PHILIPPI, W.Va. — Did Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis secretly meet in what is now West Virginia just days after the first land battle of the Civil War? It is a question that’s lingered for more than a century and a half, whispered in local lore, debated by historians, and preserved in the pages of … Read more
BECKLEY, W.Va. — West Virginia can be a snowy place. Though not nearly as snowy as Maine or Alaska, it does snow for much of winter, and winter storms have shaped its culture. This is especially so in the lofty Allegheny Mountains, where most of its ski resorts are located. Several key moments, both natural and … Read more
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, but to study it. The incident, preserved in a March … Read more
CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — On a September morning in 1856, attorney James Jackson awoke to learn that one of the people he claimed to be his property had stolen one of his horses and fled for freedom. Jackson was a member of one of Harrison County’s most prominent families and a relative of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. … Read more
FARMINGTON, W.Va. — Before dawn on November 20, 1968, a thunderous explosion ripped through Consolidation Coal Company’s No. 9 mine outside this Marion County town, sending smoke, flames, and debris high into the cold West Virginia sky. Within hours, the tragedy would become known simply as the Farmington Mine Disaster—a shorthand for one of the … Read more
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Rising above the end of this city’s central avenue, the prehistoric Criel Mound—one of the largest burial mounds in West Virginia—has long captivated both onlookers and archaeologists alike. Over the years, its origins have sparked countless theories—ranging from tales of mythic giants to speculation about a lost tribe of Israelites. In … Read more
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — When I moved to West Virginia in 2013, just out of grad school and anxious to learn more about the local archaeology, it didn’t take long to be introduced to the idea that West Virginia was too rugged and remote for Native Americans to live here permanently. I was told that the … Read more
BULLTOWN, W.Va. — On a quiet October morning in 1863—the year Abraham Lincoln declared slaves free—the hills above the Little Kanawha River erupted in gunfire. Col. William L. “Mudwall” Jackson and his troops launched what they hoped would be a decisive strike against a Union fort on a knoll above the bridge. What followed was … Read more
CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — In the Zion Episcopal churchyard in Charles Town, West Virginia, lies the grave of John Yates Beall, one of the state’s most audacious Confederate partisans. Beall was born in Jefferson County, Virginia, in 1835, and grew up in a wealthy, slave owning family. When the American Civil War broke out in … Read more
GLEN DALE, W.Va. — Lone graves aren’t rare in West Virginia. Many pioneers and settlers perished in its mountains, far from friends and family. However, one burial stands out as a remarkable and mysterious example. The grave of an unknown priest on a ridge high above Middle Grave Creek near the Ohio River illustrates religious … Read more
