The state of West Virginia is located in the eastern part of the United States. It became the official state of the USA in 1863 as the 35th state in a row. It borders five US states – it has the longest border with Virginia in the southwest, Kentucky and Ohio in the west, and Pennsylvania and Maryland in the northeast . The capital of West Virginia is the city of Charleston.

Today’s West Virginia was part of the Virginia colony for a long time, but was separated by mountains, and therefore the western part of this colony was very sparsely populated. Gradually, settlers began to infiltrate the area, not from the east but from the north of Pennsylvania; it was a very diverse population, especially immigrants from Germany and Ireland. West Virginia differed greatly from the East, both in terms of natural conditions and socioeconomic development – especially slavery in the West “failed” and was a point of contention between the two parts of Virginia; in West Virginia, the idea of ​​an independent state began to gain ground. With the advent of the Civil War in the 1960s, Virginia sided with the Confederacy. West Virginia used this situation to declare an independent state, which West Virginia officially became in 1863.

West Virginia is, as the nickname “The Mountain State” suggests, a mountainous or rather hilly state; basically the whole lies in the Appalachian region and is formed by a plateau. The average altitude of West Virginia is 460 meters, which is the most of any state east of the Mississippi River; the highest point of the state is the Spruce Knob with an altitude of 1482 meters.

• West Virginia Zip Codes: Offers a complete list of all postal codes in West Virginia by city and county.

The climate in West Virginia is characterized in the lower parts as humid subtropical, in the higher ones as humid continental. Summers are very hot here and in the lower positions reach the highest average temperature of thirty degrees. Winters in the lower parts, especially in the south of the state, are relatively mild with the highest daily temperatures around 6 degrees. Of course, this does not apply in areas with higher altitudes, where temperatures do not rise above freezing during the day.

Due to the unfavorable natural conditions, agriculture in West Virginia is generally not widespread; the most important products include fruit, corn and tobacco, as well as poultry farming and the production of dairy products. The state is relatively rich in minerals, especially coal and natural gas. In West Virginia, the glass or chemical industry is gaining ground.

The largest and capital city of West Virginia is the city of Charleston with a population of fifty thousand; Huntington is about the same size.

The flag of the state of West Virginia was adopted in 1929.

State information

The capital of West Virginia – Charleston

The capital of the state of West Virginia is the city of Charleston. The city’s first permanent settlement dates back to 1787, and today Charleston is the state’s largest city of 50,000.

The history of the city dates back to the 1880s, when land on the site of today’s Charleston was acquired by a certain Thomas Bullitt. They were later bought by George Clendenin, who had Fort Lee built here in 1787; he named the city after his father Charles. Officially, the city was founded a few years later in 1794.

After the creation of the independent state of West Virginia in 1863, the people could not agree on a single capital for a long time. The city of Charleston and Wheeling alternated with this designation. It was not until 1877 that a decision was made to permanently move the capital to Charleston, where the seat of parliament was completed in 1885.

Today, Charleston is the largest city in West Virginia and an important transportation and commercial center of the state. The current Capitol, built in 1932, and the city’s adjoining cultural center with art gallery, museum and planetarium are especially worth seeing in Charleston.