West Virginia culture is a captivating blend of rich Appalachian traditions and vibrant high culture infused with the jazz of surrounding U.S. cities like Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. The state is renowned for its deep-rooted Appalachian heritage, which is showcased through folk music, storytelling, and traditional crafts such as quilting and woodcarving. Visitors can experience this authentic culture at local festivals and heritage museums throughout the Mountain State. At the same time, West Virginia also embraces high culture, with world-class performances at the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, acclaimed theater productions at the Greenbrier Valley Theatre, and art exhibitions at the Huntington Museum of Art. This unique mix of mountain traditions and refined artistic offerings makes West Virginia a true cultural gem in the heart of Appalachia.
The new Hatfield-McCoy Country Museum at Williamson, West Virginia, on the Kentucky border, features the world’s largest collection of artifacts of the world-famous Appalachian feud, a resource bound to help draw more visitors to the region. A stream of news outlets began touring the site as soon as its doors opened, according to Professor Bill … Read more
Coming off its successful first year, Greater Huntington launches its second season of weekday family festivities during “Funington” in June and July.The region-wide program provides discounts and specific scheduling to help area families arrange family-fun events, according to Anna Adkins, spokesman for the Cabell-Huntington Convention and Visitors Bureau.Adkins said the program was so successful in … Read more
Adventures on the Gorge has been named one of the top five Mother’s Day destinations in the U.S. by national travel and realty magazine World Property Journal.Noting the resort’s recent ranking by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top adventure resorts in the country, author Steve Winston suggests active moms “might enjoy … Read more
For more than a year after this iconic photograph of the New River Gorge hit social media, West Virginia Explorer editor David Sibray spent countless hours attempting to find its then-unnamed source, Wendy Parks Scott. Scott had published the popular image without a watermark, and the image went viral, so it appeared the editor might never get … Read more
Photojournalist Anne Johnson on May 1 stopped on the flank of Powell Mountain in central West Virginia to visit its regionally famous inhabitant — a solitary, free-range goat that for 17 years has called the high-ground home. Johnson, whose 2015 video of an encounter with the white, wary herbivore has picked-up steam on social media, reports … Read more
As a result of the year’s strange weather, annual wildflower walks being led by park rangers in southern West Virginia this weekend are expected to include the unexpected.The walks, which are scheduled at Babcock, Hawks Nest, and Pipestem Resort state parks and in the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, will at least be … Read more
PAX, W.Va. — Interest in West Virginia’s haunted places is growing, says a Web developer whose guide to West Virginia ghosts is now ranked No. 1 for hauntings in the United States.The increasing interest in spooky locales is likely a result of a hunger for the paranormal nationally as well as in-state efforts to market … Read more
Do you have a favorite West Virginia ramp feast you’d like to share with the public? We’d like to hear from you. Now in its fourth year of publication, our guide to Ramp Feasts and Festivals is annually visited by more than 10,000 visitors, according to publisher David Sibray, who encourages readers to share the list of celebrations of this spring-blooming … Read more
A pioneering team of scholars who are dating old log structures in West Virginia has discovered rare, previously undocumented examples of log construction and a mysterious lack of early cabins. Dr. Kristen de Graauw, of the Historic Timbers Project, says she and research partner Shawn Cockrell have notably found two extraordinary diamond-notched structures, of which, … Read more
SANDSTONE, W.Va. — Native inhabitants of what would become West Virginia were preparing in late summer for the onslaught of winter — the subject of a September 5 program at the National Park Service’s Sandstone Visitor Center off I-64. The 10 a.m.-4 p.m. interactive program is free and open to the public and will feature reenactors renowned … Read more
