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Friday, July 26, 2024

History

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.

Herds of wild hog once roamed the hills and mountains of...

GRANTSVILLE, W.Va. — Occasionally, you might hear old-timers speak of a time when herds of wild hogs were hunted in the West Virginia hills....

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...

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...

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...

Stonewall Jackson's cousin "Mudwall" led failed attack on fort in W.Va.

A line of trees follows a breastwork at the Bulltown Battlefield at Bulltown, West Virginia, in Braxton County.
BULLTOWN, W.Va. — During the first years of the U.S. Civil War, marauding bands of guerillas roamed the hills in what's now central West...

Mysteries surround lost Washington graves on Hurricane Creek in W.Va.

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...

Little "Two Mules and a Pony" rail line ran in eastern...

BURLINGTON, W.Va. — Railroads in West Virginia are most often associated with the export of coal and timber, but at least one small railway...

Did the first U.S. serial killer live in a quiet corner...

Harry Powers, of Clarksburg, West Virginia, appears calm in this police photo.
QUIET DELL, W.Va. — On the morning of March 18, 1932, Harry Powers plummeted through the gallows at the West Virginia Penitentiary and dangled...

Scrap marker remains to recount the tale of terrifying "Likker Charlie"...

CAMP CREEK, W.Va. — Only a few local historians may remember the obscure and chilling tale of Charles Anderson Mills, more infamously known in...

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

Far more than a few soldiers were engaged in the Battle of Hurricane Bridge.
HURRICANE, W.Va. — Early research on a Civil War engagement in West Virginia at Hurricane Bridge underestimated the number of soldiers involved. This led...

Think you've found an archaeological site in W.Va.? Here's what to...

Americorps members assist at an archaeological site in West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Some of the most common requests fielded by the Council for West Virginia Archaeology come from members of the public who...

Bizarre 'Wild West' massacre erupted in Cowen, West Virginia, in 1905

Richwood, West Virginia (WV) in 1910 was the center of a booming timber industry.
COWEN, W.Va. — Cowen today is a sleepy town of 500, perhaps best known for its location near a quiet lake. It was hardly...

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