| 1. | | West Virginia is the only state to be created from another state
(Virginia...in 1863). |
| 2. | | Berkley Springs, a resort town, has more massage therapists than
lawyers. |
| 3. | | Berkley Springs is the only place in the U.S. to boast: "George
Washington bathed here." |
| 4. | | W.V. has had the nation's lowest crime rate for the past 26 years. |
| 5. | | During the Cold War, a sprawling 112,000 sq. ft. bomb shelter was
built to shelter members of congress in the event of a nuclear attack.
It's located beneath the famous Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur
Springs, WV. |
| 6. | | White Sulphur Springs has the only private residence in the U.S.
that
is made out of coal. |
| 7. | | The city of Bluefield, WV bills itself as "America's
Air-conditioned
City." They back up their boast by serving free lemonade anytime the
temperature reaches 90 degrees. |
| 8. | | St. Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton was the site of the first
Mother's Day celebration in 1908. |
| 9. | | Two West Virginia men have built castles for their wives. Stephen
Elkins built "Halliehurst" in 1890 for his wife Hallie Davis
Elkins...the
only woman in American history to be the daughter, the wife, and the
mother of a U.S. senator. |
| 10. | | In 1885, whiskey distiller Taylor Suite began building Berkley
Castle for his new bride, Rosa Pelham, who was 31 years his junior. He
died in 1908, a year before the project was finished. Rosa completed
the
castle but went on the squander her inheritance on extravagant living
and
wild parties and ended up losing the castle and living in a shack and
raising chickens to make ends meet. |
| 11. | | Philippi, WV was the site of the first land battle of the Civil
War. |
| 12. | | In 1921, West Virginia became the first state to have a sales tax. |
| 13. | | The mother of Abraham Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, was born near Romney,
WV. |
| 14. | | The largest single shipment of matches...20 railroad cars
full...was
sent from Wheeling, WV to Memphis, TN in 1933. |
| 15. | | In 1947, Chuck Yeager, a native of Hamlin, WV, became the first
person to fly faster that the speed of sound. |
| 16. | | The Old Stone Church, in Lewisburg, was built in 1796 while George
Washington was President and has been in continuous service ever since.
(It is Presbyterian) |
| 17. | | At the end of the "Guilded Age" in the late 1890's, the town of
Bramwell, WV had more millionaires per square mile than any other city
in
the U.S. Many of their mansions have been restored and can be visited
by
the public. |
| 18. | | With an average altitude of 1,500 feet, WV is the highest
stateeast
of the Mississippi. |
| 19. | | The first brick street in the world was laid in the city of
Charleston in 1873. |
| 20. | | The first concrete street in the world was laid in the town of
Webster Springs, WV in 1903. |
| 21. | | Indirect artillery fire (action against an unseen target) was used
for the first time in military history at the Battle of Fayetteville on
May 20, 1863 by a 19-year old Confederate, Sgt. Milton Humphreys.
Virtually all modern artillery fire is now indirect fire. |
| 22. | | James Rumsey of Shepardstown, WV invented the first steamboat.
After he died suddenly in England, while raising funds for his project,
his friend, Robert Fulton, took his plans and completed the work and is
now credited with the invention of the first steamboat. |
| 23. | | In 1956, Cecil Underwood (age 34) became the youngest governor in
the U.S. In 1996, Underwood ran again and became the oldest governor in
the U.S. |
| 24. | | The hardwood flooring in the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New
York was manufactured by the Meadow River Lumber Co. of Rainelle, WV. |
| 25. | | West Virginia has the oddest shape of any state. This was because
Union officials, during the Civil War, arranged all the pro-Union
counties of Virginia into a state which then seceded from that
Confederate State. And may we add, Mingo County, WV, the Heart of the
Billion Dollar Coal Field is home of the "Coal House," which holds the
Chamber of Commerce. It is located in the county seat, Williamson and
is
constructed entirely of local coal cut into blocks. |
