Many of the mountains in West Virginia rise above 4,000 ft (1,200 m), with the average elevation of the entire state at 1,500 ft (450 m). West Virginia's highest peaks are located in this region, including Spruce Knob. A few of the rivers in this region flow south and east into the James River valley of Virginia. Only the easternmost ridge (in the Eastern Panhandle) is the Blue Ridge, whereas the rest are the Allegheny Mountains. Most of the rivers in this area are small and swift and flow northward into the watershed of the Potomac River, which forms the state's northern boundary with MARYLAND. The Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region consists of several parallel ranges and narrow valleys. This has been less in demand since the 1960s, seriously weakening the local economy, which had become almost entirely dependent on coal mining. Through the succeeding century, West Virginia supplied the nation with much of its raw coal.
The new state needed access to eastern commercial and port cities, however, so the counties now known as the Eastern Panhandle were added, providing an economic supply line via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Much of the population of western Virginia was oriented toward the development of the Ohio River valley and the wild west beyond, not toward the tobacco plantations of Virginia's Piedmont and Tidewater areas. West Virginia's borders are defined almost entirely by natural features-rivers and ridges-giving it one of the most irregular shapes of any state in the United States.įormerly known as the Trans-Allegheny region of VIRGINIA, the new state of West Virginia was created in 1863 out of the northwestern counties of Virginia, both for reasons of both politics (prounion, antislavery), and of economics. Two major physical regions dominate the state: the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region in the east and the Allegheny Plateau in the center and west. West Virginia (population 1,808,344) is known as the Mountain State for obvious reasons: unless you are traveling along a river valley, you are always traveling either up or down. It's highest point is Spruce Knob at 4,863 ft (1,483 m) and its primary natural resources are coal, natural gas, stone, salt, oil, and mineral springs. Its lowest point is the Potomac River at 210 ft (73m) near Harper's Ferry. WITH ITS CAPITAL at Charleston, West Virginia occupies 24,181 square mi (62,629 square km).
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