West Virginia's Kanawha Valley capital — chemical industry, mountain music, and coal country soul
Charleston is the capital of West Virginia and sits at the confluence of the Elk and Kanawha rivers in a bowl of Appalachian hills. The gold-domed State Capitol, designed by Cass Gilbert and modeled on the US Capitol in Washington, is one of the most beautiful state houses in America. The Kanawha Valley chemical corridor stretching along the river was once one of the most important industrial zones in the world, producing chemicals, glass, and metal from local resources. The Clay Center for the Arts houses a performing arts theater and a science museum. The famous Vandalia Gathering folk fest…
West Virginia came into existence through a unique act of the Civil War: when Virginia seceded in 1861, the western counties — mountainous, small-farm country with few enslaved people — refused to follow and formed their own state in 1863, making West Virginia the only state created by secession from a Confederate state during the Civil War. Charleston became the permanent capital in 1885 after years of competing with Wheeling. The coal mining and chemical industries that defined the region also defined its politics — the United Mine Workers of America fought some of the bloodiest labor battl…