CHARLESTON, W.VA. – Traveling through the Mountain State, visitors will find an eclectic blend of the contemporary and the historic, with a distinct emphasis on those people, places and things that make West Virginia special.
Museums All Around!
West Virginia’s museums offer visitors diverse views of the arts and culture in the Mountain State. The Huntington Museum of Art has offered guests a fascinating and growing permanent collection of art and glass along with annual visiting collections from around the world for 50 years.
In Charleston, the Cultural Center at the State Capitol is home to the state museum and archives where history buffs will find reminders of the state’s industrial and cultural history along with well-catalogued photography and genealogical archives. Constantly changing art exhibits highlight the best of the state’s artists. In 2003, the Sunrise Museum and Art Gallery will move from its historic home in South Hills to a contemporary setting in the downtown Clay Center. Featuring traditional and contemporary permanent and traveling exhibits, this museum has an interactive program that brings art alive for youthful visitors.
Discover the state’s history at the interactive Independence Hall Museum in Wheeling where you’ll learn about the state’s tumultuous beginnings and about the “moving” capitol. See the story of John Henry, carved in native state woods at the John Henry Museum in Hinton.
The West Virginia State Farm Museum, near Point Pleasant, and the Heritage Farm and Museum just outside of Huntington both pay tribute to the agricultural heritage of our state.
In the Eastern Panhandle, visit Boarman House Arts Center in Martinsburg; in Lewisburg, delight at the ever-changing exhibits and wonderful year-round programs at the state’s own Carnegie Hall. The Museum in the Community in Teays Valley will change your opinion of museums if “stuffy and closed” come to mind. In the Northern Panhandle, the Stifel Fine Arts Center at Oglebay Park houses an extensive collection of glass, arts and crafts as well as changing art exhibits.
Music for Every Mood
West Virginia’s musical choices will suit whatever mood you’re in.
The Wheeling Symphony and the West Virginia Symphony, Charleston, offer programs that blend the best of traditional symphonies with local and guest performances, pop concerts and special programs. In the summer, both symphonies offer outdoor performances around the state. The West Virginia Symphony’s “Symphony Sunday” is set on the University of Charleston campus, just across the river from the State Capitol and the Wheeling Symphony’s concerts at Oglebay Park are a local favorite. For a breathtaking weekend of symphony and scenery, consider the summer symphony weekend at Snowshoe Mountain Resort.
Artists’ series performances at Marshall University in Huntington and West Virginia University in Morgantown bring eclectic programming to these two university campuses.
Listen for the strains of fiddles, dulcimers and guitars at any of the traditional musical events around West Virginia.
Experience a full week of fine Appalachian sounds and traditional mountain dancing at the annual Augusta Heritage Festival in Elkins. The classes, the spontaneous jam sessions and the evening performances that bring young and old performers together, playing the music the mountains know’ll captivate you.
Look to the Northern Panhandle for a favorite country music venue. Wheeling is home to the Capitol Music Hall and Jamboree USA, the second-oldest country music radio program in the country. The music hall, recently refurbished, was built in 1928 and is the state’s oldest theater. Regional and national country music singers perform at this theater throughout the year.
All the World’s a Stage
Around the Mountain State, you’ll find traditional outdoor drama, dance and contemporary theater.
At Grandview Park’s Cliffside Amphitheatre, near Beckley, watch the historic “Hatfields and McCoys” or “Honey in the Rock” musicals. You’ll be enjoying one of the longest continually performed outdoor performances in the country. At Chief Logan State Park, you can watch “The Aracoma Story,” the tragic romance of an Indian princess and an early colonist.
In the Eastern Panhandle, the Contemporary American Theatre at Shepherd College offers its audience some of the best in contemporary drama during its annual summer program.
The Greenbrier Valley Theatre in Lewisburg and Tamarack in Beckley bring fine theater performances to their towns, as do local theater groups and organizations around the state.
Their Hands are Never Still
Appalachian heritage presents itself in many forms -- and while our ancestors and families have strong agricultural and industrial backgrounds, they have a love of folk art and music that keeps them occupied long after the workday is done. Heritage festivals allow our best artisans to share their talents. Vandalia, celebrated every Memorial Day Weekend at the State Capitol, is one of the best -- showcasing artisans, musicians and dancers and even the state’s best liars, this festival is not-to-miss.
Where Did You Say You Were From?
West Virginia’s diverse industrial background brought settlers and immigrants from many lands. The Welsh, Germans and Italians came to mine coal, as did freed African-Americans. The Swiss came to farm. The Irish and Belgians found the right combinations of silica and natural gas to start glass factories. Today, our state celebrates these and our other ethnic families with festivals for many occasions. One of the best is the Mid-Ohio Valley Multi-Cultural Festival each June in Parkersburg. International music and folk dance programs are complimented by ethnic foods and crafts and children’s activities.
An Art and Craft Fair for all Reasons
The Mountain State Art and Craft Fair may just be the granddaddy of them all. For more than 35 years at this Fourth of July festival, artisans have gathered to demonstrate and sell arts and crafts ranging from filigreed jewelry and tatting to strong wrought iron and wood furniture. In between, you’ll find art, musical instruments, textile products and traditional toys. And don’t forget the food, or the music, or the special demonstrations and performances. This long-standing festival takes place at Cedar Lakes near Ripley.
Music to Soothe the Soul
Enjoy a weekend of non-stop music, dancing, storytelling and arts displays during the annual Augusta Heritage Festival in Elkins. Sweltering August days will be forgotten as you enjoy the impromptu jam sessions and scheduled performances of some of Appalachia’s finest pickers and dancers amid this mountain town’s cool breezes. You’ll find yourself transformed by the melodies and standing up to dance at this special heritage celebration in picturesque Elkins.
The Midland Trail
The Midland Trail, crossing the country from Virginia and moving westward, was first carved by buffalo, deer and other animals that found water, food and salt supplies along its path. Later, American Indians followed in search of these important supplies. A little later, frontiersmen looked for homes in this country of hope. Today, the trail is still a favorite, with stops that showcase the state’s natural resources along the New River Gorge, its African-American heritage at West Virginia State College in Institute, and its tenacity at Cabin Creek Quilts in Malden.
The Eastern Panhandle
Along the eastern borders of the state, heritage has a decidedly national flavor. A young George Washington surveyed in the Eastern Panhandle area and “took to the waters” at Berkeley Springs.
The firearms used by Lewis and Clark in their discovery expedition were forged at Harpers Ferry. And it was at Harpers Ferry where John Brown, the fiery abolitionist, seized the federal arsenal in 1859. Historic re-enactments, 26 historic sites and cemeteries in eight counties offer Civil War enthusiasts plenty of places to trace this war of the states.
African-American Heritage
Many African-American laborers moved to the state’s coal fields because, while mining was not easy, the pay was better than it was on southern United States farms and the miners held the same social status as other immigrant and white laborers. In Talcott, visitors can see the infamous Big Bend Tunnel where John Henry, “the Steel Drivin’ Man,” pitted his strength against a new steam-powered drill in the race to build railroads across the country. Towns like Institute, Malden, Parkersburg and Huntington offer tributes to some of this country’s finest black educators such as Booker T. Washington, Carter G. Woodson and W. E. B. DuBois.
The Springs Trail
The Greenbrier River area has a gracious reputation as a place of culture and rejuvenation. Visitors can drive the Springs Trail and see remnants of the once-fabulous springs where wealthy patrons traveled by carriage, train and auto to rejuvenate in the mineral waters. The Greenbrier still offers the ages-old spa treatments along with modern spa techniques to its guests. Along with its customary quality services, guests are reminded of another, less friendly, part of our history when they tour the bunker, built as a safe place for our country’s federal legislators during the Cold War.
Ohio River History
In the Northern Panhandle and along the Ohio River, historic sites with hands-on programs highlight the changing face of our country in the early 1800s.
Just outside of Parkersburg, Blennerhassett Island offers a faithful reproduction of the romantic frontier life that Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett came from Ireland to find. The tranquility of their country life was forever changed when Harman became entangled in a mysterious military enterprise with Aaron Burr. Today, visitors cross from Parkersburg to the island on a sternwheeler and tour the island on foot or by carriage to see what life on a gentleman’s country estate would have been like.
Fort New Salem in Mountaineer Country is a collection of log buildings that represent a 19th Century frontier settlement. Workshops, fairs and festivals throughout the year allow visitors to experience the typical 1790s celebrations, holidays and routine.
Pricketts Fort State Park, just a little farther up the road, offers another interactive site for travelers to learn more about frontier history. Again, festivals, fairs and celebrations managed by knowledgeable staffers bring this historic site to life.
Frontiers can be forged at any time, and Arthurdale in Preston County is a case in point. Arthurdale was the first of about 100 homestead resettlement communities that Eleanor Roosevelt supported. Today, the thriving community with its homestead homes, community hall and business buildings is a wonderful place to learn about the Depression era and the hope many placed in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal of the 1930s.
From Natural Resources to Art Glass
West Virginia is rich in industrial heritage, and its visitors can tour family-owned glass factories that continue the tradition of producing fine blown glass that is prized around the world. A wonderful glass museum in Wheeling and a special glass exhibit at the Huntington Museum of Art offer wonderful displays of state work. In southern West Virginia, visitors to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine and Southern Youth Museum will want to take sweaters. The ride on a real underground mine drops 600 feet below the ground and the temperature won’t get above the 50s.
Statehood
West Virginia became the 35th State of the Union on June 20, 1863, and is the only state born out of the Civil War. Prior to 1863, West Virginia was part of Virginia. The bill forming the state of West Virginia was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln on December 31, 1862. On April 20, 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation through which, 60 days later, West Virginia became a state. June 20 is observed as West Virginia Day.
State Seal
The State Seal bears the legend “State of West Virginia” with the motto Montani Semper Liberi (Mountaineers are Always Free); a farmer stands to the right and a miner to the left of a large ivy-draped rock bearing the date of the state’s admission to the Union, and in front of the rock are two hunter’s rifles upon which rests a Phrygian Cap, or "Cap of Liberty."
State Flag
The State Flag features the State Seal prominently displayed on a white field, the lower half of which is wreathed by Rhododendron. Across the top, lettered on a ribbon, is the constitutional designation “State of West Virginia.” The white field is bordered on all four sides by a strip of blue, and for parade purposes all but the staff side are trimmed with gold fringe.
State Nickname
The Mountain State
State Songs
The West Virginia Hills, words and music by Ellen King and H.E. Engle; This is My West Virginia, by Iris Bell; and West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home, by Julian G. Hearne, Jr.
State Fish
Brook Trout
State Fruit
Golden Delicious Apple
State Animal
The Black Bear (Ursus Americanus)
State Tree
Sugar Maple (Acer Saccharum)
State Flower
Rhododendron (Rhododendron Maximum)
State Bird
Cardinal (Richmondena Cardinalis)
State Day
June 20th
State Gem
West Virginia Fossil Coral
Official Colors
Old Gold and Blue
State Insect
Honey Bee
State Butterfly
Monarch Butterfly
State Soil
Monongahela Silt Loam
More information is available by calling Division of Tourism’s toll-free hotline, 1-800-CALL WVA. Callers also can request a free travel guide, calendar of events and other information through the number or the Division’s web site, www.callwva.com.
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