History / Prehistory

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s mountains are often celebrated for their beauty, but they have also shaped some of the deadliest disasters in American history. Narrow river valleys have turned heavy rains into catastrophic floods. Rich coal seams fueled an industry that built communities while also exposing workers to extraordinary dangers. Tornadoes, blizzards, epidemics, explosions, … Read more

SARAH ANN, W.Va. — Long before highways reached into the mountains of southwestern West Virginia, people traveled narrow creek bottoms and mountain paths threading through some of Appalachia’s most rugged country. Families identified with the watersheds where they lived as much as with any town or county. That landscape, in some senses quintessentially Appalachian, fostered … Read more

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Netflix’s new adaptation of Little House on the Prairie is introducing a new generation to the hardships and hope of life on the American frontier. Viewers are following the Ingalls family as they struggle to build a home on the Kansas prairie, where survival depends on hard work, perseverance, and family strength. For West Virginians—and … Read more

The first documented use of indirect artillery fire in modern warfare is credited to an 18-year-old Confederate gunner on a wooded hillside above today’s New River Gorge. FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors arrive in Fayetteville to climb cliffs, ride bikes, raft the New River, and explore the forests surrounding the … Read more

RAVENSWOOD, W.Va. — Six years before the Declaration of Independence and nearly two decades before he became the first president of the United States, George Washington embarked on one of the most remarkable journeys of his life. The 38-year-old Virginian rode horseback across the Allegheny Mountains, climbed into a canoe at Fort Pitt, and spent … Read more

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — On a cold winter night in 1875 in West Virginia’s capital city, an angry mob surrounded the county jail demanding justice. Inside stood Deputy Sheriff T.S. Perry, determined to protect the prisoners entrusted to his care. He lost that battle. Years later, faced with another mob intent on taking lives, Perry made … Read more

WHEELING, W.Va. — A glance at a map of West Virginia raises an obvious question. Why does the Mountain State have two narrow strips of land reaching toward opposite corners of the eastern United States? One extends northward for more than 60 miles between Ohio and Pennsylvania. The other stretches eastward from the Allegheny Front … Read more

BIG SANDY VALLEY, W.Va. — Long before West Virginia became a state, before railroads climbed its mountains or highways threaded its valleys, the Appalachian wilderness began where civilization ended. To Americans living in Philadelphia or the young nation’s capital on the Potomac, the mountains beyond the Blue Ridge marked the edge of the known world. … Read more

BEVERLY, W.Va. — Every battlefield has its stories. Some are preserved in military reports and official records, while others endure because generations of local families refused to let them be forgotten. Among the most enduring tales from the Battle of Rich Mountain is that of Confederate Capt. DeLaguel, who, according to Randolph County tradition, spent … Read more

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As another round of dangerous summer heat settles across much of the eastern United States, many West Virginians will find relief in the Mountain State’s mountains, forests, and cool streams. Yet history shows that the state has endured some of the nation’s most remarkable heat waves, including two days when temperatures soared … Read more