History / Prehistory

BURLINGTON, W.Va. — Railroads in West Virginia are most often associated with the export of coal and timber, but at least one small railway in the state’s eastern panhandle was built for fruit. The Twin Mountains and Potomac Railroad, otherwise known as the “TM&P,” was built to carry fruit from orchards near Burlington, West Virginia, … Read more

GRANTSVILLE, W.Va. — Occasionally, you might hear old-timers speak of a time when herds of wild hogs were hunted in the West Virginia hills. Chances are, they never witnessed such a hunt, as the practice was a tradition so long ago that they likely heard of it from their grandparents. These hunts would have been … Read more

BURNING SPRINGS, W.Va. — On the night of May 9, 1863, a conflagration lit up the skies along the Little Kanawha River at Burning Springs at the site of the famous Rathbone Well, the first major oil well in West Virginia. As part of a Confederate initiative to injure the Union, Brigadier General William “Grumble” … Read more

PIPESTEM, W.Va. — Many of the thousands of people named “Farley” in the New River valley region in southern West Virginia trace their lineage back to one early settler, Drewry Farley. He and his wife, Mary Adkins Farley, established their family in an upland pasture overlooking the New River at the summit of what’s known … Read more

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Nationwide prohibition against alcohol consumption was launched in 1919 in the U.S., but West Virginia enacted its ban much earlier, and the results were deadly. In 1913, West Virginia passed the Yost Law, which was implemented on July 1, 1914. It imposed drastic changes in the lives of some West Virginians. On … Read more