Mountain Momma

The other day one of my readers reminded me they had been born and raised in West Virginia. I've been to West Virginia once and although I searched my memory, the only thing I remember about W. Virginia is the John Denver song:

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

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West virginia, mountain momma
Take me home, country roads

Famous West Virginian's

I thought "oh, that's the place of the Hatfield and McCoy fued". But I was wrong, that was Kentucky. Out of the 1,816,856 people who live in West Virginia, they have produced a few famous people:

Booker T. Washington, Soupy Sales, George Brett, Don Knotts, Randy Moss, Jason Saunders, John D. Rockefeller IV, Jerry West, Pearl Buck.

20 West Virginia facts

1. West Virginia is considered the southern most northern state and the northern most southern state.
2. West Virginia has the oldest population of any state. The median age is 40.
3. The first state sales tax in the United States went into effect in West Virginia on July 1, 1921.
4. On January 26, 1960 Danny Heater, a student from Burnsville, scored 135 points in a high school basketball game earning him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
5. The first federal prison exclusively for women in the United States was opened in 1926 in West Virginia.
6. West Virginia's nickname is the Mountain State and its motto is "Mountaineers Are Always Free."
7. Nearly 75% of West Virginia is covered by forests.
   
8. West Virginia covers about 24,000 square miles and has a population of about 1.8 million.
9. 15% of the nation's total coal production comes from West Virginia.
10. West Virginia was the first state to have a sales tax. It became effective July 1, 1921.
11. West Virginia has an mean altitude of 1,500 feet, giving it the highest average altitude east of the Mississippi.
12. Outdoor advertising had its origin in Wheeling about 1908 when the Block Brothers Tobacco Company painted bridges and barns with the wording: "Treat Yourself to the Best, Chew Mail Pouch."
    
13. Moundsville is the site of the continent’s largest cone-shaped prehistoric burial mound. It is 69 feet high and 900 feet in circumference at the base and was opened on March 19, 1838.
    
14. The first electric railroad in the world, built as a commercial enterprise, was constructed between Huntington and Guyandotte.
    
15. On September 10, 1938, the Mingo Oak, largest and oldest white oak tree in the United States, was declared dead and felled with ceremony.
    
16. Coal House, the only residence in the world built entirely of coal, is located in White Sulphur Springs. The house was occupied on June 1, 1961.
    
17. The world’s largest shipment of matches (20 carloads or 210,000,000 matches) was shipped from Wheeling to Memphis, Tennessee, on August 26, 1933.
18. The last public hanging in West Virginia was held in Jackson County in December 1897.
    
    
19. The first spa open to the public was at Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, in 1756 (then, Bath, Virginia).
20. The first brick street in the world was laid in Charleston, West Virginia, on October 23, 1870, on Summers Street, between Kanawha and Virginia Streets.