Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Real events too strange to have made the textbook.
Washington, WV
Built in 1916, Lock and Dam No. 19 once helped move river traffic past a wicket dam on the Ohio River before the system was replaced in 1968. Ruins of the old powerhouse remain near a public boat ramp, but the structure is deteriorated and should be viewed without climbing; the former lock houses uphill are private property and should not be approached.
Beckley, WV
Visitors ride a mine car roughly 1,500 feet into a historic drift mine while veteran miners explain the equipment and working conditions of West Virginia coal mining. The surrounding complex includes relocated coal-camp buildings, but the underground attraction operates seasonally.
Parkersburg, WV
Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett built an extravagant estate on this Ohio River island, which later became tangled in Aaron Burr's mysterious western political schemes. A reconstructed mansion and historical grounds can be toured today, but normal visitor access depends on the seasonal sternwheel boat from Parkersburg.
Cass, WV
Cass preserves a former lumber-company town and the steam railroad that once hauled timber out of the surrounding mountains. Visitors can explore the historic town area, while the famous Shay-locomotive train rides operate on scheduled, ticketed departures rather than as an always-available attraction.
Dingess, WV
The 3,327-foot Dingess Tunnel opened in 1892 as part of the Norfolk & Western Railway and later became a one-lane county-road tunnel after the rail route was abandoned. It was substantially rehabilitated in 2019 with lighting, drainage and paving, and travelers can still drive through this unusually long former railroad bore today.
Moundsville, WV
Built by Adena people around 250–150 B.C., Grave Creek Mound is one of the largest surviving conical burial mounds of its culture and required the movement of tens of thousands of tons of earth. A free state museum beside the mound interprets West Virginia archaeology and the people who built it.
White Sulphur Springs, WV
Hidden beneath the Greenbrier resort during the Cold War, Project Greek Island was a massive fallout shelter designed to house the entire United States Congress after a nuclear attack. Its existence was exposed publicly in 1992, and the declassified bunker can now be visited only on scheduled guided tours.
Lewisburg, WV
This is the courthouse where Erasmus Shue was tried for the 1897 murder of his wife Zona, the crime at the center of the Greenbrier Ghost legend. The building remains a functioning courthouse, so it is a legitimate historical stop rather than a paranormal attraction and visitors should behave accordingly during business hours.
Kenova, WV
Griffith & Feil traces its pharmacy roots to 1892 and still operates an old-fashioned soda fountain inside the working business. Visitors can sit at the counter for ice cream and diner food while surrounded by a surviving piece of small-town pharmacy history.
Oak Hill, WV
A small monument in Oak Hill marks the city where driver Charles Carr discovered that country singer Hank Williams had died in the back seat of his Cadillac on New Year's Day 1953. The marker gives travelers a physical stop tied to one of American music's most famous and grim road-trip stories.
Ansted, WV
From the Hawks Nest State Park overlook area, visitors can follow interpretation connected with the three-mile tunnel whose construction exposed thousands of workers to dangerous silica dust beginning in 1930. The National Park Service directs visitors here as a formal stop for understanding the disaster.
Lookout, WV
This memorial marks the burial area associated with African American workers who died after being exposed to enormous concentrations of silica dust during construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel in the early 1930s. The National Park Service describes the project as one of America's worst industrial tragedies.
Grafton, WV
The former Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church hosted the first official Mother's Day observance on May 10, 1908 after Anna Jarvis began campaigning for a holiday honoring mothers. The 1873 church became the International Mother's Day Shrine in 1962 and now operates as a seasonal historic attraction and museum.
Shepherdstown, WV
This 75-foot monument honors inventor James Rumsey, who demonstrated an early steam-powered boat on the Potomac River at Shepherdstown in 1787. The monument stands in a public park overlooking the river and marks one of America's lesser-known early experiments with steam navigation.
Institute, WV
West Virginia State University unveiled this seven-foot bronze statue of NASA mathematician and alumna Katherine Johnson in 2018. It stands on the university campus as a public monument to the woman whose calculations helped make early American spaceflight possible.
Fayetteville, WV
Kaymoor was one of the New River Gorge's major coal operations, and its abandoned mine complex, coke ovens and town remains survive on the gorge wall. These coordinates route to the Kaymoor Top trailhead; reaching the mine requires a steep hike, and access conditions can change during trail rehabilitation.
Clear Fork, WV
These rock carvings are genuine Indigenous petroglyphs generally attributed to Native peoples of the region, although they became famous in the 1980s after fringe claims tried to reinterpret them as ancient Irish writing. The site is undeveloped and reached through rough terrain near private property; stay on the legitimate access route and never touch, chalk or trace the carvings.
Matewan, WV
This downtown marker identifies the setting of the May 19, 1920 gunfight between Baldwin-Felts agents, local officials and miners during the struggle to unionize the southern West Virginia coalfields. Ten men were killed, and the confrontation helped trigger the escalation that ultimately led toward the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Morgantown, WV
Morgantown's Personal Rapid Transit system is a 1970s federal transportation experiment that became a permanent part of West Virginia University. Small automated cars move riders between stations on a dedicated guideway, making the system itself an unusual piece of living transportation history; rides follow WVU's current operating schedule.
Nuttallburg, WV
Nuttallburg was once a major New River Gorge coal town and later became associated with Henry Ford's attempt to control his own industrial supply chain. Today the National Park Service preserves mine structures, foundations and the enormous coal conveyor, but getting into the site involves narrow roads, trails and steep terrain.
Shepherdstown, WV
O'Hurley's operates as an old-fashioned general store filled with hardware, household goods, musical instruments and objects that feel pulled from an earlier version of the town. The working store is open to visitors and is also known for recurring traditional music gatherings.
Charleston, WV
A single 18th-century grave sits by itself inside a modern Charleston park, the burial place of colonial-era surveyor and soldier Thomas Bullitt. The isolated stone is an unusual survival from a much earlier landscape and can be visited from the park during public hours.
Thurmond, WV
Once one of the busiest railroad towns in the New River Gorge, Thurmond declined until its preserved commercial district became an almost ghost-town-like National Park Service site. Visitors can walk past the old bank, hotel buildings and rail structures, while the restored depot operates seasonally as a visitor center.
Point Pleasant, WV
At the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, this small state park preserves the site and memory of the 1774 Battle of Point Pleasant. Visitors find an imposing granite monument, historical markers and the seasonal Mansion House museum, all just a short distance from Point Pleasant's Mothman attractions.
