West Virginia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 5

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

Shay Locomotive No. 5 turned 100 years old in 2005 and today pulls a load of tourists, instead of timber, up Cheat Mountain on the Cass Scenic Railroad in the once bustling lumber town of Cass in Pocahontas County (pop. 9,131).

first appeared: 6/4/2006

At Ice Mountain in Hampshire County (pop. 20,203), openings at the base of a rock talus, or sloping mass of debris, trap ice and act as a natural refrigerator on hot days when cool air escapes.

first appeared: 5/21/2006

Opened in 1907 as a vaudeville house, the Robey Theater in Spencer (pop. 2,352) began showing silent films the next year and is believed to be the nation's oldest continuously operating movie theater.

first appeared: 5/14/2006

Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, the subject of the movie A Beautiful Mind, was born in 1928 in Bluefield (pop. 11,451). The movie was based on a book by Sylvia Nasar that chronicles Nash's struggles with schizophrenia.

first appeared: 4/23/2006

According to legend, Alexander Creel was traveling the Ohio River by steamboat when a vision of the Virgin Mary told him to found a city. He did and named it St. Marys (pop. 2,017) in 1849.

first appeared: 4/9/2006

The Louis Bennett Public Library in Weston (pop. 4,317) is housed in an 1875 Victorian 17-room mansion, a gift from Mrs. Louis Bennett to honor her husband and son, who were active in business and politics.

first appeared: 3/26/2006

In 1882, the state’s first African-American attorney, J.R. Clifford, established the Pioneer Press, the state’s first African-American newspaper, while teaching at Sumner School in Martinsburg (pop. 14,972). Clifford was born in 1848 in Williamsport.

first appeared: 3/12/2006

The Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs (pop. 2,315) is one of only three hotels to receive the coveted AAA Five Diamond Award every year since the automobile club began its ratings in 1976.

first appeared: 2/26/2006

In the early 1900s, Dodge Clothespin Co. built the world’s largest clothespin factory in Richwood (pop. 2,477), making the town the "Clothespin Capital of the World."

first appeared: 2/12/2006

Ron and Sue Boor of Tyler County grew a 1,085-pound pumpkin, which set a record at the West Virginia Pumpkin Festival in Milton (pop. 2,206) last October. The giant grew as much as 35 pounds a night.

first appeared: 1/29/2006

Called "America’s Taj Mahal," Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold, a religious shrine near Moundsville (pop. 9,998), is a 22-karat gold-leafed palace with marble floors and walls, 31 stained glass windows, mirrored ceilings and award-winning rose gardens.

first appeared: 1/15/2006

MISS WEST VIRGINIA 2006—Kimberly Goodwin of Morgantown (pop. 26,809) watched her grandfather suffer from lung cancer 60 years after he lit his first cigarette. Today she’s a spokesperson for the American Lung Association and has created her own anti-tobacco program, The Chain of Awareness.

first appeared: 1/8/2006

In 1869, Swiss and German immigrants settled Helvetia in Randolph County, and the mountain village clings to its culture with local fare and festivals. The original Swiss flag brought by the settlers is housed in the town’s historical museum.

first appeared: 1/1/2006

Ansted (pop. 1,576), chartered in 1891 and created because of the area’s coal, was named for David T. Ansted, a British geologist who helped identify and locate the rich coal seams.

first appeared: 12/18/2005

Founded in 1927, Alderson (pop. 1,091) Federal Prison Camp is the nation’s oldest federal prison for women and has housed some famous convicts, including jazz singer Billie Holiday for drug possession and domestic diva and publisher Martha Stewart for lying to federal investigators.

first appeared: 12/4/2005

The state’s longest hiking and biking trail is the 76-mile-long Greenbrier River Trail along a former railroad bed, which parallels the Greenbrier River as it winds through Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties.

first appeared: 11/20/2005

Marlinton (pop. 1,204) and Pocahontas County are known as the "Birthplace of Rivers" because eight rivers—the Cheat, Cherry, Cranberry, Elk, Gauley, Greenbrier, Tygart Valley and Williams—originate there.

first appeared: 11/6/2005

Madonna of the Trail, a statue of a pioneer woman with two children and a rifle, stands along U.S. 40 in Wheeling (pop. 31,419). The memorial is one of 12 placed between Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles in 1928 and 1929 by the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

first appeared: 10/23/2005

Every president from Eisenhower to Reagan ordered glassware from the Fostoria Glass Co. of Moundsville (pop. 9,998). Founded 1887 in Ohio, the company moved in 1891 to Moundsville, where it operated until 1986.

first appeared: 10/9/2005

Built in 1852, the Philippi (pop. 2,870) covered bridge across the Tygart River is the state’s oldest covered bridge. The Barrackville Bridge across Buffalo Creek in Barrackville (pop. 1,288) was built a year later and was restored in 1999.

first appeared: 9/25/2005

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