Every Lake
West Virginia
Two panhandles and no flat ground — the only state entirely inside the Appalachian mountains.
West Virginia in relief
The land itself, cut in six steps of birch from the lowlands to the high ground — the cities starred, the summit and rise on the title block. No counties, no roads: just the shape of West Virginia.
About West Virginia
West Virginia has the strangest outline in the East, with the Northern Panhandle running up between Ohio and Pennsylvania and the Eastern Panhandle reaching toward Washington. The Ohio River draws the western border, the Potomac and its branches the northeast, and the Allegheny Front crosses the middle, dividing the eastern ridge-and-valley country from the plateau. It is the only state lying entirely within the Appalachians, and its mean elevation is the highest of any state east of the Mississippi. The New River, one of the oldest rivers on the continent, has cut a gorge nearly a thousand feet deep. Fifty-five counties, every line a ridge or a stream.
West Virginia entered on June 20, 1863 as the 35th state — the only state formed by breaking away from another during the Civil War, when the western counties refused to leave the Union with Virginia. Charleston, at the meeting of the Kanawha and the Elk, traded the capital back and forth with Wheeling before winning it permanently in 1885. The board carries I-64 and I-77 climbing the mountains and the New River Gorge Bridge, one of the longest single-span steel arches in the world.
- Six layers of birch — the land in elevation steps
- The summit and total rise on the title block
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A double rule engraved around the edge
- Every county line and the state border
- The interstates with their shields — 8 on this board
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A mile ruler engraved around the frame
