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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A view of the New River in West Virginia, the world's third-oldest river geologically

The history of West Virginia stems from the 1861 Wheeling Convention, which was an assembly of northwestern Virginian Southern Unionists, who aimed to repeal the Ordinance of Secession that Virginia made during the American Civil War (1861–1865). It became one of two American states that formed during the American Civil War – the other being Nevada in 1864. It was the only state to form from another state during this time, splitting from Virginia. West Virginia was officially admitted as a U.S. state on June 20, 1863.

The area that comprises West Virginia was originally part of the British Virginia Colony (1607–1776) and the western part of the U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia (1776–1788), and state of Virginia (1788–1863). Western Virginia became sharply divided over the issue of secession from the Union, leading to the separation from Virginia, and formalized by West Virginia's admittance to the Union as a new state in 1863. West Virginia was one of five Civil War border states. (Full article...)

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

Image 1Köppen climate types of West Virginia, using 1991-2020 climate normals (from West Virginia)
Image 2West Virginia Independence Hall, site of the Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 3Slave woman tending to a white baby in West Virginia, 1865 (from West Virginia)
Image 4Counties (in blue) approving Virginia's secession from the U.S. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 5A view of the New River in West Virginia, the world's third-oldest river geologically (from History of West Virginia)
Image 6Historical coat of arms of West Virginia (illustrated, 1876) (from West Virginia)
Image 7Harpers 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 8Escaped slave broadside, Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1845 (from West Virginia)
Image 9Map 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 10Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a statue on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol (from West Virginia)
Image 11Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, changed hands a dozen times during the American Civil War. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 12The summit of Spruce Knob is often covered in clouds. (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)

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 15A toll plaza on the West Virginia Turnpike (from West Virginia)
Image 16Saturday afternoon street scene, Welch, McDowell County, 1946 (from West Virginia)
Image 17Child labor in the coal mines of West Virginia, 1908 (from West Virginia)
Image 181715 Nicolas de Fer map showing the Native American areas known as Tionontatacaga and Calicuas (from History of West Virginia)
Image 19Bituminous coal seam in southwestern West Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 20West Virginia population density map (from West Virginia)
Image 21The iconic New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville (from West Virginia)
Image 22Votes by county in the October 1861 statehood vote (from West Virginia)
Image 23The Veterans Memorial Bridge carries US 22 from Weirton WV into Ohio. (from West Virginia)
Image 24Map of West Virginia counties (from West Virginia)
Image 25Bluefield, a major center for coal mining, in 2014 (from West Virginia)
Image 26Seneca Rocks, Pendleton County (from West Virginia)
Image 27Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from History of West Virginia)
Image 28John S. Carlile, a leader during the First Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 29Packed circles diagram showing estimates of the ethnic origins of people in West Virginia in 2021. (from West Virginia)
Image 30State of Westylvania proposed to the U.S. Congress (from West Virginia)
Image 31Francis H. Pierpont, a leader during the Second Wheeling Convention (from West Virginia)
Image 32Turnout by county in the October 24, 1861, West Virginia statehood vote (from History of West Virginia)
Image 33Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 34Shaded relief map of the Cumberland Plateau and Ridge-and-valley Appalachians (from West Virginia)
Image 35From left, Senator Joe Manchin, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and Representative David McKinley (2017) (from West Virginia)
Image 361751 Fry-Jefferson map showing early ferries and established colonial borders before the French And Indian War (from History of West Virginia)

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... that West Virginia nursing professor Christine Elizabeth Abrahamsen wrote science-fiction and Gothic novels under the pseudonyms Christabel and Kathleen Westcott?
... 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 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 prior to becoming West Virginia's first African-American judge, Leon P. Miller was McDowell County's assistant prosecuting attorney, a Welch city councilman, and U.S. Attorney for the Virgin Islands?
... that Flat Top Mountain's agriculture is mainly devoted to livestock and Christmas tree farming?
... that in 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld West Virginia's largest punitive damages award in history, awarding $10 million – 526 times larger than the compensatory damages?

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