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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.

WV, W.Va.: which abbreviation for West Virginia is correct?

Abbreviation for West Virginia
Throughout West Virginia Explorer you'll find West Virginia abbreviated as both WV and W.Va. Which is the correct abbreviation for West Virginia? According to official...

Mystery surrounds W.Va. tale of frontier slave who defended fort

A historic marker recounting a version of the Dick Pointer tale stands near his monument.
LEWISBURG, W.Va. — Settlers who pushed westward across the Alleghenies in the 1700s engaged in a deadly gamble. Despite the threat of attack by...

The word "hillbilly" was once a term of endearment in Appalachia

"Dance" by Porte Crayon, an illustration for Harper's New Monthly Magazine; May 1872.
RICHWOOD, W.Va. — The word "hillbilly" was a term of endearment in the southern Appalachian Mountains region in the early 1800s, though it later...

Here's how the West Virginia town of "Hundred" got its unique...

In the 1850s, illustrator Porte Crayon (David Hunter Strother) captured Henry Church "Old Hundred" for Harper's Magazine.
HUNDRED, W.Va. — There was a time soon after the completion of the B&O Railroad when passengers would clamber to the car windows to...

How the Pruntytown reformatory became a bogeyman in West Virginia

A farmhouse at Pruntytown was once part of the infamous boys' reformatory complex.
PRUNTYTOWN, W.Va. — If you were an unruly boy growing up in West Virginia before the 1980s, there's a chance your misbehaviors were met...

The Great Seal of West Virginia—what its many strange symbols mean

An illustration of the West Virginia Coat of Arms includes elements set for by the state in 1863.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Great Seal of West Virginia may be as fascinating to some West Virginians as the U.S. dollar bill is for...

On the Ohio River, Wheeling was once proposed as a new...

WHEELING, W.Va. — There was a time when Wheeling was being proposed as the location for a new capital of the U.S., though the...

Three little-known facts about West Virginia's moundbuilders

The largest of the two Oak Mounds rises overlooks the West Fork River.
The term “moundbuilder” is often used to describe two ancient cultures that archaeologists now know as the Adena and the Hopewell. These peoples lived...

New River Gorge region in West Virginia once a bloody "Wild...

Montgomery, West Virginia, as it appear about 1910. (Photo: Joe Green Collection)
FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — For millions of tourists, Fayette County and its New River Gorge is a destination for healing and rejuvenation—a wonderland of hiking...

Strange rock carvings greeted early explorers of West Virginia

Images of beasts and men decorate a boulder at the Half-Moon archaeological site, now submerged beneath the Ohio River.
WEIRTON, W.Va. — When pioneers and other explorers first ventured into what would become West Virginia, they encountered artifacts of a much earlier age...

Remote monument recalls origins of Farley family in New River valley

A monument at Old Farley memorializes Drewry Farley.
PIPESTEM, W.Va. — Almost all of the thousands of people named "Farley" in the New River valley region in southern West Virginia come from...

Forest fire burning southeast of New River Gorge Bridge

Smoke wreaths Idol Point, New River Gorge, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve
UPDATE (9:47 a.m., 4-24-2014): The fire that swept the wall of the New River Gorge southeast of the New River Gorge Bridge was 90...

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