Portal:West Virginia

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The West Virginia Portal

Panorama northwest, northeast and east from a ridge along West Virginia Route 42 between Elk Garden and Sulphur City in Mineral County, West Virginia (2016)

West Virginia is a landlocked state in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered by Pennsylvania to the north and east, Maryland to the east and northeast, Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, and Ohio to the northwest. West Virginia is the 10th-smallest state by area and ranks as the 12th-least populous state, with a population of 1,793,716 residents. The capital and most populous city is Charleston with a population of 49,055.

West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key border state during the American Civil War. It was the only state to form by separating from a Confederate state, one of two states (along with Nevada) admitted to the Union during the Civil War, and the second state to separate from another state, after Maine separated from Massachusetts in 1820. Some of its residents held slaves, but most were yeoman farmers, and the delegates provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in the new state constitution. The state legislature abolished slavery in the state, and at the same time ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery nationally on February 3, 1865.

West Virginia's northern panhandle extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio to form a tristate area, with Wheeling, Weirton, and Morgantown just across the border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Huntington in the southwest is close to Ohio and Kentucky, while Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry in the eastern panhandle region are considered part of the Washington metropolitan area, between Maryland and Virginia. West Virginia is often included in several U.S. geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, and the Southeastern United States. It is the only state entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission; the area is commonly defined as "Appalachia". (Full article...)

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John Rinehart Blue (October 13, 1905 – May 27, 1965) was an American military officer, educator, businessperson, and politician in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Blue was a Democratic member of the West Virginia House of Delegates representing Hampshire County, from 1953 until 1959.

Born in 1905 in Romney, West Virginia, Blue was a grandson of Lieutenant John Monroe Blue, a member of the 11th Virginia Cavalry during the American Civil War. Blue graduated from Presbyterian College in 1928 and completed his graduate studies at West Virginia University. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and served from 1942 until 1946, and afterward served as a first lieutenant in the 398th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 100th Airborne Division of the U.S. Army Reserve. From 1948 until his death, Blue operated a Ben Franklin five and dime variety store in Romney. He also served as principal of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind Advanced School for the Deaf. (Full article...)

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Johnson in 1983

Creola Katherine Johnson (née Coleman; August 26, 1918 – February 24, 2020) was an American mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics as a NASA employee were critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights. During her 33-year career at NASA and its predecessor, she earned a reputation for mastering complex manual calculations and helped pioneer the use of computers to perform the tasks. The space agency noted her "historical role as one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist".

Johnson's work included calculating trajectories, launch windows, and emergency return paths for Project Mercury spaceflights, including those for astronauts Alan Shepard, the first American in space, and John Glenn, the first American in orbit, and rendezvous paths for the Apollo Lunar Module and command module on flights to the Moon. Her calculations were also essential to the beginning of the Space Shuttle program, and she worked on plans for a mission to Mars. She was known as a "human computer" for her tremendous mathematical capability and ability to work with space trajectories with such little technology and recognition at the time. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various West Virginia-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The iconic New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville (from West Virginia)
Image 2Saturday afternoon street scene, Welch, McDowell County, 1946 (from West Virginia)
Image 31715 Nicolas de Fer map showing the Native American areas known as Tionontatacaga and Calicuas (from History of West Virginia)
Image 41751 Fry-Jefferson map showing early ferries and established colonial borders before the French And Indian War (from History of West Virginia)
Image 5Harpers Ferry alternated between Confederate and Union rule eight times during the American Civil War, and was finally annexed by West Virginia. (from West Virginia)
Image 6Turnout by county in the October 24, 1861, West Virginia statehood vote (from History of West Virginia)
Image 7From left, Senator Joe Manchin, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and Representative David McKinley (2017) (from West Virginia)
Image 8A view of the New River in West Virginia, the world's third-oldest river geologically (from History of West Virginia)
Image 9Votes by county in the October 1861 statehood vote (from West Virginia)
Image 10Child labor in the coal mines of West Virginia, 1908 (from West Virginia)
Image 11Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from History of West Virginia)
Image 12Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 13Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, changed hands a dozen times during the American Civil War. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 14Shaded relief map of the Cumberland Plateau and Ridge-and-valley Appalachians (from West Virginia)
Image 15State of Westylvania proposed to the U.S. Congress (from West Virginia)
Image 16Counties (in blue) approving Virginia's secession from the U.S. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 17A toll plaza on the West Virginia Turnpike (from West Virginia)
Image 18Escaped slave broadside, Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1845 (from West Virginia)
Image 19West Virginia Independence Hall, site of the Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 20Map of Virginia dated June 13, 1861, featuring the percentage of slave population within each county at the 1860 census and the proposed state of Kanawha (from West Virginia)
Image 21Bluefield, a major center for coal mining, in 2014 (from West Virginia)
Image 22Bituminous coal seam in southwestern West Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 23Historical coat of arms of West Virginia (illustrated, 1876) (from West Virginia)
Image 24Slave woman tending to a white baby in West Virginia, 1865 (from West Virginia)

Racial plurality in West Virginia by county, per the 2020 U.S. census

Legend

Non-Hispanic White

70–80%

80–90%

90%+

(from West Virginia)

Image 26Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a statue on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol (from West Virginia)
Image 27John S. Carlile, a leader during the First Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 28The Veterans Memorial Bridge carries US 22 from Weirton WV into Ohio. (from West Virginia)
Image 29Francis H. Pierpont, a leader during the Second Wheeling Convention (from West Virginia)
Image 30Seneca Rocks, Pendleton County (from West Virginia)
Image 31The summit of Spruce Knob is often covered in clouds. (from West Virginia)
Image 32The Linsly Institute building in Wheeling, West Virginia, which served as the state's first capitol building from statehood in 1863 until March 28, 1870, when the capitol was transferred to Charleston, West Virginia (from History of West Virginia)
Image 33Map of West Virginia counties (from West Virginia)
Image 34Köppen climate types of West Virginia, using 1991-2020 climate normals (from West Virginia)
Image 35Packed circles diagram showing estimates of the ethnic origins of people in West Virginia in 2021. (from West Virginia)
Image 36West Virginia population density map (from West Virginia)

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... that William H. Davis was the first teacher of Booker T. Washington and the first African American to be nominated as a candidate for West Virginia governor in 1888?
... that professor Ruth Ann Davis made the largest-ever single contribution to Potomac State College of West Virginia University to support nursing scholarships in memory of her mother?
... that West Virginia nursing professor Christine Elizabeth Abrahamsen wrote science-fiction and Gothic novels under the pseudonyms Christabel and Kathleen Westcott?
... that part of West Virginia's Princeton–Deepwater District railway was so steep that only shortened coal trains could ascend it?
... that James Dillon Armstrong was a Virginia state senator, a delegate to West Virginia's constitutional convention, and a circuit court judge while serving for more than 43 years as a Presbyterian church elder?
... that after nearly killing a man in a duel, Edgar P. Rucker went on to become the attorney general of West Virginia?

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