Britannica Student Encyclopedia - 2010

more than 4,000 feet (1,200 meters)

high. The Great Kanawha, Little

Kanawha, Monongahela, and Shenandoah

rivers cross the state.

West Virginia has a humid climate with

warm summers and cold winters. The

Alleghenies are the wettest part of the

state. The mountains are often foggy.

People

The first European settlers in what is

nowWest Virginia were Germans. Later

came English and Scots-Irish settlers. In

the late 1800s many European immigrants

came toWest Virginia to work in

coal mines.

Sandstone Falls are part of the New River

Gorge National River in southern West Virginia.

The river is part of the national park

system.

34 West Virginia BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA

 

West Virginia’s population today is

about 95 percent white. African Americans

are the largest minority group.

They make up about 3 percent of the

population.

Economy

Mining has been the traditional basis of

West Virginia’s economy. The state is

rich in natural resources, including coal,

natural gas, oil, and salt. But the mining

industry decreased beginning in the late

1970s. Service industries, such as tourism,

sales, and health care, helped the

state’s economy improve in the 1990s.

Another boost to the economy was the

transfer of government jobs to the state

fromWashington, D.C. Growth in the

timber industry was important as well.

History

European explorers in theWest Virginia

region found Shawnee, Iroquois, and

Cherokee tribes already living there. In

1726 the first lasting European settlement

was established in the northeast.

The English controlled the region during

the 1750s and 1760s. Though eastern

Virginia was rapidly settled, the

west’s rugged land limited settlement

there. After the American Revolution

(1775–83), mostly nonslaveholding

settlers moved west.

TheWestern part of Virginia was always

different from the east. The land in the

west was so mountainous that there were

few plantations, or large farms, there.

This meant that there was little need for

slave labor. Eastern Virginia, however,

had many plantations. Virginia broke

away from the Union in 1861 to join

the Confederacy with other slave states.

Soon after that, the northwestern counties

broke away from Virginia. In June

1863, while the American CivilWar

(1861–65) was being fought, these

counties joined the Union as the new

state of West Virginia.

After the CivilWar, industry grew rapidly

in the state.West Virginia’s raw

materials helped the growth of industry

in other states as well. The state’s population

increased steadily up to 1950.

After that, however, many people left

West Virginia in search of jobs. Unemployment

soared again in the 1980s, and

almost one tenth of the population

moved away. The population increased

slightly by the year 2000.

..More to explore

American CivilWar • Appalachian

Mountains • Charleston

Glass objects are on display at a museum

in Huntington, West Virginia. The state has

many glass-making factories because it has

a great deal of sand, which is the main

ingredient of glass.

Facts About

WEST VIRGINIA

Flag

Population

(2000 census)

1,808,344—

rank, 37th state;

(2008 estimate)

1,814,468—

rank, 37th state

Capital

Charleston

Area

24,230 sq mi

(62,755 sq km)—

rank, 41st state

Statehood

June 20, 1863

Motto

Montani Semper

Liberi

(Mountaineers

Are Always Free)

State bird

Cardinal

State flower

Rhododendron

BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA West Virginia 35

 

Wetland

Wetlands are areas where the land does

not drain well. The ground in a wetland

is saturated, or full of water. Often the

ground is covered with shallow water.

Wetlands are usually classified as

swamps, marshes, or bogs. The different

types of wetlands have different kinds of

soil and plants. Both swamps and marshes

have soils that contain many minerals.

They differ in their plant life.Most of the

plants in swamps are trees, but marshes

have grassy plants. Bogs differ from

swamps and marshes because their soil

has few minerals.Only mosses and a few

other types of plants can grow in bogs.

Wetlands play a major role in the environment.

They are home to a great variety

of plants and animals. A wetland

system can also protect shorelines,

cleanse polluted waters, prevent floods,

and restore underground water supplies.

#More to explore

Bog • Marsh • Swamp

Whale

Whales are large animals that live in

water. Whales may look like fish, but

they are mammals. They breathe air and

produce milk for their young. Whales

make up an order, or large group of animals,

called Cetacea. The order includes

dolphins and porpoises.

Toothed and Baleen Whales

There are two basic kinds of whale:

toothed and baleen. Toothed whales

have sharp teeth and eat mainly fish and

squid. There are about 70 species, or

types, of toothed whale. These include

the sperm whale, the beluga, the killer

whale, the narwhal, beaked whales, and

Marsh grasses grow in a saltwater marsh.

Marshes and swamps can form in freshwater

or salt water.

Humpback whales are very acrobatic. They

often leap out of the water and then arch

backward as they fall back down. They

make a loud slapping sound when they hit

the surface.

36 Wetland BRITANNICA STUDENT ENCYCLOPEDIA