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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George Armitage Miller (February 3, 1920 – July 22, 2012) was an American psychologist who was one of the founders of cognitive psychology, and more broadly, of cognitive science. He also contributed to the birth of psycholinguistics. Miller wrote several books and directed the development of WordNet, an online word-linkage database usable by computer programs. He authored the paper, "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two," in which he observed that many different experimental findings considered together reveal the presence of an average limit of seven for human short-term memory capacity. This paper is frequently cited by psychologists and in the wider culture. Miller won numerous awards, including the National Medal of Science.

Miller began his career when the reigning theory in psychology was behaviorism, which eschewed the study of mental processes and focused on observable behavior. Rejecting this approach, Miller devised experimental techniques and mathematical methods to analyze mental processes, focusing particularly on speech and language. Working mostly at Harvard University, MIT and Princeton University, he went on to become one of the founders of psycholinguistics and was one of the key figures in founding the broader new field of cognitive science, c. 1978. He collaborated and co-authored work with other figures in cognitive science and psycholinguistics, such as Noam Chomsky. For moving psychology into the realm of mental processes and for aligning that move with information theory, computation theory, and linguistics, Miller is considered one of the great twentieth-century psychologists. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Miller as the 20th most cited psychologist of that era. (Full article...)

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Hatfield–McCoy feud site along the Tug Fork tributary (right) in the Big Sandy River watershed

The Hatfield–McCoy Feud involved two American families of the West Virginia–Kentucky area along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River from 1863 to 1891. The Hatfields of West Virginia were led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield, while the McCoys of Kentucky were under the leadership of Randolph "Ole Ran'l" McCoy. Those involved in the feud were descended from Joseph Hatfield and William McCoy (born c. 1750). The feud has entered the American folklore lexicon as a metonym for any bitterly feuding rival parties.

The McCoy family lived primarily on the Kentucky side of the Tug Fork; the Hatfields lived mostly on the West Virginia side. The majority of the Hatfields, although living in Mingo County (then part of Logan County), fought for the Confederacy in the American Civil War; most McCoys also fought for the Confederates, with the exception of Asa Harmon McCoy, who fought for the Union. The first real violence in the feud was the death of Asa as he returned from the war, murdered by a group of Confederate Home Guards called the Logan Wildcats. Devil Anse Hatfield was a suspect at first, but was later confirmed to have been sick at home at the time of the murder. It was widely believed that his uncle, Jim Vance, a member of the Wildcats, committed the murder. (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 2Packed circles diagram showing estimates of the ethnic origins of people in West Virginia in 2021. (from West Virginia)
Image 3Slave woman tending to a white baby in West Virginia, 1865 (from West Virginia)
Image 4Seneca Rocks, Pendleton County (from West Virginia)
Image 5Saturday afternoon street scene, Welch, McDowell County, 1946 (from West Virginia)
Image 61715 Nicolas de Fer map showing the Native American areas known as Tionontatacaga and Calicuas (from History of West Virginia)
Image 7Bituminous coal seam in southwestern West Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 8Harpers 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 9West Virginia Independence Hall, site of the Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 10Francis H. Pierpont, a leader during the Second Wheeling Convention (from West Virginia)
Image 11Map of West Virginia counties (from West Virginia)
Image 12Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a statue on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol (from West Virginia)
Image 13Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, changed hands a dozen times during the American Civil War. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 14A view of the New River in West Virginia, the world's third-oldest river geologically (from History of West Virginia)
Image 15From left, Senator Joe Manchin, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Senator Shelley Moore Capito, and Representative David McKinley (2017) (from West Virginia)
Image 16Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from History of West Virginia)
Image 17Historical coat of arms of West Virginia (illustrated, 1876) (from West Virginia)
Image 18Köppen climate types of West Virginia, using 1991-2020 climate normals (from West Virginia)
Image 19Counties (in blue) approving Virginia's secession from the U.S. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 20West Virginia population density map (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 22Turnout by county in the October 24, 1861, West Virginia statehood vote (from History of West Virginia)
Image 23The Veterans Memorial Bridge carries US 22 from Weirton WV into Ohio. (from West Virginia)
Image 24Bluefield, a major center for coal mining, in 2014 (from West Virginia)
Image 25Escaped slave broadside, Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1845 (from West Virginia)
Image 26Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 27Map 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 28The 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 29Votes by county in the October 1861 statehood vote (from West Virginia)
Image 30A toll plaza on the West Virginia Turnpike (from West Virginia)
Image 31State of Westylvania proposed to the U.S. Congress (from West Virginia)
Image 32Child labor in the coal mines of West Virginia, 1908 (from West Virginia)
Image 33Shaded relief map of the Cumberland Plateau and Ridge-and-valley Appalachians (from West Virginia)
Image 34The summit of Spruce Knob is often covered in clouds. (from West Virginia)
Image 351751 Fry-Jefferson map showing early ferries and established colonial borders before the French And Indian War (from History of West Virginia)
Image 36John S. Carlile, a leader during the First Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)

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... 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 the first exhibit of the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame came from founder Michael Lipton's record collection?
... that after nearly killing a man in a duel, Edgar P. Rucker went on to become the attorney general of West Virginia?
... that part of West Virginia's Princeton–Deepwater District railway was so steep that only shortened coal trains could ascend it?
... 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?

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