohio River curves through Brickyard Bend at New Cumberland, West Virginia, where more than 20 brick plants once produced millions of bricks for markets across the United States. (Photo by David Sibray)
History / Prehistory

This West Virginia town once made the bricks that paved American cities

by David Sibray

NEW CUMBERLAND, W.Va. — More than 20 brick plants once crowded what’s now a scenic stretch of the Ohio River, producing millions of bricks shipped to Pittsburgh and to cities hundreds of miles away, transforming a small West Virginia community into a nationally important industrial center. The concentration became so extensive that riverboat crews called … Read more

Employees of the Kanawha & Michigan Railway pose with Engine No. 547 in southern West Virginia in 1909, 18 years after the railroad's deadly Fourth of July wreck near Dunbar. (Photo courtesy West Virginia & Regional History Center, WVU Libraries)
History / Prehistory

They thought it was morning fog, then this West Virginia train hit a burning trestle

by David Sibray

Editor’s note: The following historical account by the late historian Nathan Goff Carter contains graphic descriptions of injuries and death. DUNBAR, W.Va. — On the morning of July 4, 1891, a passenger train departed Charleston for Columbus, carrying families, railroad employees, and excursionists bound for Independence Day celebrations. About eight miles into the journey, engineer Pat … Read more