e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia is the comprehensive reference resource for the Mountain State of West Virginia. Based on the best-selling West Virginia Encyclopedia, e-WV offers thousands of articles on West Virginia’s people and places, history, arts, science and culture.
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Death of a legend Country singer Hank Williams was to perform in Charleston on New Year’s Eve, but he never made it. He died in Oak Hill the next day. Read More »
Capitol burns On January 3, 1921, West Virginia’s capitol building in downtown Charleston was destroyed by a fire. The cause of the blaze was never known. Read More »
Elk River Chemical Spill On January 9, 2014, a leak from a chemical storage facility on the Elk River, just upstream from West Virginia American Water's treatment plant, contaminated the drinking water for residents in nine counties. Read More »
Bartley Mine Disaster On January 10, 1940, the Pond Creek No. 1 mine, at Bartley, McDowell County, exploded. The blast killed 91 miners, with another 47 escaping. Read More »
Nitro January 17, 1918: The War Department hired an engineering firm to build the DuPont munitions plant in Nitro. Within 11 months, the plant and an entire town were completed Read More »
The rhododendron On January 23, 1903, after a vote by schoolchildren, the rhododendron was designated West Virginia's official state flower . Read More »
Minister’s mission During the 1980s and 1990s, the Reverend Bernard Coffindaffer erected clusters of crosses in West Virginia and much of the Southeast. Many of those crosses can still be seen along roadways. Read More »
This Date in HistoryJanuary 28, 1937: Ohio River crested more than 19 feet above flood stage at Huntington 
The Ohio River begins at Pittsburgh, with the union of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. From there the Ohio travels 981 miles to Cairo, Illinois, where it joins the Mississippi. The Ohio drainage basin totals 204,000 square miles, including most of West Virginia. For 277 miles the Ohio River forms the western border of our state. Native Americans had a variety of names for the Ohio. The French called it La Belle Rivière, ‘‘the beautiful river.’’ From the beginning of western ex... |
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