After playing on the indoor playground equipment at the
Holiday Inn in Uniontown, PA, we headed to The Mountain State.
West Virginia holds a special place in our
hearts because my husband’s family has ties here and his dad and other
relatives attended
West Virginia University (WVU). A trip through the area is not complete
without a stop at WVU in
Morgantown. Mountaineer Field
at
Milan Puskar Stadium is where the football team plays and they have a Hall
of Traditions with displays about past players and teams, trophies, video
footage and memorabilia. The
WVU Coliseum was also open, so we could walk through and see some displays on players
like
Jerry West, the NBA logo. The new
basketball practice facility behind the stadium also has a basketball Hall of
Traditions and has videos as well as displays about famous players like Jerry
West,
“ Hot Rod” Hundley, and
Rod Thorn.
Georgeann Wells was the first woman to dunk in a game.
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| The Basketball Hall of Traditions in the new practice facility. |
From there we traveled towards Charleston, the capitol. We took a short side trip to see
Nutter’sFort. It’s a small town that is part of
my husband’s ancestry. Thomas Nutter
moved to America and first settled in Sussex County, Delaware. His family moved on to Augusta County, VA,
Fayette County, PA and then three Nutter brothers, Thomas, Matthew and
Christopher built Nutter’s Fort in Harrison County. A great triplearning idea is to see where
your family and you came from. It can be
very interesting and educational to learn about your ancestors. Evan went in to City Hall and was given a list
of others who have inquired about the Nutter ancestry there and some books from
past festivals.
The
capitol building in
Charleston, WV is quite
impressive. It has a beautiful dome made
of lead and copper with 23 ½ carat gold leaf over it. They used lots of marble throughout the
building and it was very nicely done. We
were unable to see in the House chamber because they had already closed it for
the day, but we did see the Senate and they are very similar. We also walked down to the Kanawha River
across the street from the capitol. When
they picked the site for the capitol they had to remove several houses and they
floated over a dozen of them over the river on barges to new sites. We also saw the replica of the Liberty Bell
that they were given. Each state
received one and some have them displayed inside or outside their capitol. They also have several statues on the
grounds, including one representing coal miners and four representing WWI,
WWII, Korea and Vietnam veterans. Their
war memorial is surrounded by reflecting pools and walkways that lead inside to
where names of West Virginians who died in each war are engraved.
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| The replica of the Liberty Bell in front of the West Virginia Capitol |
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| The main corridor leading from the Senate Chamber, showing the marble used throughout the building |
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| The Senate Chamber |
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| Coal mining is very important to West Virginia. My husband is a descendant of coal miners. |
Lastly, we drove to White Sulphur Springs to visit Evan’s
aunt. White Sulphur Springs is home to
The Greenbrier and the recently played
Greenbrier Classic, a PGA
tournament. We are looking forward to
having some time to reacquaint ourselves with the town tomorrow and visit with
family.
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