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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The U.S. state of West Virginia has 55 counties. Fifty of them existed at the time of the Wheeling Convention in 1861, during the American Civil War, when those counties seceded from the Commonwealth of Virginia to form the new state of West Virginia. West Virginia was admitted as a separate state of the United States on June 20, 1863. Five additional counties (Grant, Mineral, Lincoln, Summers, and Mingo) were formed from the original counties in the decades following admission.

After the Civil War, Berkeley County and Jefferson County, the two easternmost counties of West Virginia, refused to recognize their inclusion in the state, and the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation attempting to reclaim them. In March 1866, the United States Congress passed a joint mandate assenting to their inclusion in the new state, and the Supreme Court of the United States confirmed this outcome in the case of Virginia v. West Virginia (1871). (Full article...)

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Cyrus Roberts Vance Sr. (March 27, 1917 – January 12, 2002) was an American lawyer and United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1980. Prior to serving in that position, he was the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense in the Johnson administration. During the Kennedy administration he was Secretary of the Army and General Counsel of the Department of Defense.

As Secretary of State, Vance approached foreign policy with an emphasis on negotiation over conflict and a special interest in arms reduction. In April 1980, he resigned in protest of Operation Eagle Claw, the secret mission to rescue American hostages in Iran. He was succeeded by Edmund Muskie. (Full article...)

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

Image 1Harpers 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 2Historical coat of arms of West Virginia (illustrated, 1876) (from West Virginia)
Image 3Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, changed hands a dozen times during the American Civil War. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 4Packed circles diagram showing estimates of the ethnic origins of people in West Virginia in 2021. (from West Virginia)
Image 5A toll plaza on the West Virginia Turnpike (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 7The Veterans Memorial Bridge carries US 22 from Weirton WV into Ohio. (from West Virginia)
Image 8Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a statue on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol (from West Virginia)
Image 9Votes by county in the October 1861 statehood vote (from West Virginia)
Image 101751 Fry-Jefferson map showing early ferries and established colonial borders before the French And Indian War (from History of West Virginia)
Image 11Seneca Rocks, Pendleton County (from West Virginia)
Image 12Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 13The 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 14Francis H. Pierpont, a leader during the Second Wheeling Convention (from West Virginia)
Image 15John S. Carlile, a leader during the First Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 16Saturday afternoon street scene, Welch, McDowell County, 1946 (from West Virginia)
Image 17Köppen climate types of West Virginia, using 1991-2020 climate normals (from West Virginia)
Image 18Bluefield, a major center for coal mining, in 2014 (from West Virginia)
Image 19Map 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 20Slave woman tending to a white baby in West Virginia, 1865 (from West Virginia)
Image 21The summit of Spruce Knob is often covered in clouds. (from West Virginia)
Image 221715 Nicolas de Fer map showing the Native American areas known as Tionontatacaga and Calicuas (from History of West Virginia)
Image 23The iconic New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville (from West Virginia)
Image 24Counties (in blue) approving Virginia's secession from the U.S. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 25Escaped slave broadside, Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1845 (from West Virginia)
Image 26Turnout by county in the October 24, 1861, West Virginia statehood vote (from History of West Virginia)
Image 27West Virginia Independence Hall, site of the Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 28A view of the New River in West Virginia, the world's third-oldest river geologically (from History of West Virginia)
Image 29Child labor in the coal mines of West Virginia, 1908 (from West Virginia)
Image 30From left, Senator Joe Manchin, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and Representative David McKinley (2017) (from West Virginia)
Image 31West Virginia population density map (from West Virginia)
Image 32Bituminous coal seam in southwestern West Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 33Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from History of West Virginia)
Image 34Shaded relief map of the Cumberland Plateau and Ridge-and-valley Appalachians (from West Virginia)
Image 35State of Westylvania proposed to the U.S. Congress (from West Virginia)
Image 36Map of West Virginia counties (from West Virginia)

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... that American lawyer and politician Armistead Abraham Lilly was also a principal owner of Ruffner Hotel in Charleston, West Virginia, and resided in its penthouse?
... that the China Folk House Retreat dismantled a Chinese folk house and rebuilt it in West Virginia?
... that after Lew Dickey Sr. broke into the radio business by buying a station in West Virginia, his son would go on to own Cumulus Media?
... 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 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 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?

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