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Welcome to the History news directory at West Virginia Explorer, where you’ll find an archive of the most recent West Virginia history news published at West Virginia Explorer.

West Virginia settlers survived harsh winters through mutual support

Twin Falls Homestead
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Winter in the rugged mountains of what is now West Virginia could be perilous. An overnight snow squall or a sudden...

Wolf Moon of January recalls West Virginia as last domain of...

The Wolf Moon customarily rises over the West Virginia hills in January.
BECKLEY, W.Va. — January’s Wolf Moon harks back to a time when the haunting howl of wolves echoed across the Mountain State, the final...

Coal mining massacre near New River Gorge in W.Va. largely lost...

David Sibray at the Stanaford Massacre Site
STANAFORD, W.Va. — No marker commemorates the tragedy, few locals know of the matter, and historians are not fully in agreement about what transpired....

Devil's Saddle poem tells of girl's meeting with W.Va. "granny witch"

Sally Cooper Lashed The Village Boys Who Called Her Witch.
ANTIOCH, W.Va. — Throughout the history of Appalachia, one may encounter the legend of granny witches—solitary women believed to possess uncanny powers. Many served...

What historians get wrong about frontier heroine Mary Draper Ingles

Mary Draper Ingles is immortalized in bronze at Radford, Virginia.
HINTON, W.Va. — The tale of Mary Draper Ingles—of her escape from Shawnee captors and her return through the mountains—is the ideal American frontier...

Monument to coal baron in W.Va. hidden deep within New River...

David Sibray At Beury Monument in West Virginia
QUNNIMONT, W.Va. — There's no shortage of interesting things to see in the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia. A...

Historian says Tecumseh may have been born in West Virginia, not...

Tecumseh confronts William Henry Harrison
JANE LEW, W.Va. — It's widely accepted that Tecumseh was born in what's now Ohio, but a handful of historians contend that one of...

Historian reclassifies Civil War "skirmish" in W.Va. as all-out battle

Photograph Of James A. Miller 1860
HURRICANE, W.Va. — Early research on a Civil War engagement in West Virginia at Hurricane Bridge underestimated the number of soldiers involved. This led...

Mountainous West Virginia haunted by the ghosts of ancient rivers

David Sibray At Grandview West Virginia
WEST VIRGINIA IS HAUNTED by the ghosts of rivers that no longer exist. They writhe like snakes through its mountains, nearly invisible to the...

Then, there was the time that West Virginia had four governors...

The gilded dome of the West Virginia Capitol stands out amid foliage at Charleston, West Virginia, in Kanawha County, in the Metro Valley Region.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Think there's too much government? As complex as politics get in West Virginia, there was a time in the late 1800s...

Kanawha Valley in W.Va. had highest concentration of burial mounds

Map Mounds In The Kanawha Valley
SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Kanawha Valley in western West Virginia once had the highest concentration of burial mounds in North America, though most...

A little girl once saved a train on the West Virginia...

The West Virginia Short Line Railroad meandered along Fishing Creek through Jacksonburg, West Virginia, in Wetzel County.
PINE GROVE, W.Va. — Short-line railroads in West Virginia were built to serve communities and industries not reached by significant railroad companies. While the Baltimore...

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