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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.

How a circus clown helped relocate W.Va. capital to Charleston

Lolo, the clown, helped establish Charleston as the capital of West Virginia.
It might sound like a joke, but it's true that a circus clown helped relocate the West Virginia capital from Wheeling to Charleston, its...

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

Throughout the history of Appalachia, one may encounter the legend of granny witches—solitary women believed to possess uncanny powers. Many served in very real...

Wheeling in the 1820s was proposed as new U.S. capital

There was a time when Wheeling was being proposed as the location for a new capital of the U.S. At the junction of the...

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...

Lost W.Va. saltworks known to only a few locals, adventurers

David Sibray inspects stonework in a thicket near the old saltworks.
The legend of the lost Mercer Saltworks near the New River in southern West Virginia may be remembered now by only a few locals...

Untangling the tale of frontier heroine Mary Draper Ingles

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

Tale of Eckerlin Brothers portrays struggle for religious freedom

A historic marker along the Cheat River recalls the settlement of Dunkards in the mid-1700s.
The history of West Virginia is filled with stories of religious diversity—of hermits and holy men and women who escaped the clamor and confines...

1863 map reveals change in the West Virginia landscape

Historic map showing West Virginia 1864
How has West Virginia changed over the last 150 years? Three counties in the southern state had yet to be created and two had yet...

Wolf Moon recalls W.Va. as last domain of wolves

The Wolf Moon customarily rises over the West Virginia hills in January.
The Wolf Moon of January recalls a time when the howls of wolves haunted the Mountain State, the final eastern stronghold in the U.S....

Rare memoir recalls national park before Thurmond ghost town

Riding horseback, Captain William Thurmond was a familiar site in the New River Gorge.
Perhaps no small town in West Virginia has gained the worldwide notoriety that the tiny Town of Thurmond has enjoyed. A ghost town located...

Mother's Day: the holiday Anna Jarvis created — then tried to...

Anna Jarvis, of Grafton, West Virginia, created Mother's Day and then tried to end it.
More than a century has passed since West Virginia native Anna Jarvis planned the first Mother's Day service, and the second Sunday of May...

Hikers, paddlers can visit New River's lost "Island of the Dead"

Headstones hide in the dim light of wooded Red Ash Island in the New River Gorge.
THURMOND, W.Va. — Victims of a smallpox pandemic that swept through the New River Gorge in the late 1800s may have been buried in...

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