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Friday, February 7, 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.

UBB Mine Disaster Memorial has helped some heal

UBB Memorial at Whitesville
All it took was a spark to ignite an explosion that sent hurricane-force winds tearing through mines beneath the mountains near Montcoal in southern...

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...

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...

Historic Tyree Tavern opens window on West Virginia’s past

The Tyree Tavern overlooks the old Midland Trail (U.S. 60) near the New River Gorge.
A team of horses races across winding mountain roads, urged onward by the crack of a stage driver’s whip. Inside the coach, six weary...

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...

Shepherd Civil War center offers series of free online programs

The George Tyler Moore Center for Civil War History occupies one of many historic structures in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
The Civil War center at Shepherd University is hosting a series of free programs online beginning April 17 to help inform, educate, and entertain...

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...

Two historical Black buildings in Bluefield added to National Register

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — At the corner of Logan and Wayne streets on the north side of town sit two nondescript buildings, one brick and...

Mountainous West Virginia haunted by the ghosts of ancient rivers

WEST VIRGINIA IS HAUNTED by the ghosts of rivers that no longer exist. They writhe like snakes through its mountains, nearly invisible to the...

Hikers, paddlers may visit lost "Island of the Dead" in the...

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...

Trail, climbing areas reopen after New River Gorge fire

Thunder Buttress at Beauty Mountain, Fayette County, New River Gorge Region
LANSING, W.Va. -- The Endless Wall Trail and adjacent climbing access areas above the New River south of the New River Gorge Bridge have...

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

ANTIOCH, W.Va. — Throughout the history of Appalachia, one may encounter the legend of granny witches—solitary women believed to possess uncanny powers. Many served...

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