MOUNTAIN STATE FACTS:

Animal:  Black Bear

Bird:  Cardinal

Butterfly:  Monarch

Colors:  Old Gold and Blue

Flower:  Big Laurel (Rhodedendron)

Fruit:  Golden Delicious Apple

Motto:  "Mountaineers are always free"

Tree:  Sugar Maple

Early History:  WV was used as hunting grounds by a number of Indian tribes as early as 14,000 years ago. 

1669:  German explorer John Lederer and his group reached the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a western expedition and is believed to be the first white men to see WV.

1671:  Thomas Batts and Robert Fallam led an expedition in search of hunting grounds into what is now WV.

1726:  Morgan Morgan established a home at Bunker Hill.

1727:  Germans established a settlement at New Mecklenburg, now Shepherdstown.

1742:  Coal was discovered by John Salley near Racine.

1835:  The first railroad reaches Harpers Ferry.

1859:  John Brown and his followers attacked the federal aresenal at Harpers Ferry.

1861:  Virginia seceded from the Union.  The counties of western Virginia refused to secede and organized a separate government supporting the Union.  West Virginia contributed 32,000 soldiers to the Union army and about 9,000 to the Confederate army.

1863:  West Virginia became the 35th state.

1885:  The capitol of West Virginia was established in Charleston.

"Take Me Home, Country Roads"

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River.

Life is old there, older than the trees

Younger than the mountains, growin' like a breeze.

Chorus:

Take me home, country roads

To the place I belong

West Virginia, mountain momma

Take me home, country roads.

All my memories, gathered round her

Miners lady, stranger to blue water

Dark and dusty, painted on the sky

Misty taste of moonshine

Teardrops in my eye.

(Chorus)

I hear her voice in the morning hour she calls me

The radio reminds me of my home far away

And drivin' down the road I get a feelin

That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday!

(Chorus)