West Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

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

The Delta Tau Delta fraternity was founded by eight students at Bethany College in Bethany (pop. 985) in 1858. The group began as a secret society formed to dispute a fixed vote in a literary contest.

first appeared: 12/8/2002

The first trust in the country was organized in 1817 in West Virginia at the Kanawha Salt Co. Its purpose was controlling the basics of salt production.

first appeared: 12/1/2002

German settlers from Pennsylvania established the state’s first permanent settlement in present-day Shepherdstown (pop. 803) in 1727.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

Helvetia in Randolph County was settled in the 19th century by Swiss immigrants. Many direct descendants remain and preserve such traditions as the February celebration of Fasnacht and cheese making.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

When Hamlin native Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in 1947, he did so in an X-1 jet. The 6,000-pound rocket pushed him to a speed of Mach 1.06—795 mph—at an altitude of 45,000 feet.

first appeared: 11/10/2002

Berkeley Springs can support its claim: “George Washington bathed here.” Washington surveyed the area’s natural springs in 1748, and bought land adjoining them after the Revolutionary War.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

The Cheat River Watershed near Albright (pop. 247) covers 722 square miles and is the largest free-flowing watershed in the eastern United States. The Cheat is one of the few rivers in the country that flows northward.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

The largest carp ever caught in the state weighed 41.5 pounds. It was caught in 1988 in a tributary of the West Fork River, which runs through downtown Weston (pop. 4,317).

first appeared: 10/20/2002

In 1836, workers began digging by hand the Paw Paw Tunnel on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal near Paw Paw (pop. 524). Carving the 3,118-foot hole through the Allegheny Mountains took 14 years but shortened the waterway by six miles.

first appeared: 10/13/2002

In the early 1900s, the coal-rich town of Bramwell (pop. 426) boasted more millionaires than any town its size.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

The largest state park is Watoga State Park near Hillsboro (pop. 243) with 10,000 acres, including an 11-acre lake.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

Delbarton (pop. 474), the youngest town in West Virginia’s youngest county—Mingo County—officially became incorporated on Sept. 6, 1946.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

Founded in 1894, Kenova (pop. 3,485) was named by combining Kentucky, Ohio, and Virginia.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

Actor Don Knotts, who played the bumbling deputy, Barney Fife, on The Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s, was born July 21, 1924, in Morgantown (pop. 26,809).

first appeared: 9/8/2002

Because of its many mountains, West Virginia is often called “the Switzerland of the United States.”

first appeared: 9/1/2002

Mary Lou Retton, who grew up in Fairmont (pop. 19,097), won the 1984 Olympic gold medal in gymnastics in the All-Around competition—the first American woman to do so.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

The state’s motto is more than fitting. Montani semper liberi means “Mountaineers are always free.”

first appeared: 8/18/2002

Booker T. Washington, who established what is now Tuskegee University, was raised in Malden (pop. 750).

first appeared: 8/11/2002

Chester Merriman of Romney (pop. 1,940) reportedly was the youngest soldier of World War I, having enlisted at the age of 14.

first appeared: 8/4/2002

At 1,500 feet, West Virginia has the highest average altitude of any state east of the Mississippi.

first appeared: 7/28/2002

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