Tag: West Virginia

  • The First Steamboat?

    Robert Fulton invented the steamboat in 1807. The Clermont right? That’s what they taught us in school anyway. Actually, he built the first successful steamboat used commercially. However, he did not introduce first steamboat. If you listen to the folks in West Virginia, that honor should more properly go to James Rumsey. Shepherdstown Twelve Mile…

  • River Headwaters and Sources

    Long is the history of adventurers who explored distant lands and tangled jungles to find the true origin of mighty rivers. But rivers are not simple contiguous lines that trace back easily to a single spot. Rather they are widely spread watersheds that drain to a common outlet. There can be hundreds of liquid tendrils…

  • Virginia, West of West Virginia

    West Virginia split from Virginia in 1863 during the height of the Civil War. It elected to remain with the Union while the rest of the Commonwealth remained firmly entrenched within the Confederacy. Tensions based on divergent economies, cultures and geography simmered between the western and eastern portions of Virginia for decades leading up to…