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State nickname: Mountain State
Other U.S. States
Capital Charleston
Largest city Charleston
Governor Joe Manchin (D)
Official languages English
Area 62,809 km² (41st)
- Land 62,436 km²
- Water 376 km² (0.6%)
Population (2000)
- Population 1,808,344 (37th)
- Density 29.0 /km² (29th)
Admission into Union
- Date June 20, 1863
- Order 35th
Time zone Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Latitude 37°10'N to 40°40'N
Longitude 77°40'W to 82°40'W
Width 210 km
Length 385 km
Elevation
- Highest point 1,482 m
- Mean 455 m
- Lowest point 73 m
Abbreviations
- USPS WV
- ISO 3166-2 US-WV
Web site www.wv.gov
West Virginia, known as The Mountain State, is a state of the United States. West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and was admitted to the Union as a separate state on June 20, 1863.
The Census Bureau considers West Virginia part of the South, because of the state being below the Mason-Dixon Line. Many in the state's Northern Panhandle, with the nothernmost point of the state about the same latitude as central New Jersey, feel a greater affinity for Pittsburgh, while those in the Eastern Panhandle feel a greater connection with the Washington, D.C. suburbs in western Maryland and Virginia. Lastly, southern West Virginia, in which many West Virginian's consider themselves southern, is only less than 100 miles north of Tennessee and North Carolina. The state is noted for its coal mining heritage, and union organizing mine wars in particular.
The state has a rich, stark beauty reflecting its topography. Tourist sites include the New River Gorge Bridge (where on Bridge Day the federal government, which controls the landing site, allows BASE jumping [1] from the bridge), as well as many national and state parks. It is also home to the Green Bank Telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
The U.S. Navy has named a series of ships USS West Virginia in honor of this state.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Law and Government
3 Geography
3.1 Economic Geography
4 Demographics
4.1 Religion
5 Important cities and towns
6 Counties
7 Education
7.1 Colleges and universities
8 Professional sports teams
9 Miscellaneous information
9.1 State symbols and designations
9.2 Famous West Virginians
10 See Also
11 External links
[edit]
History
West Virginia is the only American state formed as a direct result of the American Civil War. It was originally the western part of the state of Virginia. Considerable disagreements existed between those in the western part of Virginia and plantation owners in the plains and tidewater regions. Under the United States constitution, state boundaries could not be redrawn without the consent of the state in question.
However, the American Civil War allowed western Virginia to form its own state. Western Virginia contained several anti-secessionist pockets, particularly around the Wheeling region, and the only three counties in Virginia to vote for Abraham Lincoln. Upon the secession of Virginia from the union on April 27, 1861, anti-secessionist legislators convened a rump legislature and formed a pro-Union reformed government based in Wheeling which claimed to represent all of Virginia. This reformed government authorized the creation of the state of Kanawha, consisting of the 55 counties that now make up West Virginia. A little over one month later, Kanawha was renamed West Virginia. Though the new state's government was avowedly unionist, the counties it contained were divided in their secession votes. 18 West Virginia counties voted in favor of secession, 20 voted against secession, and one resulted in a tie. Vote records for the remaining 9 counties were lost during the war.[2] This new state was admitted to the union in 1863, following Abraham Lincoln's signing of an act on December 31, 1862 that authorized this. See Wheeling Convention.
Following the war, Virginia had hoped for at least partial reunification with West Virginia; however, West Virginia remained as an independent state within the Union. For several decades thereafter, the two states disputed the new state's share of the pre-war Virginia government's debt, which had mostly been incurred to finance public improvements. The issue was finally settled in 1915, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that West Virginia owed Virginia $12,393,929.50. The final installment of this sum was paid off in 1939.
[edit]
Law and Government
See: List of Governors of West Virginia
The capital is Charleston, in the south west area of the state.
The West Virginia Legislature is bicameral, consisting of the House of Delegates and the Senate. It is a citizen's legislature, meaning that legislators are not full-time, but part-time. Consequently, the legislators often hold a full-time job in their community of residence, which stands in stark contrast to the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Typically, the legislature is in session between January and early April. The remainder of the year sees legislators gathering periodically for interim meetings to discuss issues which will see debate during the next regular session.
The governor is elected every four years, on the same day as the president, sworn in during January. The current governor, inaugurated in 2005, is Democrat Joe Manchin.
From the 1930s through the 1990s, West Virginia's politics were largely dominated by the Democratic party, and Democrats still dominate most local and state offices. While the state continued this tradition by supporting Bill Clinton by large margins in 1992 and 1996, it switched to the Republican side and supported George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Bush easily won the state's five electoral votes in 2004 by a margin of 13 percentage points with 56.1% of the vote. The most consistent support for Democrats is in the unionized southwestern coal mining counties, especially McDowell, Mingo, Logan, and Boone counties.
West Virginia is one of only a handful of states that does not have a death penalty for any crime.
[edit]
Geography
See: List of West Virginia counties
It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland to the north, by Ohio to the north and west.Kentucky to the west, and by Virginia to the east and south. The Ohio River and the Potomac River form parts of the boundaries.
Shaded relief map of Cumberland Plateau and Ridge and Valley Appalachians on the Virginia/West Virginia borderThe state is sometimes referred to as The Mountain State, and it is the only state in the nation in which all areas are mountainous. About 3/4 of the state is within the Cumberland/Allegheny Plateaus region which is not true mountains but rather a dissected plateau. Though the relief is not high, the plateau region is extremely rugged in most areas. (The two plateaus are essentially the same, the difference being only the naming convention of north and south, with West Virginia happening to be in the middle.)
The native vegetation for most of the state was originally mixed hardwood forest of oak, chestnut, maple, beech, and white pine, with willow along the waterways. Many of the coves are rich in biodiversity and scenic beauty, a fact that is appreciated by native West Virginians, who refer to their home as almost Heaven.
The underlying rock strata are sandstones, shales, bituminous coal beds, and limestones laid down in a near shore environment from sediments derived from mountains to the east, in a shallow inland sea on the west. Some beds illustrate a coastal swamp environment, some river delta, some shallow water. Sea level rose and fell many times during the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian eras, giving a variety of rock strata.
On a map West Virginia's complex shape and irregular outline make it look more like a European country in configuration than an American state. This is because the processes that created West Virginia's eastern boundaries are more like the processes that created the boundaries of European countries. In the USA most state boundaries were established close to the time of settlement and include long straight lines and simplfying features that aid in forming property subdivision for new settlers. In West Virginia the boundaries were formed after settlement for the purpose of rounding up people with a similar socio-cultural outlook (in this case pro-Union, anti-plantation, highlanders) who were already there, just as the European boundaries round up people with similar nationalities who had been there for a long time. This process of rounding up people already spread around here and there results in the typical zig-zag, curving, and extending shape of the resulting political unit.
[edit]
Economic Geography
Coal has been one of the state's primary economic resources, although many mines have been closed. Higher prices for fuels may soon stimulate increased mining again. In past years the coal companies did mostly as they pleased, keeping miners in virtual servitude through credit at company stores. The effort of unions to organize miners is a violent chapter in the state's history; at one point the federal army had to be called in to quell a rebellion, dropping the only bombs ever used by the US Army against its own citizens. Nevertheles, labor organizing persisted under the leadership of John L. Lewis and the United Mine Workers. Today health and safety regulations and miners pay are much improved, and mining is usually the best paying job in the coalfields.
Bituminous coal seam in southwestern West VirginiaThe state has an extensive network of railroads, and much of the coal is transported by rail. The railways were once one of the largest customers for coal to drive the steam locomotives, but these have been replaced by diesel locomotives. Coal is little used now for home heating either. Most coal today is used by power plants to produce electricity.
West Virginia was one of the first states to engage in drilling for oil. Small to medium oil and natural gas fields still exist and are scattered mostly in the Allegheny/Cumberland Plateau in an arc throughout the western part of state.
Farming is practiced throughout West Virginia, but in a form different from large extensive cash-crop agriculture elsewhere in the USA. The modal average farm size was a smallish 140 to 179 acres (567,000 to 724,000 m²), most statistics in this section are taken from the 2002 US Census of Agriculture for West Virginia, which sold less than $2,500 of crops annually. Family and single-owner operation worked 92.7% of the farms, and an astounding 96.9% were totally or partly owned by the operator. On the other hand, only 50.5% of the state's farmers considered farming to be their primary occupation, with a significant number of hours worked elsewhere each year, in such areas as factory wage employment when available. Traditionally, informal means of supplementing farm income have also been practiced, such as small-scale logging and hunting for food, and to some extent they still are practiced. It should be noted that the rural poverty rate in West Virginia is 20.4% and that this figure is 5 points higher than the urban poverty rate.
This description of farming portrays an independent and self-sufficient base of small land owners, but also a significant amount of rural underemployment.
As can be expected in a rugged terrain, raising animals was far more important than growing vegetative crops. Income from animals exceeded income from plants by about 7 to 1, with much of the non-animal income derived from sales of fodder. The chief animals raised were cattle and chickens.
In the ridge and valley area along the eastern border near Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, subsidiary valleys are wide and there are some belts of rich soil which are extensively farmed. In 2002, all of the top five counties by agricultural dollar value were located near the eastern Virginia border.
In traditional frontier agriculture there was much gathering of wild "greens" and forest produce to supplement the diet. One area where this practice is still significant is the gathering of wild North American ginseng, often for the Asian market. Wild gathered ginseng contributed about $ 2 million in 2000 to the West Virginia economy, a figure larger than many conventional cultivated vegetable and fruit crops. Other wild greens, such as sour dock, lambs quarters, and wild leek (or "ramps") are also still gathered by many for table use, although today more on the basis of avocation or keeping up traditions than out of necessity.
Along the western edges of the state the large rivers of the mid-continent erode a distance into the hills and it is here, in the west, that some dense pockets of heavy industry appear. In the Kanawha River Valley near Charleston and along the southern Ohio River Valley near Huntington chemicals predominate, attracted by a readily available labor force and access by barge carriers. Metallurgy, especially steel, has been predominant in the Northern Panhandle due to a spill-over effect from the traditional center of the US steel industry in Pittsburgh. Also in the Northern Panhandle, Weirton has been the site of the only tin-processing industry in the USA. Given the unsettled present condition of the U.S. steel industry, continuation of metal-working industries in the Northern Panhandle cannot be assured. In all aspects of heavy industry there is a perception that the electorate favors creation of factory jobs more than implementation of strict environmental controls; this is probably correct, but how much this outlook actually contributed to the choice of location in West Virginia is hard to determine.
[edit]
Demographics
Historical populations
Census
year Population
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1790 55,873
1800 78,592
1810 105,469
1820 136,808
1830 176,924
1840 224,537
1850 302,313
1860 376,688
1870 442,014
1880 618,457
1890 762,794
1900 958,800
1910 1,221,119
1920 1,463,701
1930 1,729,205
1940 1,901,974
1950 2,005,552
1960 1,860,421
1970 1,744,237
1980 1,949,644
1990 1,793,477
2000 1,808,344
The population of West Virginia as of 2003 was 1,810,354.
As of 2003, West Virginia was probably the US state least affected by immigration. Only 1.1% of the state's residents were foreign-born, placing West Virginia last among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in that statistic. It was also last in the country in percentage of residents that speak a language other than English in the home (2.7%).
The racial makeup of the state is:
94.6% White non-Hispanic
3.2% Black
0.7% Hispanic
0.5% Asian
0.2% Native American
0.9% Mixed race
The five largest ancestry groups in West Virginia are: American (23.2%), German (17.2%), Irish (13.5%), English (12%), Italian (4.8%).
Many West Virginians identify their ancestry as "American," it is the largest reported ancestry in most counties in the state, and the state has the highest percentage of residents of "American ancestry" in the nation. Large numbers of people of German ancestry are present the northeastern counties of the state.
5.6% of West Virginia's population were reported as under 5, 22.3% under 18, and 15.3% were 65 or older. Females made up approximately 51.4% of the population.
[edit]
Religion
The religious affiliations of the people of West Virginia are:
Christian – 86%
Protestant – 77%
Baptist – 33%
Methodist – 16%
Presbyterian – 3%
Pentecostal – 3%
Other Protestant or general Protestant – 22%
Roman Catholic – 8%
Other Christian – 1%
Other Religions – <1%
Non-Religious – 14%
[edit]
Important cities and towns
Beckley
Bluefield
Charleston
Charles Town
Clarksburg
Elkins
Fairmont
Grafton
Huntington
Keyser
Lewisburg
Martinsburg
Morgantown
Moundsville
New Martinsville
Parkersburg
Princeton
Romney
St. Albans
South Charleston
Summersville
Vienna
Weirton
Welch
Wheeling
Weston
West Virginia County Boundaries
[edit]
Counties
Listed alphabetically, the 55 counties of West Virginia are:
Barbour County
Berkeley County
Boone County
Braxton County
Brooke County
Cabell County
Calhoun County
Clay County
Doddridge County
Fayette County
Gilmer County
Grant County
Greenbrier County
Hampshire County
Hancock County
Hardy County
Harrison County
Jackson County
Jefferson County
Kanawha County
Lewis County
Lincoln County
Logan County
McDowell County
Marion County
Marshall County
Mason County
Mercer County
Mineral County
Mingo County
Monongalia County
Monroe County
Morgan County
Nicholas County
Ohio County
Pendleton County
Pleasants County
Pocahontas County
Preston County
Putnam County
Raleigh County
Randolph County
Ritchie County
Roane County
Taylor County
Tucker County
Tyler County
Summers County
Upshur County
Wayne County
Webster County
Wetzel County
Wirt County
Wood County
Wyoming County
[edit]
Education
[edit]
Colleges and universities
Alderson-Broaddus College
Appalachian Bible College
Bethany College
Bluefield State College
Concord University
Davis and Elkins College
Eastern West Virginia Community & Technical College
Fairmont State University
Glenville State College
Marshall University
Mountain State University
Ohio Valley College
Potomac State College of West Virginia University
Salem International University
Shepherd University
University of Charleston
West Liberty State College
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
West Virginia State University
West Virginia University
West Virginia University Institute of Technology
West Virginia University at Parkersburg
West Virginia Wesleyan College
Wheeling Jesuit University
[edit]
Professional sports teams
The minor league baseball teams are:
Bluefield Orioles (team represents the cities of Bluefield, West Virginia and Bluefield, Virginia, but plays its home games in Virginia)
Princeton Devil Rays
West Virginia Power (Charleston)
The minor league hockey team is:
Wheeling Nailers
[edit]
Miscellaneous information
[edit]
State symbols and designations
State animal: Black Bear
State bird: Cardinal
State butterfly: Monarch Butterfly
State colors: Blue and Gold
State flower: Rhododendron
State fruit: Golden Delicious Apple
State gem: Fossil coral
State insect: Honeybee
State soil: Monongahela silt loam
State tree: Sugar Maple
State songs: "West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home," "The West Virginia Hills," and "This Is My West Virginia"
De facto state anthem: "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John Denver (most famously performed by Denver)
State motto: Montani semper liberi ("Mountaineers Are Always Free")
State Quarter design: [edit]
Famous West Virginians
A number of famous people were born in or lived in West Virginia.
Pearl Buck
Mark Bulger
Lew Burdette
Robert C. Byrd
Johnson N. Camden
Ted Cassidy
Mike D'Antoni
Bob Denver
Joyce DeWitt
Little Jimmy Dickens
Paul Dooley
Brad Dourif
Donald F. Duncan
Brig. General Isaac H. Duval
Brig. General John Echols
Jennifer Garner
Henry Louis Gates Jr. - Mineral County
Hal Greer
Tom T. Hall
Nancy_Hanks mother of Abraham Lincoln - Mineral County
Devil Anse Hatfield
John Henry
Homer Hickam
Lou Holtz
Gary Howell
Sam Huff
Hot Rod Hundley
Julia Neale Jackson
Stonewall Jackson (born and raised before partition of Virginia; died in the year of partition)
T. D. Jakes
Johnnie Johnson (musician)
Grandpa Jones
John S. Knight
Don Knotts
John Knowles
John Kruk - Mineral County
Chief Logan
Pfc. Jessica Lynch
William A. MacCorkle
"Pistol Pete" Pete Maravich
Kathy Mattea
Randy Moss
John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Nick Nolte
William N. Page
Brad Paisley
Jedediah Purdy
Ed Rabel
Walter Philip Reuther
Mary Lou Retton
John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV
Jack Rollins
Steve Rollins Mineral County
Nick Saban
Soupy Sales
Alex Schoenbaum
Harry F. Sinclair
Michael W. Smith
Sam Snead
Red Sovine
Morgan Spurlock
Ellsworth Milton Statler
General Adam Stephen
Ross Straight
Sir John William David Swan
Cyrus R. Vance
Dr. Booker T. Washington
Jerry West
Jason Williams
Bill Withers
Carter G. Woodson
Charles Elwood Yeager
[edit]
See Also
List of newspapers in West Virginia
Lost Counties, Cities and Towns of Virginia
West Virginia State Highways
[edit]
External links
Government
Southern WV PDC
Ohio Valley Roads
West Virginia Visitor's Guide
WestVA.Net
West Liberty State College
U.S. Census Bureau
Famous People of West Virginia
West Virginia's Historical Markers
State of West Virginia
Cities | Governors | West Virginia University
State Capital: Charleston
Regions: Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area | Eastern Panhandle | Northern Panhandle | Allegheny Plateau | Cumberland Plateau | Ridge-and-valley Appalachians
Major Cities: Charleston | Huntington
Smaller Cities: Beckley | Bluefield | Clarksburg | Fairmont | Hurricane | Keyser | Morgantown | Oak Hill | Parkersburg | Point Pleasant | Weirton | Wheeling
Counties: Barbour | Berkeley | Boone | Braxton | Brooke | Cabell | Calhoun | Clay | Doddridge | Fayette | Gilmer | Grant | Greenbrier | Hampshire | Hancock | Hardy | Harrison | Jackson | Jefferson | Kanawha | Lewis | Lincoln | Logan | Marion | Marshall | Mason | McDowell | Mercer | Mineral | Mingo | Monongalia | Monroe | Morgan | Nicholas | Ohio | Pendleton | Pleasants | Pocahontas | Preston | Putnam | Raleigh | Randolph | Ritchie | Roane | Summers | Taylor | Tucker | Tyler | Upshur | Wayne | Webster | Wetzel | Wirt | Wood | Wyoming
Political divisions of the United States
States Alabama | Alaska | Arizona | Arkansas | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | Florida | Georgia | Hawaii | Idaho | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Kansas | Kentucky | Louisiana | Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan | Minnesota | Mississippi | Missouri | Montana | Nebraska | Nevada | New Hampshire | New Jersey | New Mexico | New York | North Carolina | North Dakota | Ohio | Oklahoma | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | South Carolina | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas | Utah | Vermont | Virginia | Washington | West Virginia | Wisconsin | Wyoming
Federal district District of Columbia
Insular areas American Samoa | Baker Island | Guam | Howland Island | Jarvis Island | Johnston Atoll | Kingman Reef | Midway Atoll | Navassa Island | Northern Mariana Islands | Palmyra Atoll | Puerto Rico | Virgin Islands | Wake Island
