Some of West Virginia’s most common trees include hemlock, red spruce, cedar, ash, pitch pine, hickory, and cucumbertree, which has cucumber-shaped fruit. Amphibians such as tiny cricket frogs, mountain chorus frogs, Allegheny Mountain dusky salamanders, and West Virginia spring salamanders also live throughout the state. Wild turkeys, ruffed grouse, barred owls, bald eagles, cerulean warblers, and ruby-throated hummingbirds are among the 300 species of birds that live in the state.Ĭornsnakes, mountain earthsnakes, fence lizards, stinkpots (a kind of turtle), and five-lined skinks are some of the reptiles that slither and skitter through West Virginia. Deep, stream-cut gorges and a wall of mountains called the Allegheny Front separates the state’s two regions.Īt least 70 kinds of mammals inhabit West Virginia, including Virginia big-eared bats, West Virginia northern flying squirrels, raccoons, skunks, and black bears, the state animal. The Allegheny Plateau spreads across the rest of the state, and has flat-topped hills and rounded peaks. This region is known for its parallel ridges that were cut by streams, as well as canyons called “water gaps.” Forests, caves, and high peaks dot this area, including the state’s highest point, Spruce Knob. The Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region includes the Appalachian and Blue Ridge Mountains, which start in the northeast and run southwest. It can be divided into two geographical regions. Its wiggly western border is created by the Ohio River, while its winding eastern border is created by the Appalachian Mountains. It’s bordered by Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland in the north Maryland and Virginia in the east Virginia and Kentucky in the south and Kentucky and Ohio in the west. Some people think this state’s shape looks like a leaping frog, with its nose in the southwestern corner. West Virginia separated from Virginia in 1861, and two years later, it became its own state. Brown hoped weapons gained in the raid would be used in the fight against slavery, but his raid failed. John Brown, an abolitionist-someone who wanted to abolish slavery-staged a famous raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. But at the beginning of the Civil War (1861-1865), West Virginia refused to secede (withdraw) from the Union along with the rest of the state. The British won that battle, so West Virginia was still part of Virginia during the Revolutionary War of 1775 to 1783. As a result, Native Americans’ homelands were taken, and tribes began supporting the French in a land war against the British (often called the French and Indian War) from 1756 until 1763. In 1730, Virginia’s British-controlled government offered a thousand acres free to each European family willing to move to the area that would become West Virginia. Many thousands of years after these ancient people lived, Native American tribes including the Cherokee, Iroquois, Manahoac, Meherrin, Monacan, Nottaway, Shawnee, Occaneechi, Tutelo, and Saponi populated the land.Īfter the British arrived in the 1600s, the area that now encompasses West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and parts of North Carolina, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York was all called Virginia. After archaeologists discovered spear points used to hunt extinct species such as mastodons and mammoths, they realized that people have lived in what’s now West Virginia at least 10,500 years.
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