The History Project

The History Project.

Joseph H. Diss Debar – Creator of State’s Symbolism 11/17/2025

Joseph H. Diss Debar – Creator of State’s Symbolism Every West Virginian knows that “Mountaineers Are Always Free” but what many may not know is that our state motto was a quick addition to our state seal by its designer. A Frenchman came to the mountains and blended the imagery of his old and new homes to give West Virginia its symbolism. YouTube: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/39038460

Katherine Johnson - NASA Mathematician 11/03/2025

Katherine Johnson - NASA Mathematician Many legends blaze trails loudly with a roar, but others, like Katherine Johnson, lead direction with a gentle whisper. After the release of the book and th film "Hidden Figures," the world learned about Johnson and her colleagues, the women who played a key role at NASA in America's space race. YouTube: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/38863350

The Legend of John Henry 10/24/2025

The Legend of John Henry In the company of Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and the Mighty Casey, John Henry is a legend whom people see as a proper metaphor for the American spirit. Created from the ideals of African American laborers on the Big Bend Tunnel in the 1870s in Talcott, West Virginia, John Henry is the embodiment of the hero hardworking people needed then and now, and this is more than his story: It is our story. YouTube: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/38760280

George Washington’s Kanawha Tracts 10/20/2025

George Washington’s Kanawha Tracts While George Washington is famous for his grand estate, Mt. Vernon, in Virginia, few may know he owned thousands of acres in what would become West Virginia. As an surveyor and a veteran of the French & Indian and Revolutionary wars, Washington collected large parcels in the river valleys of the colonial West and they became a part of the Kanawha Tracts. YouTube: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/38622955

The Wheeling Convention 10/13/2025

The Wheeling Convention No other state was ever torn from another as was West Virginia. With the Civil War looming on the horizon, The Richmond Convention gave Virginia the opportunity to secede from the United States and The Wheeling Convention restored the rights of the state's western citizens to remain with the U.S. by seceding from Virginia. YouTube: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/38543060

The Niagra Movement at Harper's Ferry 10/06/2025

The Niagra Movement at Harper's Ferry Frustrated with the decline of Reconstruction, author and intellectual W.E.B. DuBois organized the greatest African American minds of the early 20th Century to form the Niagara Movement. After its first conference held in Canada, the movement's first meeting in the United States was a symbolic and landmark event at Harpers Ferry, and it would resonate to this very day. YouTube: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/38443750

Frank Buckles - Last Surviving American World War I Veteran 09/22/2025

Frank Buckles - Last Surviving American World War I Veteran As Americans celebrate Memorial Day, we are reminded of the sacrifices made by our veterans who kept the United States and most of the world free. What better time to examine the fascinating life of Charles Town hero Frank Buckles, who lived to be the last surviving American veteran of World War I. YouTube: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/38305365

The History Project: The West Virginia Penitentiary at Moundsville 07/23/2025

The History Project: The West Virginia Penitentiary at Moundsville Standing as a monument to America’s prison system of the 19th and 20th centuries, the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville is a relic of the penal systems dark past. YouTube Link: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/37524035

The History Project: The Willow Island Disaster 06/25/2025

The History Project: The Willow Island Disaster Willow Island is a small community along the Ohio River between Parkersburg and St. Marys and its name suggests a tranquil place, but on April 27, 1978, any tranquility was destroyed by a construction accident that would forever change the communities of the region. YouTube Link: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/37150115

The History Project: James Rumsey & The Invention of the Steamboat 06/12/2025

The History Project: James Rumsey & The Invention of the Steamboat We live in a world of invention but sometimes stories fail to explain that inventors work from ideas that were already in place. Robert Fulton gets credit for inventing the steamboat, but James Rumsey and others created the foundation on which he worked. YouTube Link: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/36974885

The History Project: Bramwell 05/22/2025

The History Project: Bramwell Manhattan, Beverly Hills and…Bramwell? When one thinks of the wealthiest places in America, a small West Virginia town developed by a railroad to serve coal interests may not come to mind, but Bramwell once held the title as the wealthiest town in the U.S. per capita. YouTube Link: /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/36679890

The History Project: The Elkins-Abruzzi Affair 11/15/2024

The History Project: The Elkins-Abruzzi Affair Wallis Simpson and Meghan Markle are famous for their marriages into European royalty, but before them West Virginian Katherine Elkins found herself at the center of a romance with an Italian duke that captured the world’s attention. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/33945837

The History Project: The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum 10/29/2024

The History Project: The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum The facility’s very name informs us that the hospital was both built in antebellum Virginia and in an era when views about mental health were much less sophisticated. But there’s even more to the story than meets the eye in this landmark structure and its long history. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/33672762

The History Project: A Clash in the Wilderness – The Battle of Point Pleasant, Part 2 10/24/2024

The History Project: A Clash in the Wilderness – The Battle of Point Pleasant, Part 2 Lord Dunmore’s war comes to a violent conclusion as Colonel Lewis & The Virginia Militia clashes with Chief Cornstalk and his Shawnee warriors in Pt. Pleasant, which would increase hostility between settlers and settlers, and severe American loyalty to England. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/33601337

The History Project: A Prelude to War – The Battle of Point Pleasant, Part 1 10/18/2024

The History Project: A Prelude to War – The Battle of Point Pleasant, Part 1 Colonial America was a cauldron of imperialism and territorial disputes, which set in motion Lord Dunmore’s War, one of the continent’s most significant skirmishes which would help to launch the American Revolution. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/33513922

The History Project: The Alderson Federal Women’s Prison 10/03/2024

The History Project: The Alderson Federal Women’s Prison It is said that “Well-behaved women seldom make history,” and when Martha Stewart was sentenced to serve five months in FPC, Alderson, the world learned more about American history-makers both well-regarded or social pariahs. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/33357887

The History Project: The Four Points of West Virginia 09/18/2024

The History Project: The Four Points of West Virginia With two jutting panhandles and western and southern extremes, West Virginia’s unusual shape gives it four points like a compass rose, placing the Mountain State into the cross section of the Eastern United States. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/33107707

The History Project: The River Industry 08/29/2024

The History Project: The River Industry West Virginia is the watershed of some of the nation’s most storied rivers, some scenic and others industrial, they first used for exploration but later used for commercial development, as they are still used today. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/32791412

The History Project: Hank Williams & The Lost Highway 08/15/2024

The History Project: Hank Williams & The Lost Highway In December 1952, country music legend Hank Williams released his last song, “I’ll Never Make it Out of this World Alive.” A few weeks later, on New Year’s Day, he was found dead in the backseat of his car in Oak Hill, West Virginia, with an unfinished song in his hand. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/32590557

The History Project: The Western Theater The Revolutionary War in West Virginia, Part 2 07/31/2024

The History Project: The Western Theater The Revolutionary War in West Virginia, Part 2 While the American Revolution battles in the coastal states were fought between America’s Continental Army and England’s Redcoats, the battles of the interior became extensions of skirmishes with Native Americans, spurred by the British that outlasted the Revolution itself. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/32367402

The History Project: The 8th Virginia Regiment The Revolutionary War in West Virginia, Part 2 07/17/2024

The History Project: The 8th Virginia Regiment The Revolutionary War in West Virginia, Part 2 After his great success recruiting from the Shenandoah Valley, George Washington reached further into Western Virginia to draw its riflemen to serve in the American Revolution, whom he turned into a vast arm of the Continental Army. The 8th Virginia Regiment for alongside Washington in battle and suffered the winter with him in Valley Forge. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/32201682

The History Project: Francis H. Pierpont 06/19/2024

The History Project: Francis H. Pierpont Considered the “Father of West Virginia,” Francis H. Pierpont was the man needed for the difficult task of gaining the state’s independence from Virginia and entrusted by Lincoln to restore that state to order after the Civil War; the West Virginian who would be Governor of Virginia. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/31797352

The History Project: The Shinnston Tornado 06/12/2024

The History Project: The Shinnston Tornado With its steep topography, residents in West Virginia are typically more concerned with floods than tornadoes, but in 1944, the Appalachian tornado outbreak unleashed fury upon the mountains. A category F-4 storm tested the resilience of Shinnston and surrounding area. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/31717612

The History Project: The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy 05/02/2024

The History Project: The Kanawha County Textbook Controversy 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. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/31091398

The History Project: The Underground Railroad, Part 2 – The Mason-Dixon Line 03/22/2024

The History Project: The Underground Railroad, Part 2 – The Mason-Dixon Line 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. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/30503963

The History Project: The Underground Railroad, Part 1 – The Ohio River 02/28/2024

The History Project: The Underground Railroad, Part 1 – The Ohio River 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. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/30156358

The History Project: The Glass Industry 02/07/2024

The History Project: The Glass Industry 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. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/29844713

The History Project: Heck’s Department Stores 12/27/2023

The History Project: Heck’s Department Stores 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. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/29243268

The History Project: The Louis Marx & Company Toy Manufacturer 12/21/2023

The History Project: The Louis Marx & Company Toy Manufacturer 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. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/29189983

The History Project: The Teays River 11/21/2023

The History Project: The Teays River 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. /episode/index/show/61a2e1b3-f934-4fef-8322-7649e9c912ce/id/28807918

The History Project

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