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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.

A young George Washington surveys the lands along the Ohio River during one of his frontier expeditions in the early 1770s. As a Virginia surveyor, soldier, and land speculator, Washington traveled the upper Ohio Valley to evaluate its forests, waterways, and settlement potential, helping shape the region's early colonial history. (WVExplorer Illustration)
History / Prehistory

Before the American Revolution, West Virginia almost became Britain’s 14th colony, Vandalia

by David Sibray

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

The collapsed Silver Bridge lies submerged in the Ohio River after its catastrophic failure on Dec. 15, 1967. Although not the deadliest disaster in West Virginia history, the collapse claimed 46 lives and transformed bridge inspection standards across the United States.
History / Prehistory

West Virginia’s deadliest disasters—10 tragedies that changed U.S. history

by David Sibray

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

Rev. Dyke Garrett, the mountain preacher who rode horseback through the rugged hills of southwestern West Virginia for more than 50 years, ministers to a gathering of Appalachian families. Garrett became one of the few trusted figures among both the Hatfield and McCoy families during the infamous feud.
History / Prehistory

Devil Anse Hatfield’s mountain preacher ended America’s most famous family feud

by David Sibray

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

An illustration contrasts two American frontiers—the forested mountains of early West Virginia and the open prairie later immortalized by Laura Ingalls Wilder—revealing how pioneer life unfolded across very different landscapes and generations.
History / Prehistory

Loved Little House on the Prairie? Discover West Virginia’s earlier frontier

by Clyde Craig

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

George Washington meets Seneca leader Guyasuta beside the Ohio River during his 1770 expedition into the western frontier. Washington later wrote that Native ceremonial customs delayed his departure as the two men discussed the country beyond the Ohio, a meeting that reflected the diplomacy shaping the future American frontier.
History / Prehistory

Before he was president, George Washington explored the Ohio Valley of today’s W.Va.

by David Sibray

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

Alone in the vast Appalachian wilderness, Jenny Wiley follows a rocky mountain stream toward freedom in this imagined late nineteenth-century-style wood engraving inspired by her legendary escape.
History / Prehistory

Before West Virginia, there was wilderness: Why Appalachia still remembers Jenny Wiley

by David Sibray

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

Wounded Confederate Capt. DeLaguel receives water and shelter from the White family after reportedly crawling for three days through the Allegheny wilderness following the Battle of Rich Mountain in July 1861. The scene is based on a long-preserved Randolph County tradition. (WVExplorer illustration)
History / Prehistory

The wounded captain who crawled off Rich Mountain

by David Sibray

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