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Wednesday, February 5, 2025

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.

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...

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...

Prehistoric relic on display in West Virginia was discovered by accident

CEREDO, W.Va. — On the south side of Main Street in the Town of Ceredo, West Virginia, a small community along the Ohio River...

Little-known Battle of Scary Creek in West Virginia one of first...

Scary Creek meanders through the Teays Valley.
SCARY, W.Va. — Though nothing remains on the battlefield along the Kanawha River today, the Battle of Scary Creek was one of the most...

Nightmarish mummies attracting curious to rural West Virginia

The fingers of a Philippi Mummy are drawn into crippled fists.
PHILIPPI, W.Va. — Stored for years in an old barn, the creations of a rural mad scientist, the hardened cadavers known as the "Philippi...

Mass grave at Lewisburg unique among Confederate monuments

Pennies on Rebel Grave, Lewisburg, West Virginia, Greenbrier County, Greenbrier Valley Region
LEWISBURG, W.Va.—Of the many historic landmarks in Lewisburg, West Virginia, perhaps none is more remarkable than a cross-shaped Confederate grave on a hill above...

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...

Thanksgiving Day anniversary was first celebrated in West Virginia

Union soldier Larkin Goldsmith Mead holds a Thanksgiving turkey at Camp Griffin, Virginia, c. 1861.
WHEELING, W.Va. — Thanksgiving Day was first celebrated in West Virginia before being celebrated nationally, thanks to a politician who hoped to provide some...

Historian at Shepherd U. to present study of Battle of South...

SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV—Shepherd University’s George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War will host a free author’s talk with historian Curtis Older...

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