West Virginia is a state (since 1863) in the eastern United States. The state borders Pennsylvania to the north, Ohio to the north and west, Kentucky to the west, Maryland to the north and east, and Virginia to the east and south. The Ohio River and the Potomac River form parts of the borders.
According to ebizdir, West Virginia is the only state that is located exclusively in the Appalachians, and where all areas are mountainous, and therefore the state is also called The Mountain State. 75% of the state is located in the Cumberland Plateau and the Allegheny Plateau.
The state arose in connection with the American Civil War, in which Virginia joined the Southern States. The western counties did not want to leave the United States, but left Virginia and formed the state of Kanawha on October 24, 1861, which on December 3 of that year changed its name to West Virginia.
TIMELINE:
1671 – Kanawha Falls is discovered and other expeditions are sent to the area.
1661 – King Charles II of England donates the area between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers to the Scotsman Thomas Fairfax.
1725 – German settlers begin arriving from Pennsylvania.
1731 – Welsh pioneer Morgan Morgan establishes the first permanent residence in the state near Bunker Hill. The following year, the Germans, the Welsh, followed Scottish-Irish pioneers.
1742 – Coal is discovered on the Coal River ; the first iron furnace was constructed on the Shenandoah River.
1744 – The Indians of the Six Nations surrender their territory between the Allegheny Mountains and the Ohio River to the English.
1748-51 – George Washington maps much of the area. His diary indicates that there were already many settlers, mostly of German origin, along the southern Potomac River. Many settlers crossed the mountains after 1750, although they were hindered by resistance from Native Americans. It seems that only a few Native Americans lived in the area, but the area of the current state was a commonly used hunting ground, which was also intersected by many war trails. During the French and Indian War (1754-63) the settlements were almost destroyed.
1755 – General Edward Braddock leads his army through the counties of West Virginia on his way to Pittsburgh, defeating the French and Native American opponents on 9 July. Braddock himself died 4 days after July 13th.
1861 – Virginia decides to withdraw from the United States and join the Southern States, but voters in the West reject the proposal and the withdrawal is considered invalid. For a time, therefore, there were 2 governments in Virginia, one that supported the Union and one that was part of the Confederate States of America.
1863 – On June 20, West Virginia becomes the 35th state of the United States.
1966-67 MYTH: The mothman (English: mothman) is a mysterious creature that was reportedly seen in the areas near the cities of Charleston and Point Pleasant from November 1966 to December 1967. The creature was seen by several different people, but despite that it was there no evidence of the existence of the creature. The story of the Moth Man later became the film The Mothman Prophecies from 2002. In 1976-1978 in England there was a similar creature called the Owl Man.
1967 – On December 15, Silver Bridge collapsed while there were traffic jams, killing 45 people. Two of these were never found. The collapse happened due to a single iron beam that succumbed to overweight and default over the years. The collapse was later linked to the myth of The Millman in John Keel’s two books Operation Trojan Horse (1970) and The Mothman Prophecies (1975),