Canaan Valley State Park

Emile Hodel became editor of the Beckley Post-Herald

Michael Benedum built the Bridgeport Civic Center

Reorganization transferred state mental health and penal institutions to Department of Mental Health and the Commissioner of Public Institutions

Weirton Steel purchased Browns Island for $40,000

FMC developed new source of brine at Bens Run

City National Bank opened its doors under President Donald Shonk

Bishop mine explodes again

Jim Comstock founded the weekly West Virginia Hillbilly

Deer restocking program ended

Roy Bird Cook received the Award of Merit from the West Virginia Library Association

Little Jimmy Dickens left the Grand Ole Opry

Irvin Dugan retired as newspaper artist

Donald Duncan's sons took over the Duncan Yo-Yo Company

Fairfax Stone dedicated as state historic monument and became state park

Gunner Gatski played football one year for Detroit

The Knights of the South Branch was organized to revive medieval jousting

Roy Lee Harmon wrote Unto the Hills

Logan High School and its field house and athletic fields were constructed on Hatfield Island

Ken Hechler moved to West Virginia to teach at Marshall College (now University)

The first interstate highway construction contract in the state was awarded on I-64 for a bridge across a road in Cabell County

Jean Lee Latham was awarded the Boys' Clubs of America Junior Book Award for Trail Blazer of the Seas

The McClains were approached by WVU professors who feared that early West Virginia histories would be lost if not reprinted

Kyle McCormick wrote The Story of Mercer County

John Norman served on the aircraft carrier Saratoga

A group from West Virginia and Ohio purchased land to establish a college with an independent board of trustees, now Ohio Valley University

Marbon Chemical is built

The announcement of plans to merge the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central System was made

Filippo Colasessano's son began selling pepperoni rolls in his Fairmont lunch spot

The Division of Disease Control began a statewide polio vaccination program

The Kanawha River bridge was opened in Winfield

Red Ribble stopped photographing southern West Virginia

Otis Rice began teaching at West Virginia Institute of Technology

The Wm. M. Ritter Lumber Company company stores were sold

The Wm. M. Ritter Lumber Company coal reserves were leased to the Island Creek Coal Company

Jay Rockefeller went to the International Christian University in Tokyo

Shenandoah Downs purchased land north of Charles Town Race Track for night harness racing

WVU Rod Hundley became All-American in basketball

Jim Sprouse began practicing law

Beckley radio station WAJR increased to 5,000 watts

Ernest T. Weir died

The last high school basketball was played under the African-American West Virginia Athletic Union

Benjamin Starks founded the Beacon Journal in Charleston

The Federation of Labor and Industrial Union Council agreed to combine as the West Virginia Labor Federation, AFL-CIO

West Virginia State College lost its federal land-grant status

Stanley H. Martin became president of West Virginia Wesleyan College

The Whipple mine shut down and the company store closed

The Winfield bridge was completed

WSAZ radio switched affiliation to NBC

The Centennial year closed and virtually all elements of the program had been successfully completed

Patch Adams spent two weeks in a psychiatric facility for depression

President's Appalachian Regional Commission (PARC) recommendations sent to President Johnson

Appalachian Hospital network saved by the Board of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church

Appalachian Volunteers organized

Only 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles could be found in the U.S.

W. E. Blackhurst published Sawdust in Your Eyes

W. E. Blackhurst was the first commentator for the Cass Scenic Railroad

Florence Blanchfield received the West Virginia Distinguished Service Medal

New student union building was built at Bluefield State

Tony Boyle was elected president of the UMWA

Ruby Bradley retired from the army

Elk River Coal & Lumber Company sold its sawmill at Swandale to Georgia-Pacific

Expansion of Cabell Huntington Hospital increased the size to 280 beds and 48 bassinets

Centennial Golden Trout received first widespread stocking

Mower Lumber Company purchased Cheat Mountain Club

Jim Comstock ran for unsuccessfully for Congress

Phyllis Curtin sang at the meeting of the Music Educators National Conference in Charleston

Julius DeGruyter wrote A Brief History of Kanawha County and the Kanawha Region

Dolores Dowling became secretary and administrative assistant of the Veterans Administration regional office in Huntington

Thomson Newspapers of Canada purchased all three Fairmont papers

Ann Flagg returned to teaching at Evanston Consolidated School District and Southern Illinois University

The department led the effort to organize a crafts fair at Cedar Lakes

The book, Mountain Heritage was published

Patrick Gainer published The West Virginia Centennial Song Book of 100 Songs

Patrick Gainer recorded Folk Songs of the Allegheny Mountains for Folk Heritage Recordings

Earl Andrews became president of the Pennsylvania Glass Sand Corporation at Berkeley Springs

Legislature authorized counties to cooperate with local governments and the federal government

Land on Maryland Heights was added to the Harpers Ferry National Historic Park

The widows of Edward and Walker Long and William D. Brike took charge of Huntington Newspaper Publishing

Charles Hodel was named to the West Virginia Press Association's Hall of Fame

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals who ruled in State ex rel. Slatton v. Boles that the state policy is to "protect and reclaim juveniles" and will be treated as delinquents rather than criminals

Kanawha Records began to record authentic indigenous mountain music as performed by contemporary West Virginia musicians

Reynolds Memorial Hospital opened a new facility in Glen Dale

The National Youth Science Camp was founded in Pocahontas County

The West Virginia Chapter of Nature Conservancy was founded by volunteers

The Greenbrier Historical society re-formed after disbanding during the Civil War

New buildings of the Ohio Valley College (now University) were occupied on a permanent campus

The Libbey-Owens-Ford glass bottle plant closed in Charleston

Jim Comstock found a preserved baby and the two female mummies in a barn in Philippi.

The West Virginia Centennial showboat, Rhododendron, plied the Kanawha, Ohio and Monongahela Rivers

Spanky Roberts was assigned to Griffis Air Force base

The St. Albans Archeological Site was first identified by Samuel D. Kessel

Salem College received full accreditation by the North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges

Devid Selby married Claudeis "Chip" Newman

WVU Rod Thorn became All-American in basketball

Boyd Stutler published West Virginia in the Civil War

Legislation to protect the environment from surface mining was enacted

Rod Thorn became the second pick in the first round of the NBA draft and went to Baltimore Bullets

The Unitarian Universalist church in Morgantown was built

The VISTAs (Volunteers in Service to America) began

Geoffrey Hobday left the Charleston Symphony Orchestra

The Charleston Symphony Orchestra was led by a season of guest conductors

The first Water Festival was held at Hinton

Billy Edd Wheeler recorded "Coal Tattoo"

Wheeling Hospital set up the first intensive care unit in West Virginia

The Shott brothers revived their WHAJ-FM

The Widen mine and railroad ceased operation

WVU at Parkersburg became the first of WVU's Appalachian Centers

A naval radio station was established at Sugar Grove