The history and prehistory of West Virginia reveal a fascinating journey from ancient Native American cultures to its role in America’s story. Prehistoric sites, such as the Grave Creek Mound, showcase the region’s mound-building cultures that left behind impressive burial mounds and earthworks. Later, European settlers ventured into the rugged Appalachian Mountains, forging frontier communities and thriving amidst challenging terrain. During the American Civil War, West Virginia famously seceded from Virginia to remain loyal to the Union, becoming the 35th state in 1863. Coal mining played a vital role in shaping West Virginia’s economy and identity, fueling America’s industrial growth and leaving a lasting legacy in the state’s communities and culture. Today, visitors can explore historic towns, Civil War battlefields, and preserved pioneer homesteads that tell the rich, enduring story of West Virginia’s resilient spirit and deep mountain roots.
CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — In the Zion Episcopal churchyard in Charles Town, West Virginia, lies the grave of John Yates Beall, one of the state’s most audacious Confederate partisans. Beall was born in Jefferson County, Virginia, in 1835, and grew up in a wealthy, slave owning family. When the American Civil War broke out in … Read more
GLEN DALE, W.Va. — Lone graves aren’t rare in West Virginia. Many pioneers and settlers perished in its mountains, far from friends and family. However, one burial stands out as a remarkable and mysterious example. The grave of an unknown priest on a ridge high above Middle Grave Creek near the Ohio River illustrates religious … Read more
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In the spring of 1974, an unassuming school board meeting in Kanawha County ignited a tempest that would engulf classrooms, coal mines, homes, and headlines in a bitter clash over textbooks and values. It was no ordinary curriculum dispute. It erupted into what historians and educators recall as one of the most … Read more
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — When you think of West Virginia, the name might conjure up images of mountains, forests, and waterfalls—wild and wonderful—a place apart from Virginia, its larger neighbor to the east. But the name West Virginia was not inevitable. In fact, in the early days of the The Kanawha River above Kanawha Falls. (Photo … Read more
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Glance at a road map of West Virginia, and you’ll spot a striking blank space just east of the state’s capital. Although the valley around Charleston ranks among the most densely populated regions in West Virginia, the land to the east tells a different story. Few roads cut through its thick forests—a … Read more
STANAFORD, W.Va. — A quiet residential community outside the city of Beckley, perhaps best known for its scenic views of the Piney Creek Gorge, Stanaford today gives little hint of the labor-related violence that once stained its soil. More than a century ago, on February 25, 1903, this village was the site of one of … Read more
SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — In a ravine beside the U.S. 19 expressway near Summersville Lake, 48 graves lie beneath the trees, marked by small stones. Paddlers and kayakers by the hundreds walk past on their way to the water, rarely pausing at the modest memorial. Few may realize that beneath this quiet ground are the remains … Read more
MOUNTAIN COVE, W.Va. — In a remote wilderness near the New River Gorge in what’s now West Virginia, a mysterious experiment in religion and community emerged in the early 1850s. Known as “Mountain Cove,” the short-lived settlement sought to bridge the earthly and the divine through Christian Spiritualism. Two ministers from New York—James L. Scott … Read more
JOLO, W.Va. — On a warm Sunday in late May 2012, a locally well-known Pentecostal pastor named Mack Wolford invited friends and family to what he billed as “a homecoming like the old days,” a day of music, prayer and the spiritual “signs” drawn from the King James Bible—speaking in tongues, healing by the laying … Read more
MARTINSBURG, W.Va — The prosperous manufacturing town of Martinsburg in Berkeley County, West Virginia, was thrust into turmoil at the outset of the Civil War, and its citizens had to decide where their allegiance lay. As the secession movement gathered steam in Virginia in the early months of 1861, most of the county’s residents opposed … Read more
