History / Prehistory

FRAZIER’S BOTTOM, W.Va. — How did a great-nephew of George Washington come to be buried in a virtually forgotten graveyard in the Kanawha Valley near Winfield, West Virginia—more than 400 miles from the family’s Potomac Valley plantations? Historian and environmental geographer Alex Cole says that the cemetery’s elusive past and why the landmark is not … Read more

QUIET DELL, W.Va. — On the morning of March 18, 1932, Harry Powers plummeted through the gallows at the West Virginia Penitentiary and dangled for 11 minutes before being pronounced dead. His body hung limp, his lips still, never revealing his thoughts about the violent murders with which he had been charged. Who was Harry … Read more

THOMAS, W.Va. — The Allegheny Mountains in eastern West Virginia grow treacherous in winter—and hardly more so than along the western front of that range, which bears the brunt of blizzards coming off the Monongahela Valley. In 1885, twenty-year-old James B. Helmick came face-to-face with the savagery of the Alleghenies while hunting on Backbone Mountain. … Read more

COWEN, W.Va. — Cowen today is a sleepy town of 500, perhaps best known for its location near a quiet lake. It was hardly so in 1900 when railroads were first being extended into the dark interior of the Allegheny Mountains. One of the last ancient forests in the eastern U.S. was being timbered, and … Read more

PHILIPPI, W.Va. — Stored for years in an old barn, the creations of a rural mad scientist, the hardened cadavers known as the “Philippi Mummies” are as grotesque as anything you might imagine, and they’re attracting tourists to this quiet river town in the shadow of the Allegheny Mountains. Everything you’ve heard about them—it might … Read more

WEIRTON, W.Va. — When pioneers and other explorers first ventured into what would become West Virginia, they encountered artifacts of a much earlier age — carvings, burial mounds, and stone walls, the origins of which natives could not explain with certainty. Petroglyphs inscribed in rock featuring human and animal figures were perhaps the most striking … Read more

SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV—Shepherd University’s George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War will host a free author’s talk with historian Curtis Older on Thursday, October 12, at 7 p.m. in the center at 136 W. German St., Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Older will present from his book “Hood’s Defeat Near Fox’s Gap: Prelude to … Read more