Country roads take me home, to the place I belong...
West Virginia! Its borders alone tell you that this state is special. Most state borders are fairly straight. West Virginia’s borders may be the most crooked of any state. Why?
Here are some clues. West Virginia is nicknamed the Mountain State and is sometimes called “the Switzerland of America.” “Mountaineers Are Always Free,” boasts West Virginia’s state motto.
West Virginia is one of the most rugged states. It is difficult to measure a straight line over mountains and valleys. So West Virginia’s borders often follow rivers or winding mountain ridges.
West Virginia is bordered from the northeast to south by Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, respectively. Ohio borders West Virginia on the northwest, Kentucky on the southwest.
Western West Virginia lies within that part of the Appalachians called the Appalachian Plateau. Eastern West Virginia is occupied by the Ridge and Valley region. What’s the difference?
The hills and valleys of the Appalachian Plateau are very irregular, as if someone just threw down on the map. In the Ridge and Valley region, ridges and valleys follow each other like railroad tracks.
Another difference has to do with topography. Imagine if West Virginia was flat. Take western West Virginia and push it slowly together like an accordion, so that the land gently buckles. Then take eastern West Virginia and fold it sharply together. The ridges and valleys are generally steeper in the Ridge and Valley region.
West Virginia’s mountains also explain why it has no large lakes and has small lakes, ponds, bogs, marshes or swamps. When it rains, water just flows down the mountains and ridges, enters streams and rivers, and flows on towards the distant ocean.
Many of West Virginia’s hills have been torn up in search of coal. Such strip mines have polluted many of the state’s rivers and streams. But much of West Virginia remains a rugged land famed especially for the beauty of its forests in fall.
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Paperback
