A West Virginia Paper

Dear Readers,

Here is a cute report about West Virginia that I helped my nephew write for school a while back. The requirements for the essay were very strict. It had to follow a precise outline and have topic sentences and have this specific information about one of the American states. Hopefully my nephew won't mind me putting this on my blog. I'd like to put it on Telemoonfa Time because I think it's a good example of the mounds and mounds of essays that schoolchildren produce in America these days. It's also interesting to read this essay and try to figure out which words were chosen by me and which words were chosen by my nephew. Collaborative writing usually turns out weird.

Anyway, enjoy.

A West Virginia Paper


January 4th 2009


Social Studies

How much do you know about West Virginia? This report will help you understand a little more about West Virginia. It will include West Virginia’s state symbols, statistics, features, and the history of the state.

West Virgina has many symbols. The seal of West Virginia is a picture of two miners next to a rock that says June 20th 1863. At the bottom of the seal it says “Montain Semper Liberi”, which is Latin for “Mountaineers are always free.” The flag of West Virginia looks a lot like the seal of West Virginia, except that the flag has a wreath around the bottom, and a red bow, and the ribbon says, “State of West Virginia” at the top. It has a white background. The state bird is the red Cardinal. It is indigenous to most of the U.S.A. The state flower is the rhododendron. Rhododendrons are pink. They grow on green plants, and they are very beautiful. The state license plate has a blue top, and on the bottom it says, “Wild, Wonderful.” The state tree is the Sugar Maple. The state mammal is a black bear, which spends most of its days climbing trees, eating berries, and eating the state fish, which is brook trout. The state butterfly is the monarch butterfly, which sucks sap with its straw-like mouth from flowers. The state reptile is the timber rattlesnake, which usually eats rats, rabbits, and many other small creatures. Those are a lot of state symbols.

There are many statistics associated with West Virginia. The population was 1,808,344 on June 12th, 2001. Some of the largest cites are Charleston, Huntington, Wheeling, and Weirton, just to name a few. The governor of West Virginia is Joe Manchin III. He is the 34th Governor of West Virginia. He is a Democrat. The Senators are Robert C. Byrd and John D. Rockefeller IV. They are both Democrats. The Representatives are Alan Mollohan, who is a Democrat, Nick Rahall, who is a Democrat, and Shelley Capito, who is a Republican. Those are just some of the statistics!

West Virginia has many features. Some of the features are Hawk’s Nest, Abandoned Caverns, Wonder Caverns, and the Virtual Library, the biggest learning museum. Some of the restaurants are the East Coast Coral Place and Hillbilly Hot Dogs. Some of the famous people are Daniel Boone. Daniel Boone wore a raccoon hat. Stonewall Jackson is another famous West Virginia person. Stonewall Jackson was a general in the Confederate army in the Civil War and he has a resort named after him, the Stonewall Jackson Resort. The weather is mild in the spring, and very nice. In the summer, it’s not that hot. It gets just right. It’s perfect swimming weather. During the fall, it is breezy and cold with leaves flying everywhere. During the winter, it is cold, with icicles hanging from the roof. They don’t get any tornadoes. That sounds like perfect weather to me. Those are just some of the features.

West Virginia has an interesting history. West Virginia became a state on June 20th, 1863. That was during the Civil War. It broke off from Virginia, so that’s how it got its name. The nickname is the Mountain State. The capitol of West Virginia is Charleston, which has about a fifth of the population.

This report helped me learn a little more about this magnificent state. If I had to visit this state I would go to Huntington, which is where I used to live. Thank you for reading.


Sources

Website: www.50states.com

Book: The Fifty States of the United States by an unknown author

Book: A Portrait of West Virginia by Arnout Hyde Jr.

Personal experience, and interviews with my Dad, who grew up in West Virginia.