Geography and Industry

West Virginia is one of the most heavily forested and most rugged of all the states east of the Mississippi River. Almost all of West Virginia is located on the Allegheny Plateau, which is a high stretch of land with a pretty flat top (as opposed to mountain ranges, which do not have flat tops). Fast-flowing rivers like the Big Sandy, the Kanawha, and the Monongahela cut through parts of West Virginia. The northern part is not on the plateau at all. It is part of the Ohio River Valley (the Ohio River runs along West Virginia's northwestern border).

Because of its high elevation, West Virginia gets a lot of snow every winter, and that in turn draws crowds of skiers every year. Also because of its high elevation, most of West Virginia is still undeveloped wilderness. It is a popular vacation spot for people who like to hike, boat, fish, and hunt. The state has a lot of state parks, and large national forests such as the George Washington National Forest and the Monongahela National Forest.

History

Before European settlement of the area, most of West Virginia was too rugged for the Native Americans to be interested in living there. After all, why would people live in a place where they couldn't grow any food or find many animals to hunt? However, the Shawnee, Miami, and several other tribes were able to settle in a few of the less rugged parts of West Virginia, mostly in the northern part of the state, in the Ohio River Valley.

Up until 1862, West Virginia was a part of the state of Virginia. Because of the mountains, tobacco and cotton would not grow in this part of the state. Because they didn't have the large plantations that their neighbors in the rest of Virginia had, slavery was not at all widespread in what later became West Virginia.

So when the rest of Virginia voted to secede from the Union, the counties that made up West Virginia voted to break away from Virginia! The people of West Virginia had the help of the Union Army, which protected them because they wanted to stay in the Union. Congress passed a law allowing West Virginia to enter the Union on June 20, 1863.