Portal:West Virginia

The West Virginia Portal

Panorama northwest, northeast and east from a ridge along West Virginia Route 42 between Elk Garden and Sulphur City in Mineral County, West Virginia (2016)

West Virginia is a mountainous state in the Southern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered by Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast, Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, and Ohio to the northwest. West Virginia is the 10th-smallest state by area and ranks as the 12th-least populous state, with a population of 1,769,979 residents. The capital and most populous city is Charleston with a population of 49,055.

West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key border state during the American Civil War. It separated from Virginia and was one of two states (along with Nevada) admitted to the Union during the Civil War. Some of its residents held slaves, but most were yeoman farmers, and the delegates provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in the new state constitution. The state legislature abolished slavery in the state, and at the same time ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery nationally on February 3, 1865.

West Virginia's northern panhandle extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio to form a tristate area, with Wheeling, Weirton, and Morgantown just across the border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Huntington in the southwest is close to Ohio and Kentucky, while Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry in the eastern panhandle region are considered part of the Washington metropolitan area, between Maryland and Virginia. West Virginia is often included in several U.S. geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, and the Southeastern United States. It is the only state entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission; the area is commonly defined as "Appalachia". (Full article...)

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Old Main at Marshall University

There are forty-four colleges and universities in the U.S. state of West Virginia that are listed under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. These institutions include two research universities, five master's universities, and fourteen baccalaureate colleges, as well as twenty-one associate's colleges. In addition, there are three institutions classified as special-focus institutions.

West Virginia's oldest surviving post-secondary institution is Bethany College, founded on March 2, 1840, by Alexander Campbell. Marshall University and West Liberty University were both established in 1837, but as private subscription schools. Founded in 1867, West Virginia University is the state's largest public institution of higher learning in terms of enrollment, as it had 29,707 students as of spring 2013. Eastern West Virginia Community and Technical College is the state's smallest, with an enrollment of 822. With an enrollment of 1,549 students, Wheeling University is West Virginia's largest traditional private post-secondary institution, while Valley College–Princeton is the state's smallest, with an enrollment of 72. The American Public University System, a private for-profit, distance education institution based in Charles Town, has the largest enrollment of any post-secondary institution in West Virginia, with 31,331 students. Catholic Distance University, a fully online non-profit university in Charles Town, educates undergraduate students in Liberal Arts and theology and graduate students in theology and educational ministry. (Full article...)

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Nash in the 2000s

John Forbes Nash Jr. (June 13, 1928 – May 23, 2015), known and published as John Nash, was an American mathematician who made fundamental contributions to game theory, real algebraic geometry, differential geometry, and partial differential equations. Nash and fellow game theorists John Harsanyi and Reinhard Selten were awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics. In 2015, he and Louis Nirenberg were awarded the Abel Prize for their contributions to the field of partial differential equations.

As a graduate student in the Princeton University Department of Mathematics, Nash introduced a number of concepts (including Nash equilibrium and the Nash bargaining solution) which are now considered central to game theory and its applications in various sciences. In the 1950s, Nash discovered and proved the Nash embedding theorems by solving a system of nonlinear partial differential equations arising in Riemannian geometry. This work, also introducing a preliminary form of the Nash–Moser theorem, was later recognized by the American Mathematical Society with the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research. Ennio De Giorgi and Nash found, with separate methods, a body of results paving the way for a systematic understanding of elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations. Their De Giorgi–Nash theorem on the smoothness of solutions of such equations resolved Hilbert's nineteenth problem on regularity in the calculus of variations, which had been a well-known open problem for almost sixty years. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various West Virginia-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Saturday afternoon street scene, Welch, McDowell County, 1946 (from West Virginia)
Image 21715 Nicolas de Fer map showing the Native American areas known as Tionontatacaga and Calicuas (from History of West Virginia)
Image 3Child laborer photographed by Lewis Hine in the coal mines of West Virginia, 1908 (from West Virginia)
Image 4Francis H. Pierpont, a leader during the Second Wheeling Convention (from West Virginia)
Image 5Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a statue on the grounds of the West Virginia State Capitol (from West Virginia)
Image 6Spruce Knob is the highest point in West Virginia and the Allegheny Mountains. (from West Virginia)
Image 71751 Fry-Jefferson map showing early ferries and established colonial borders before the French And Indian War (from History of West Virginia)
Image 8West Virginia is situated in the Appalachian Mountains, bounded by Allegheny Mountains, Ohio and Big Sandy rivers, and the Cumberland Mountains. (from West Virginia)
Image 9West Virginia Independence Hall, site of the Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 10Köppen climate types of West Virginia, using 1991–2020 climate normals (from West Virginia)
Image 11Turnout by county in the October 24, 1861, West Virginia statehood vote (from History of West Virginia)
Image 12Bluefield, a major center for coal mining, in 2014 (from West Virginia)
Image 13The Veterans Memorial Bridge carries US 22 from Weirton into Ohio. (from West Virginia)
Image 14The Linsly Institute building in Wheeling, West Virginia, which served as the state's first capitol building from statehood in 1863 until March 28, 1870, when the capitol was transferred to Charleston, West Virginia (from History of West Virginia)
Image 15Counties (in blue) approving Virginia's secession from the U.S. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 16Packed circles diagram showing estimates of the ethnic origins of people in West Virginia in 2021. (from West Virginia)
Image 17Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, changed hands a dozen times during the American Civil War. (from History of West Virginia)
Image 18Seneca Rocks, Pendleton County (from West Virginia)
Image 19Shaded relief map of the Cumberland Plateau and Ridge-and-valley Appalachians (from West Virginia)
Image 20Map of Virginia dated June 13, 1861, featuring the percentage of slave population within each county at the 1860 census and the proposed state of Kanawha (from West Virginia)
Image 21The West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston is home to the West Virginia Legislature. (from West Virginia)
Image 22John S. Carlile, a leader during the First Wheeling Convention (from History of West Virginia)
Image 23Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit (from West Virginia)
Image 24Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 25The iconic New River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville (from West Virginia)
Image 26State of Westsylvania proposed to the U.S. Congress (from West Virginia)
Image 27Thomas Lee, the first manager of the Ohio Company of Virginia (from History of West Virginia)

Racial plurality in West Virginia by county, per the 2020 U.S. census

Legend

Non-Hispanic White

70–80%

80–90%

90%+

(from West Virginia)

Image 29Bituminous coal seam in southwestern West Virginia (from West Virginia)
Image 30Escaped slave broadside, Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1845 (from West Virginia)
Image 31Votes by county in the October 1861 statehood vote (from West Virginia)
Image 32Harpers Ferry alternated between Confederate and Union rule eight times during the American Civil War, and was finally annexed by West Virginia. (from West Virginia)
Image 33A slave woman tending to a white baby in West Virginia, 1865 (from West Virginia)
Image 34Historical coat of arms of West Virginia (illustrated, 1876) (from West Virginia)
Image 35West Virginia population density map (from West Virginia)
Image 36A view of the New River in West Virginia, the world's third-oldest river geologically (from History of West Virginia)

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... that Babydog is "a fixture in West Virginia politics"?
... that professor Ruth Ann Davis made the largest-ever single contribution to Potomac State College of West Virginia University to support nursing scholarships in memory of her mother?
... that James Dillon Armstrong was a Virginia state senator, a delegate to West Virginia's constitutional convention, and a circuit court judge while serving for more than 43 years as a Presbyterian church elder?
... that the general manager of a West Virginia TV station called changing its network affiliation "the hardest decision I've ever had to make"?
... that the Vulcan Bridge, a bridge in Vulcan, West Virginia, was constructed after the mayor requested financial aid from the Soviet Union?

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G.W. Helme Snuff Mill Historic District (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Dresq23 (talk · contribs · new pages (24)) started on 2025-05-05, score: 20

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Cabell (disambiguation) (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Clarityfiend (talk · contribs · new pages (20)) started on 2025-05-04, score: 20

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Sources

^ "Biggest US Cities By Population - West Virginia - 2018 Population". Biggest US Cities. March 4, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2020.

[1] "Biggest US Cities By Population - West Virginia - 2018 Population". Biggest US Cities. March 4, 2020. Retrieved March 4, 2020.

[1]