Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 14

Looking for Virginia trivia? Try our list Virginia little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Pocahontas (pop. 441) has the world’s oldest exhibition coal mine dating to 1938. The Pocahontas Mine Number Three, renowned for its quality and productivity, is open for guided walking tours.

first appeared: 3/17/2002

King and Queen County was named for William of Orange and his wife, Mary, who ascended the throne of England in 1689.

first appeared: 3/10/2002

Settled in 1610, Hampton is the oldest continuously occupied English-speaking settlement still in existence in the nation.

first appeared: 3/3/2002

The Northampton County Court-house in Eastville (pop. 203) has the oldest continuous court records in the nation, dating to 1632.

first appeared: 2/24/2002

The Stonewall Brigade Band of Staunton (pop. 23,853) is the nation’s oldest continuously performing city-supported band. Organized in 1855, the band took its current name after many members served with Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War.

first appeared: 2/17/2002

Explorer William Clark was born in Caroline County on Aug. 1, 1770. He and Meriwether Lewis led the Lewis & Clark expedition from 1804 to 1806.

first appeared: 2/10/2002

Lawrence Douglas Wilder was sworn in as governor of Virginia in 1990, making him the first elected African-American governor.

first appeared: 2/3/2002

Lunenburg County got its nickname, “The Old Free State,” in 1861 when its citizens threatened to secede and join North Carolina if Virginia voted to remain in the Union.

first appeared: 1/27/2002

The country’s original first lady, Martha Dandridge, was born at Chestnut Grove in New Kent County on June 2, 1731. She married George Washington on Jan. 6, 1759.

first appeared: 1/20/2002

Strasburg (pop. 3,762) was previously called—in this order—Shenandoah River, Funk’s Mill, Funkstown, and Staufferstadt (Stovertown). The village received its final name in 1761.

first appeared: 1/13/2002

Natural Bridge in Rockbridge County is a limestone arch spanning Cedar Creek at 215 feet high, 90 feet long, and varying in width from 50 to 150 feet. In 1782 Thomas Jefferson described it as “sublime.”

first appeared: 1/6/2002

Pasty Cline was born Virginia Patterson Hensley on Sept. 8, 1932, in Winchester. Her voice made classic songs of Walkin’ After Midnight, I Fall To Pieces, and Crazy.

first appeared: 12/30/2001

Chartered in 1693, the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg (pop. 11,998) is the oldest college in Virginia and the second-oldest in the nation, after Harvard University.

first appeared: 12/23/2001

The thoroughbred Secretariat was born in Caroline County March 30, 1970. His record-breaking 1973 Triple Crown victory was the first in 25 years.

first appeared: 12/16/2001

Scientist and explorer Adm. Richard Byrd was born Oct. 25, 1888, in Winchester (pop. 23,585). He was the first to fly over the North Pole on May 9, 1926, and was given the Medal of Honor the same year.

first appeared: 12/9/2001

Fairy Stone State Park in Henry and Patrick counties is one of the few areas in the world where fairy stones can be found. Actually made of staurolite, these cross-shaped crystals are found in rocks compressed under great heat.

first appeared: 12/2/2001

Shenandoah Caverns near Mount Jackson (pop. 1,664) are about 11 million years old. Thin, hanging slabs of striped iron oxide and calcite, resembling bacon, are its most famous feature.

first appeared: 11/25/2001

Tangier Island (pop. 659) in the Chesapeake Bay was discovered by Capt. John Smith in 1608, but the first settler, John Crockett, didn’t arrive until 1686. The island lays claim to being the soft-shell crab capital of the world.

first appeared: 11/18/2001

Completed in 1732 near Ashland (pop. 6,619), Slash Church’s location next to swampy woods—a “slash” in 18th-century terms—gave it its name. The oldest frame colonial church in Virginia, it was led by the Rev. Patrick Henry, uncle of the famous patriot, from 1737 to 1777.

first appeared: 11/11/2001

The state’s largest natural lake is Lake Drummond, south of Suffolk. In 1665, North Carolina Gov. William Drummond’s hunting party became lost in the swamp, and sole survivor Drummond found the lake that today bears his name. It is 2.3 miles wide and 2.7 miles long.

first appeared: 11/4/2001

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