This story was originally published in the May/June 2015 issue of West Virginia Focus. When Sam Burdette first visited the Tri- State Greyhound Park in Cross Lanes in the mid-1980s, he didn’t even know how to read the program. The sheets of paper were filled with…
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on Friday, May 7, 2010. This morning, State Schools Superintendent Steve Paine will dub more than 200 West Virginia eighth-graders “knights and ladies of the Golden Horseshoe” for their knowledge of state history. But there’s…
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on Nov. 6, 2013. NELLIS, W.Va. — William Gunnoe noticed his safety lamp had stopped burning. Gunnoe, a section foreman at the Nellis No. 3 Mine in the Boone County with 19 years’ experience, knew…
This story was originally published in the Charleston Daily Mail on Friday, Sept. 7, 2012. SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — History doesn’t have much to say about Roosevelt Singleton. We do not know where he was born or where he lived before moving to Gauley Bridge to…
This story was originally published Jan. 3, 2013 in the Charleston Daily Mail. In a mostly empty room off the South Charleston Public Library’s DVD section, Nye Clinton stretched his arms across a plastic folding table and gripped the edge for dear life. He was…
This story was originally published on June 20, 2013, in a special tabloid released to commemorate West Virginia’s 150th birthday. Delegates at the constitutional convention found themselves in a state of confusion. On October 24, 1861, voters in 41 western Virginia counties overwhelmingly voted to…