The 35th state admitted to the US was West Virginia, on June 20th, 1863. The original name of the state was planned to be called the State of Kanawha. West Virginia is known as the Mountain State because it is the only state that is entirely located within the Appalachian Mountain region. The state motto is "Montani Semper Liberi", which means "Mountaineers Are Always Free". The very first Mother's Day celebration was held in Grafton, and the first radio broadcast of a football game was also in West Virginia. Tourism is their leading industry, and outdoor activities like hiking, mountain biking, skiing, and whitewater rafting are well-known. The capital is Charleston, the state bird is the Northern Cardinal, the state tree is the Sugar Maple, and the state flower is Rhododendron.
The first people to inhabit West Virginia were the descendants of the "Old Mongoloid" who crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska about 40,000 years ago. The Paleo-Indians, the Adena, and the Hopewell arrived about 14,000 years ago. Native Americans of the Shawnee, Lenni Lenape, Cherokee, Allewegi, Seneca, Tuscarora, Susquehannock, and Mingo tribes were all from West Virginia. They were big hunters of mastadon, mammoth, rabbit, deer, geese, bears, bison, musk ox, and caribou. They also cultivated squash, corn, and sunflowers. When the Europeans arrived, the Shawnee were the most powerful tribe of the time. In the later 1600's, they were forced out of the region by the northern Iroquois tribes. In the late 1600's, European explorers arrived and began mapping the area. It became part of the Virginia Colony in 1606, and finally became West Virginia in the 1670's. German and Scotch-Irish settlers began arriving in the early 1700's. In 1726, the Germans founded the New Mecklenburg settlement that eventually became Shepherdstown, the oldest town in West Virginia. West Virginia was part of the Virginia Colony during the Revolutionary War of 1775. The people of the state fought on both sides of the war, as well as provided food, clothing, and wagons for support. The Revolution ended with British claims to the land of West Virginia.
In 1861, Virginia voted to secede from the Union, but many of the citizens opposed it. West Virginia was still part of Virginia, but split off during the Civil War. The split between the western and eastern regions was permanent, and still is to this day. President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill that admitted West Virginia to the Union on December 31st, and on March 26th, 1863, the state ratified the revised constitution that included the end of slavery. On June 20th, 1863, West Virginia was admitted as the 35th state to the Union.
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