The History Project: The Chemical Industry - The West Virginia Industry Made Possible by all the Rest
Release Date: 07/21/2023
The History Project: The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy
The History Project
In 1974, the Kanawha County Board of Education introduced a new set of language arts textbooks, following state and federal guidelines to provide a more multicultural education. A newly elected board member, who ran against sex education, denounced the books and set in motion a culture war that resounded around the nation.
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The History Project: The Underground Railroad, Part 2 – The Mason-Dixon Line
The History Project
The Mason-Dixon Line was created to officially decide the boundary between states, but as enslavement became entrenched in the South, it became the dividing line between slave states an free states, making Western Virginia’s proximity to Pennsylvania a locus of the Underground Railroad.
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The History Project: The Underground Railroad, Part 1 – The Ohio River
The History Project
With the Ohio River as its northwestern boundary, the Underground Railroad ran through Western Virginia before the Civil War, giving the body of water the nickname, “The River Jordan,” as it led to the “promised land” of freedom. Abolitionists, the enslaved, and free Blacks conspired together to get escaped slaves across the river and to new lives.
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The History Project: The Glass Industry
The History Project
Amid West Virginia’s natural beauty are various Oriskany sandstone outcroppings that do more than decorate the landscape. The stone breaks into sand perfect for making glass, and within it is the natural gas needed to melt it. No other industry found such a serendipitous location as glass found in the Mountain State.
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The History Project: Heck’s Department Stores
The History Project
From the 1950s through the 1980s, every region had its own discount department store chain and for West Virginia and its neighboring states, Charleston-based Heck’s reigned supreme, even outdistancing K-Mart and Wal Mart for a while.
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The History Project: The Louis Marx & Company Toy Manufacturer
The History Project
Throughout history, children have written letters to Santa with the list of toys they wanted, under the idea they were created in his workshop and they were…by extension of America’s Santa, Louis Marx, who built his busiest factory in Glen Dale, where the classics of 20th century toys were made.
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The History Project: The Teays River
The History Project
The suburbs between Huntington and Charleston fill a plain that offers some of the flattest land in the Mountain State. Called Teays Valley, even many of its residents are unaware this unique topography was created by an ancient river that mothered today’s rivers.
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The History Project: John Marshall
The History Project
West Virginians are used to frequently hearing his name, whether as the county or university, but John Marshall is more than a namesake in the state’s history. He actually played a role in the first famous Supreme Court trail involving the state and was an early explorer of its rivers and mountains.
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The History Project: The Greenbrier Ghost
The History Project
Despite its name in West Virginia lore, the story of the Greenbrier Ghost is less about a ghost and more about a visage of a deceased woman who comes to her mother in a series of dreams, to rectify what has been done to her in what became one of America’s most shocking court tales.
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The History Project: The Hawk's Nest Tunnel Disaster
The History Project
The view of Hawks Nest from the overlook called Lover’s Leap is an awesome vision of nature’s beauty but beneath it lies a dark history and the worst industrial tragedy our nation has known, made even more tragic because it was easily preventable.
info_outlineLured to West Virginia by its nascent salt industry, the brine made it possible for the chemical industry to flourish. Though there were plants around the state, the industry mostly made their home in the Kanawha Valley, stretching from Belle to a town created just for chemical-making, Nitro. Highs and lows unique to the industry have altered production but it continues to thrive in the Mountain State.