Despite its name in West Virginia lore, the story of the Greenbrier Ghost is less about a ghost and more about a visage of a deceased woman who comes to her mother in a series of dreams,  to rectify what has been done to her in what became one of America’s most shocking court tales.

The view of Hawks Nest from the overlook called Lover’s Leap is an awesome vision of nature’s beauty but beneath it lies a dark history and the worst industrial tragedy our nation has known, made even more tragic because it was easily preventable.

Each year West Virginia harvests 2.7 million bushels of apples to be the 9th largest producer of the fruit in the nation. The varieties native to the state are among the most popular in the world and they and the growing industry are the special fruits of the man who many think is simply a legend, but was a real, live man whose influence set the course for the Mountain State’s apple growing industry.

Since West Virginia developed first as part of Virginia, many of its county names come from the mother state’s politics, but after its separation, the names diverge into the new state’s history. Learn more about which kinds of politicians have the most counties named for them, which individual gave us two county names, and which is the only county named for a woman. 

While Appalachia is known for having a mostly European-descendent white population, it also has a rich history of people of color. This includes not just African Americans but also Native Americans, primarily Cherokee. There is one culture, though, found in Barbour County near Phillipi, that embodies all three races, known for the community they settled and live in today.

After coal became king in West Virginia, out-of-state barons extracted the blood, sweat and tears of the miners, forcing them into indentured servitude with company towns, while leaving them to work under dangerous and sometimes fatal conditions. The travail of the miners and their families set the stage for coal’s next chapter. 

West Virginia is synonymous with coal, but the mighty king of its industrial complex was once inconsequential.  The Industrial Revolution forever changed that and coal fueled America’s rise to prosperity as the first mines were created by local people of influence.  

When radio ruled the airwaves, West Virginia had one of America’s favorite shows.  “It’s Wheeling Steel” was broadcast by the eponymous company from the Capitol Music Hall in The Nail City each week, first starting locally but landing on NBC. Talent from the mills and offices populated its content, making it popular in the 1930s and 40s. 

Lured to West Virginia by its nascent salt industry, the brine made it possible for the chemical industry to flourish. Though there were plants around the state, the industry mostly made their home in the Kanawha Valley, stretching from Belle to a town created just for chemical-making, Nitro. Highs and lows unique to the industry have altered production but it continues to thrive in the Mountain State.

A much-heralded writer, Breece D’J Pancake was destined to become one of America’s great authors.  His work in The Atlantic Monthly magazine made him much sought after as he explored the lives of West Virginians. But fate had other plans and Pancake’s small body of work from his short lifetime left the literary world pondering “What if?”