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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.

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...

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...

B&O Railroad completed to Wheeling on Jan. 1, 1853

Railroad architecture at Grafton, WV, Taylor County, Monongahela Valley Region
On January 1, 1853, the first train arrived in Wheeling, West Virginia, (then Virginia) on the newly completed Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the first...

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...

Only ruins remain of Blue Sulphur Springs resort east of Huntington

ONA, W.Va. — In a nondescript woodland along US-60 (with a modern concrete bridge looming in the background) lies the site of what was...

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...

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...

Civil War-era mystery of Burning Springs remains unsolved

Visitors gather at Burning Springs Park.
BURNING SPRINGS, W.Va. — Curious motorists traveling the valley of the Little Kanawha River southwest of Parkersburg may or may not stop at historic...

Wolf Moon recalls West Virginia 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....

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...

Log cabin researchers explore rare, mysterious circumstances in W.Va.

A pioneering team of scholars who are dating old log structures in West Virginia has discovered rare, previously undocumented examples of log construction and...

Fort Scammon, an ideal spot for an afternoon outing

View from Fort Scammon, Charleston, West Virginia, Kanawha County, Metro Valley Region
I finally made it to Fort Scammon, a Civil War-era earthwork atop what's now Fort Hill in Charleston, West Virginia, No one died at the fort, or...

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