West Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 10

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

The First Annual Fair & Stock Exhibition was held in 1866 on Wheeling Island, but the first so-called “state” fair was held in 1881 in Wheeling (pop. 31,419).

first appeared: 9/14/2003

The nation’s second oldest live country music show, Jamboree USA, set toes to tapping in 1933 on WWVA Radio in Wheeling (pop. 31,419).

first appeared: 9/7/2003

Ammonia first was produced in 1925 at DuPont Chemical Co.’s plant in Belle (pop. 1,259).

first appeared: 8/31/2003

Women own 27.1 percent of the state’s businesses and make up 51.4 percent of the population.

first appeared: 8/24/2003

Hancock County (pop. 32,667) is the state’s smallest with 88.55 square miles.

first appeared: 8/17/2003

The Civil War-era, former Weston (pop. 4,317) State Hospital is the largest hand-cut stone building—almost a quarter-mile long—in North America.

first appeared: 8/10/2003

Waffle Rock at Jennings Randolph Lake near Elk Garden (pop. 217) is a 300-million-year-old rock formation with a geometric pattern resembling a waffle.

first appeared: 8/3/2003

In the 1860s, Mahlon Loomis, of Terra Alta (pop. 1,456), used kites for antennae and transmitted signals between two mountaintops. Some credit him with inventing the wireless telegraph.

first appeared: 7/27/2003

Work from 2,000 of the state’s artists and craftsmen is represented at Tamarack near Beckley (pop. 17,254). The 59,000-square-foot center includes regional fare and a theater.

first appeared: 7/20/2003

Wild, pungent onions called ramps grow throughout the state, and Richwood (pop. 2,477) has held an annual ramp feed for 65 years.

first appeared: 7/13/2003

Dug by hand from 1870 to 1873, the 6,000-foot-long Big Bend Tunnel, at Talcott near Hinton (pop. 2,880), gave birth to the steel-drivers’ ballad, John Henry.

first appeared: 7/6/2003

James Blume of Forest Hill was named 2002 Country Doctor of the Year by Staff Care, a Texas medical staffing firm. Blume cares for 7,000 patients, works 365 days a year, makes house calls, and worked while undergoing his own cancer treatment.

first appeared: 6/29/2003

At 2,655 feet, Bluefield (pop. 11,451) is the state’s most elevated town.

first appeared: 6/22/2003

Judges at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis declared the mineral water at Pence Springs in Summers County (pop. 12,999) to be the world’s finest.

first appeared: 6/15/2003

Coal is found in 53 of the state’s 55 counties, all but Jefferson (pop. 42,190) and Hardy (pop. 12,669).

first appeared: 6/8/2003

Drillers were boring for salt, but hit oil instead in 1860 at Burning Springs near Parkersburg (pop. 33,900).

first appeared: 6/1/2003

Working railroad tracks run right down the middle of Main Street in St. Marys (pop. 2,017).

first appeared: 5/25/2003

Bluestone Dam, spanning the New River at Hinton (pop. 2,880), has the largest drainage area—4,565 square miles—of any dam in the state.

first appeared: 5/18/2003

The Trough, a stretch of the South Branch River that squeezes through canyons near Romney (pop. 1,940), abounds with bald eagles.

first appeared: 5/11/2003

The 1860 hand-hewn log church, Job’s Temple, near Glenville (pop. 1,544), is the oldest church in Gilmer County.

first appeared: 5/4/2003

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