West Virginia

Capital: Charleston · South · Mountain State

State Statistics

About West Virginia

West Virginia was born out of the Civil War when Unionist counties of Virginia refused to follow the Confederacy's secession, becoming the only U.S. state created by separating from a Confederate state. For a century the state's wealth was extracted through coal mining, while workers labored in company towns and fought some of the bloodiest labor battles in American history. The post-WWII mechanization of coal mining and the subsequent collapse of the chemical and steel industries triggered a decades-long population decline that has left West Virginia as the nation's most economically distressed state, with the highest drug overdose death rate in the country, widespread poverty, and a shrinking workforce. Yet the state possesses spectacular natural beauty — from the New River Gorge, America's newest national park, to the high Allegheny peaks — and a fierce Appalachian pride summed up in its motto: Mountaineers Are Always Free.

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