West Virginia

A number of famous people were born in or lived in West Virginia. Bench.
. Starters. The minor league hockey team is:. At the 2005 trading deadline, he further added to the team by bringing in the first superstar the Warriors have had since Mullin himself, Baron Davis. The minor league baseball teams are:. He is building the team around Richardson, Dunleavy, and Murphy, complementing them with experience in Derek Fisher, a free agent signed by Golden State after 3 championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, and Calbert Cheaney, a playoff-tested sharpshooter.

Listed alphabetically, the 55 counties of West Virginia are:. Chris Mullin took over as VP of Basketball Operations, hiring Mitch Richmond as his assistant and former teammates Mario Elie as an assistant coach and Rod Higgins as the general manager. The three largest Protestant denominations in West Virginia: Baptist (29% of the total state population), Methodist (15%), Presbyterian (4%). With rising star Antawn Jamison leading the team, the Warriors seemed on the rise, however, a string of injuries kept them from making it on top in the competitive Western conference. The religious affiliations of the citizens of West Virginia are:. from Duke University, and Troy Murphy from University of Notre Dame. Females made up approximately 51.4% of the population. He did, however, draft several players who are the core of the most recent Warriors, including 2-time NBA slam dunk champion Jason Richardson from Michigan State, NCAA champion Mike Dunleavy, Jr.

5.6% of West Virginia's population were reported as under 5, 22.3% under 18, and 15.3% were 65 or older. He also drafted several busts such as Todd Fuller, Chris Porter, and Vonteego Cummings. The 5 largest ancestry groups in West Virginia are American (23.2%), German (17.2%), Irish (13.5%), English (12%), Italian (4.8%). Jean's team philosophy centered around "experienced veterans" and a college star when in reality, he brought in several has-been players and former standouts who were in the twilights of their career, such as Mark Price, Terry Cummings, John Starks, and Mookie Blaylock. The racial makeup of the state is:. GM Garry St. It was also last in the country in percentage of residents that speak a language other than English in the home (2.7%). For eleven years, to this day, the Warriors have not made the playoffs.

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. The team had another successful string of wins in the late 80s/early 90s with the high scoring trio of point guard Tim Hardaway, guard Mitch Richmond, and forward Chris Mullin (collectively known as Run T-M-C). However, with then coach Don Nelson wishing to go with a bigger lineup, he made a trade that not only broke up the RUN T-M-C, core by sending Richmond to the Sacramento Kings for draft day bust Billy Owens, but also sent the Warriors into a tailspin as an organization. As of 2003, West Virginia was probably the US state least affected by immigration. As a result, the home games of the Warriors' only West Coast championship were played not in Oakland but at the Cow Palace in Daly City. The population of West Virginia as of 2003 was 1,810,354. So little was felt of the team's chances in the playoffs, even by their home fans, that the Coliseum Arena scheduled other events during the dates of the NBA playoffs. Given the unsettled present condition of the US 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. That team was coached by former Warrior Al Attles, and led on the court by Rick Barry, Jamaal Wilkes, and Phil Smith.

Also in the Northern Panhandle, Weirton has been the site of the only tin-processing industry in the USA. In what many consider the biggest upset in the history of the NBA, the Warriors defeated the heavily-favored Washington Bullets in a four-game sweep. 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. As the Golden State Warriors, the franchise has only won one NBA championship, in 1974-1975. 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. Six "home" games were played in San Diego during that season but more significantly, none were played in San Francisco or Daly City. 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. They changed their name to the Golden State Warriors for the 1971-1972 season, playing almost all home games in Oakland.

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. The 1970-1971 season would be the team's last as the San Francisco Warriors. 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. With the opening of the Oakland Coliseum Arena in 1966, the Warriors began scheduling increasing numbers of home games at that venue. One area where this practice is still significant is the gathering of wild North American ginseng, often for the Asian market. After several seasons in the ABA, Barry rejoined the Warriors in 1972. In traditional frontier agriculture there was much gathering of wild "greens" and forest produce to supplement the diet. Angered by management's failure to pay him certain incentive awards he felt he was due, Barry sat out the 1967-1968 season, joining the Oakland Oaks of the rival American Basketball Association the following year.

In 2002, all of the top five counties by agricultural dollar value were located near the eastern Virginia border. Barry was named NBA Rookie of the Year in his first season, then led the Warriors to the NBA finals in the 1966-1967 season, where the team lost (four games to two) to the team that replaced the Warriors in the City of Brotherly Love, the Philadelphia 76ers. 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 1965, the Warriors drafted Rick Barry in the first round. The chief animals raised were cattle and chickens. The Warriors won the 1963-1964 Western Division crown, losing the NBA championship series to the Boston Celtics, four games to one. Income from animals exceeded income from plants by about 7 to 1, with much of the non-animal income derived from sales of fodder. In 1962, the team moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and became the San Francisco Warriors, playing most of their home games in San Francisco and at the Cow Palace in neighboring Daly City, though occasionally playing home games in nearby cities such as Oakland and San Jose.

As can be expected in a rugged terrain, raising animals was far more important than growing vegetative crops. On March 2, 1962, in a Warrior "home" game played in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Chamberlain scored 100 points against the Knickerbockers, a single-game record that may never be broken. This description of farming portrays an independent and self-sufficient base of small land owners, but also a significant amount of rural underemployment. Known as "Wilt the Stilt," Chamberlain quickly began shattering NBA scoring records and changed the style of play forever. 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. In 1959, the team signed their 216-cm tall (7'1") draft pick Wilt Chamberlain. 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. The Warriors won their only other championship as a Philadelphia team in the 1955-1956 season, defeating the Fort Wayne Pistons four games to one.

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. The Warriors are one of only three original BAA/NBA teams still in existence, the others being the Boston Celtics and New York Knickerbockers. Family and single-owner operation worked 92.7% of the farms, and an astounding 96.9% were totally or partly owned by the operator. Gottlieb retained the ABL Sphas until that league disbanded in 1955. The modal average farm size was a smallish 140 to 179 acres (567,000 to 724,000 mē), 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. (The BAA became the National Basketball Association in 1949.) The team was founded by Eddie Gottlieb, the long-time promoter of the Philadelphia Sphas, one of the mainstays of the original American Basketball League. Farming is practiced throughout West Virginia, but in a form different from large extensive cash-crop agriculture elsewhere in the USA. The Philadelphia Warriors were a charter member of the Basketball Association of America, winning the championship in the league's inaugural 1946-1947 season by defeating the Chicago Stags, four games to one.

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. "Golden State" is the nickname of the state of California, derived from the 1849 Gold Rush. West Virginia was one of the first states to engage in drilling for oil. The Golden State Warriors are a National Basketball Association team based in Oakland, California. Most coal today is used by power plants to produce electricity. He is now a silent partner and talent scout for the Warriors organization. Coal is little used now for home heating either. Bowens went to Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory High School and graduated from SFSU mastering in Criminology/Sociology.

The railways were once one of the largest customers for coal to drive the steam locomotives, but these have been replaced by diesel locomotives. Hailing from San Francisco, he was compared to the likes of Michael Jordan when he dunked on Jason Kidd at Kezar Pavillion in a charity game. The state has an extensive network of railroads, and much of the coal is transported by rail. 28 - Nathan Bowens although he never played in the NBA due to multiple knee surgery, his number was retired by the organization for he was suppose to be the next big thing. Today health and safety regulations and miners pay are much improved, and mining is usually the best paying job in the coalfields. 42 Nate Thurmond. Lewis and the United Mine Workers. 24 Rick Barry.

Nevertheles, labor organizing persisted under the leadership of John L. 16 Al Attles. 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 dropped by the US Army against its own citizens. 14 Tom Meschery. In past years the coal companies did mostly as they pleased, keeping miners in virtual servitude through credit at company stores. 13 Wilt Chamberlain. Higher prices for fuels may soon stimulate increased mining again. Free.

Coal has been one of the state's primary economic resources, although many mines have been closed. World B. 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. Bernard King. In West Virgina 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. Manute Bol. 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. Larry Smith.

This is because the processes that created West Virginia's eastern boundaries are more like the processes that created the boundaries of European countries. Jamaal Wilkes. 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. Chris Webber. Sea level rose and fell many times during the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian eras, giving a variety of rock strata. Latrell Sprewell. Some beds illustrate a coastal swamp environment, some river delta, some shallow water. Mitch Richmond.

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. Chris Mullin. 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. Sarunas Marciulionis. 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. Antawn Jamison. (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.). Tim Hardaway.

Though the relief is not high, the plateau region is extremely rugged in most areas. Nate Thurmond. About 3/4 of the state is within the Cumberland/Allegheny Plateaus region which is not true mountains but rather a dissected plateau. Andy Phillip. The state is sometimes referred to as The Mountain State, which is a bit of a misnomer, as the only true mountains are the belt of Ridge-and-valley Appalachians along the eastern border with Virginia. Robert Parish. The Ohio River and the Potomac River form parts of the boundaries. Jerry Lucas.

It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland to the north, by Ohio and Kentucky to the west, and by Virginia to the east. Neil Johnston. See: List of West Virginia counties. Tom Gola. The current governor, inaugurated in 2005, is Democrat Joe Manchin. Joe Fulks. The governor is elected every four years, on the same day as the president, sworn in during January. Wilt Chamberlain.

The remainder of the year sees legislators gathering periodically for interim meetings to discuss issues which will see debate during the next regular session. Rick Barry. Typically, the legislature is in session between January and early April. Paul Arizin. Consequently, the legislators hold a full-time job in their community of residence, which stands in stark contrast to the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. SF - #3 Rodney White (Charlotte). Legislators are not full-time, but part-time. PF - #20 Nikoloz Tskitishvili (ნიკოლოზ ცქიტიშვილი) (Republic of Georgia).

The legislature is bicameral, consisting of the House of Delegates and a Senate. G/F - #2 Mickael Pietrus (Guadeloupe). The capital is Charleston, in the south west area of the state. PG - #4 Derek Fisher (Arkansas-Little Rock). See: List of Governors of West Virginia. G/F - #40 Calbert Cheaney (Indiana). The final installment of this sum was paid off in 1939. F - #11 Zarko Cabarkapa (Clemson).

The issue was finally settled in 1915, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that West Virginia owed Virginia $12,393,929.50. F/C - #15 Andris Biedrins (Latvia). For several decades thereafter, the two states disputed the new state's share of the Virginian government's debt. SF - #34 Mike Dunleavy, Jr. (Duke). 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. PF - #1 Troy Murphy (Notre Dame). See Wheeling Convention. C - #36 Adonal Foyle (Colgate).

Vote records for the remaining 9 counties were lost during the war.[4] (http://www.ls.net/~newriver/va/vasecesh.htm) 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. SG - #23 Jason Richardson (Michigan State). 18 West Virginia counties voted in favor of secession, 20 voted against secession, and one resulted in a tie. PG - #5 Baron Davis (UCLA). Though the new state's government was avowedly unionist, the counties it contained were divided in their secession votes. Eventually, the state of Kanawha was renamed West Virginia.

This reformed government authorized the creation of the state of Kanawha, consisting of the 55 counties that now make up West Virginia. 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. Western Virginia contained several anti-secessionist pockets, particularly around the Wheeling region, and the only three counties in Virginia to vote for Abraham Lincoln. However, the American Civil War allowed western Virginia to form its own state.

Under the United States constitution, state boundaries could not be redrawn without the consent of the state in question. Considerable disagreements existed between those in the western part of Virginia and plantation owners in the plains and tidewater regions. It was originally the western part of the state of Virginia. West Virginia is the only American state formed as a direct result of the American Civil War.

The US Navy has named a series of ships USS West Virginia in honor of this state. It is also home to the Green Bank Telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Tourist sites include the New River Gorge Bridge (where on Bridge Day (http://www.wvbridgeday.com/) the federal government, which controls the landing site, allows BASE jumping [3] (http://www.wvbridgeday.com/bridge-day-BASE-jumping.php) from the bridge), as well as many national and state parks. The state has a rich, stark beauty reflecting its topography.

The state is noted for its coal mining heritage, and union organizing mine wars in particular. West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. suburbs in western Maryland and Virginia. While many consider it part of the South, many in the state's Northern Panhandle feel a greater affinity for Pittsburgh, while those in the Eastern Panhandle feel a greater connection with Washington D.C.

West Virginia is a culturally Southern state of the United States, known as The Mountain State.. The three largest Protestant denominations in West Virginia: Baptist (29% of the total state population), Methodist (15%), Presbyterian (4%). The religious affiliations of the citizens of West Virginia are:. Females made up approximately 51.4% of the population.

5.6% of West Virginia's population were reported as under 5, 22.3% under 18, and 15.3% were 65 or older. The 5 largest ancestry groups in West Virginia are American (23.2%), German (17.2%), Irish (13.5%), English (12%), Italian (4.8%). The racial makeup of the state is:. It was also last in the country in percentage of residents that speak a language other than English in the home (2.7%).

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. As of 2003, West Virginia was probably the US state least affected by immigration. The population of West Virginia as of 2003 was 1,810,354. Given the unsettled present condition of the US 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.

Also in the Northern Panhandle, Weirton has been the site of the only tin-processing industry in the USA. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. One area where this practice is still significant is the gathering of wild North American ginseng, often for the Asian market. In traditional frontier agriculture there was much gathering of wild "greens" and forest produce to supplement the diet.

In 2002, all of the top five counties by agricultural dollar value were located near the eastern Virginia border. 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. The chief animals raised were cattle and chickens. Income from animals exceeded income from plants by about 7 to 1, with much of the non-animal income derived from sales of fodder.

As can be expected in a rugged terrain, raising animals was far more important than growing vegetative crops. This description of farming portrays an independent and self-sufficient base of small land owners, but also a significant amount of rural underemployment. 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. 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.

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. Family and single-owner operation worked 92.7% of the farms, and an astounding 96.9% were totally or partly owned by the operator. The modal average farm size was a smallish 140 to 179 acres (567,000 to 724,000 mē), 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. Farming is practiced throughout West Virginia, but in a form different from large extensive cash-crop agriculture elsewhere in the USA.

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. West Virginia was one of the first states to engage in drilling for oil. Most coal today is used by power plants to produce electricity. Coal is little used now for home heating either.

The railways were once one of the largest customers for coal to drive the steam locomotives, but these have been replaced by diesel locomotives. The state has an extensive network of railroads, and much of the coal is transported by rail. Today health and safety regulations and miners pay are much improved, and mining is usually the best paying job in the coalfields. Lewis and the United Mine Workers.

Nevertheles, labor organizing persisted under the leadership of John L. 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 dropped by the US Army against its own citizens. In past years the coal companies did mostly as they pleased, keeping miners in virtual servitude through credit at company stores. Higher prices for fuels may soon stimulate increased mining again.

Coal has been one of the state's primary economic resources, although many mines have been closed. 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. In West Virgina 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. 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.

This is because the processes that created West Virginia's eastern boundaries are more like the processes that created the boundaries of European countries. 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. Sea level rose and fell many times during the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian eras, giving a variety of rock strata. Some beds illustrate a coastal swamp environment, some river delta, some shallow water.

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. 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 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. (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.).

Though the relief is not high, the plateau region is extremely rugged in most areas. About 3/4 of the state is within the Cumberland/Allegheny Plateaus region which is not true mountains but rather a dissected plateau. The state is sometimes referred to as The Mountain State, which is a bit of a misnomer, as the only true mountains are the belt of Ridge-and-valley Appalachians along the eastern border with Virginia. The Ohio River and the Potomac River form parts of the boundaries.

It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland to the north, by Ohio and Kentucky to the west, and by Virginia to the east. See: List of West Virginia counties. The current governor, inaugurated in 2005, is Democrat Joe Manchin. The governor is elected every four years, on the same day as the president, sworn in during January.

The remainder of the year sees legislators gathering periodically for interim meetings to discuss issues which will see debate during the next regular session. Typically, the legislature is in session between January and early April. Consequently, the legislators hold a full-time job in their community of residence, which stands in stark contrast to the neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Legislators are not full-time, but part-time.

The legislature is bicameral, consisting of the House of Delegates and a Senate. The capital is Charleston, in the south west area of the state. See: List of Governors of West Virginia. The final installment of this sum was paid off in 1939.

The issue was finally settled in 1915, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that West Virginia owed Virginia $12,393,929.50. For several decades thereafter, the two states disputed the new state's share of the Virginian government's debt. 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. See Wheeling Convention.

Vote records for the remaining 9 counties were lost during the war.[2] (http://www.ls.net/~newriver/va/vasecesh.htm) 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. 18 West Virginia counties voted in favor of secession, 20 voted against secession, and one resulted in a tie. Though the new state's government was avowedly unionist, the counties it contained were divided in their secession votes. Eventually, the state of Kanawha was renamed West Virginia.

This reformed government authorized the creation of the state of Kanawha, consisting of the 55 counties that now make up West Virginia. 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. Western Virginia contained several anti-secessionist pockets, particularly around the Wheeling region, and the only three counties in Virginia to vote for Abraham Lincoln. However, the American Civil War allowed western Virginia to form its own state.

Under the United States constitution, state boundaries could not be redrawn without the consent of the state in question. Considerable disagreements existed between those in the western part of Virginia and plantation owners in the plains and tidewater regions. It was originally the western part of the state of Virginia. West Virginia is the only American state formed as a direct result of the American Civil War.

The US Navy has named a series of ships USS West Virginia in honor of this state. It is also home to the Green Bank Telescope at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Tourist sites include the New River Gorge Bridge (where on Bridge Day (http://www.wvbridgeday.com/) the federal government, which controls the landing site, allows BASE jumping [1] (http://www.wvbridgeday.com/bridge-day-BASE-jumping.php) from the bridge), as well as many national and state parks. The state has a rich, stark beauty reflecting its topography.

The state is noted for its coal mining heritage, and union organizing mine wars in particular. West Virginia broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. suburbs in western Maryland and Virginia. While many consider it part of the South, many in the state's Northern Panhandle feel a greater affinity for Pittsburgh, while those in the Eastern Panhandle feel a greater connection with Washington D.C.

West Virginia is a culturally Southern state of the United States, known as The Mountain State.. Lost Counties, Cities and Towns of Virginia. Charles Elwood Yeager. Woodson.

Carter G. Jerry West. Washington. Booker T.

Dr. Vance. Cyrus R. Sir John William David Swan.

General Adam Stephen. Ellsworth Milton Statler. Morgan Spurlock. Red Sovine.

Sam Snead. Smith. Michael W. Harry F. Sinclair.

Alex Schoenbaum. Soupy Sales. Nick Saban. Jack Rollins.

"Jay" Rockefeller IV. John D. Cal Ripken, Jr. Mary Lou Retton.

Walter Philip Reuther. Ed Rabel. Page. William N.

Nick Nolte. John Forbes Nash, Jr. Randy Moss. Kathy Mattea.

"Pistol Pete" Pete Maravich. MacCorkle. William A. Jessica Lynch.

Pfc. Chief Logan. Matt Lauer. John Kruk.

John Knowles. Don Knotts. Knight. John S.

Grandpa Jones. Johnnie Johnson (musician). Stonewall Jackson (born and raised before partition of Virginia; died in the year of partition). Julia Neale Jackson.

Hot Rod Hundley. Sam Huff. Lou Holtz. Homer Hickam.

John Henry. Devil Anse Hatfield. Hall. Tom T.

Hal Greer. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Jennifer Garner. Bob Evans.

General John Echols. Brig. General Isaac H. Duval. Brig.

Duncan. Donald F. Brad Dourif. Paul Dooley.

Joyce DeWitt. Bob Denver. Mike D'Antoni. Ted Cassidy.

Johnson N. Camden. Harry Flood Byrd. Byrd. Robert C.

Selva Lewis "Lew" Burdette. Mark Bulger. Pearl Buck. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

Dr. State Quarter design: . State motto: Montani semper liberi ("Mountaineers Are Always Free"). De facto state anthem: "Take Me Home, Country Roads" by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert, and John Denver (most famously performed by Denver).

State songs: "West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home," "The West Virginia Hills," and "This Is My West Virginia"