History / Prehistory

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — By the final days of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln faced one of the most unusual decisions of his presidency. The Civil War had entered its second winter, Confederate armies still occupied much of the South, and the Union’s future remained uncertain. Yet waiting on Lincoln’s desk was legislation unlike anything any previous … Read more

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Most Americans know there is a Virginia and a West Virginia, but far fewer know why. The answer is not simply that the Civil War divided the nation. It also divided Virginia, producing the only permanent change to the map of the United States during the conflict. Before the war began in … Read more

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In one of the strangest episodes in American political history, half of the West Virginia state Senate fled the state Capitol, boarded a train to Ohio, and effectively shut down state government. They weren’t prompted by war, natural disaster, or criminal charges. It was political. For more than a week in 1911, … Read more

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Long before West Virginia became America’s 35th state, it came remarkably close to becoming something very different—Britain’s 14th colony. Only a few years after Britain’s victory in the French and Indian War, influential English politicians, wealthy land speculators, and prominent Americans—including Benjamin Franklin—proposed creating a new colony west of the Allegheny Mountains. … Read more

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