A Natural Beauty: West Virginia

West Virginia is the state in Appalachian, Upland South, plus Mid-Atlantic regions of United States, bounded by Virginia on southeast, Kentucky on southwest, Ohio on northwest, as well as Maryland and Pennsylvania on northeast. The capital and the biggest city is Charleston. In history the region now occupied by West Virginia was contest region largely by Virginia and Pennsylvania. This competition resulted in a few settlers petitioning Continental Congress to generate a new region called West Sylvania. Some tentative land companies, like the Vandalia Company, and afterward the Ohio Company as well as Indiana Company attempted to legitimize their asserts to land in the parts of Kentucky and West Virginia however failed. With resolution of Virginia and Pennsylvania border dispute that resulted in the formation of Kentucky, Kentuckians "were fulfilled as well as the inhabitants of a big part of West Virginia were gratifying.

After Wheeling gatherings, West Virginia broke afar Virginia in American Civil War and was declared to Union as the separate state on 20 June 1863, as well as was the key Civil War "border state." It is 1 of just 2 states created in the American Civil War (with Nevada that separated from Utah Territory) as well as is the single state to shape by splitting from a Confederate state plus one of the three states to separate from other state (others being Maine and Kentucky). The Census Bureau believes West Virginia fraction of South since the majority of the state is the south of Mason-Dixon Line. The northern panhandle, though, expands adjoining to Pennsylvania plus Ohio with West Virginia cities of Wheeling as well as Weirton being only across the border from Pittsburgh metropolitan area, whilst Bluefield is fewer than 70 miles from the North Carolina as well as Harper's Ferry is measured to be the part of Washington D.C. metropolitan region. The exceptional position of West Virginia denotes that it is usually included in a broad variety of biological regions, comprising the Southeastern US and also the Northeastern US. Remarkably, it is the single state that completely lies in the region served by Appalachian Regional Commission that is a common meaning of "Appalachia".

The state is renowned for its immense natural beauty, its traditionally important logging as well as coal mining industries, plus its labor record. It is also recognized for a broad range of outside entertaining opportunities, comprising skiing, rock climbing, caving, fishing, hiking, whitewater rafting, hunting and mountain biking. West Virginia is surrounded by Pennsylvania to north; by Ohio to north and the west; by Kentucky to west; by Maryland to north and the east; as well as by Virginia to east and the south. The Potomac and Ohio rivers form parts of boundaries.

West Virginia is a single state in nation situated completely in the Appalachian Mountain range, as well as in where all the areas are mountainous; for this cause it is nick named The Mountain State as well as even is partly the cause why its slogan is "mountaineers are forever free."