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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Why I Love This State

Why I Love This State

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There are so many reasons to love West Virginia, but here is one that just stands out above many of the rest- IT’S BEAUTIFUL!

All the farmers are doing their first cut of the year, so the air is crisp and clean and smells like fresh cut grasses (although the later cuts smell sweeter), the sky is blue, everything is a lush green, and the cows are lying under the shade tree biding their time.

Reader Interactions

115Comments

  1. 1.

    seanindc

    I do love your state, sir. Rafting on the Gauley and New Rivers is some of the most fun I’ve had sober.

  2. 2.

    Violet

    West Virginia in late May is gorgeous. I love WV. Such a beautiful state. I loved my time living there.

  3. 3.

    jl

    Thanks for the picture. I am jealous, I love that part of the country in the spring and the fall. It is so beautiful.

    Edit: oh, BTW, is that white blob in the upper LH side of the pic Tunch lumbering behind that gradual rise?

    Is this a combo beautiful WV/Tunch pic?

  7. 7.

    Citizen Alan

    No offense, John, but when I saw that picture, I could have guessed that it as in Mississippi, Alabama or Tennessee just as easily as WV. The grass isn’t really that greener on the other side of the fence.:)

  8. 8.

    Zaftig Amazon

    My dad grew up in the southwestern part of the state–the part now being scarred by mountaintop removal. What struck me during the times I visited was the waste of beautiful country, and the waste of human beings, all to mine coal for factories in Ohio and Indiana, and to light up places like Washington D.C.

  9. 9.

    Bret

    As someone who grew up in Phoenix and had 2 lawns, forced to mow them both in the summer, the smell of fresh cut grass makes me sad inside. :|

  10. 10.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    @Zaftig Amazon:

    Yeah, I come from Logan County myself and it’s scary how much is getting scarred over, between either Mountaintop Removal or demands for new centers around Corridor G, and the like.

    I always maintained that WV was boring, but it was beautifully boring. Harder to say that, at least around home.

  11. 11.

    donnah

    My mom’s family is in the Beckley area and we love going to visit. I’ve been going there from my home on SW Ohio ever since I was born. Spring is a beautiful time of year, but I love autumn there, when the mountains are bursting with color.

    We’ll be heading back down for the Fourth of July holiday.

  12. 12.

    jl

    @Citizen Alan: And those could be California countryside hills too, if they had sprinklers all over everywhere running all night every night on full blast.

  13. 13.

    Violet

    There are always hills in any photo of WV. It’s not called the Mountain State for nothing.

  18. 18.

    Arm The Homeless

    Somalia has some beautiful places as well.

    Perhaps once half the state is inundated with coal-slurry the families who have spent generations pretending that they could ride the fuel source of the 19th century like Jesus on a velociraptor heading into Jerusalem, might come to their senses. Then perhaps we can have nice things again.

    /curmudgeon

  19. 19.

    Svensker

    the cows are lying under the shade tree biding their time.

    In WVA, the cows milk you?

  20. 20.

    the fugitive uterus

    does anyone know what happened with the Romney sammiches for votes investigation by the state of WI for voter fraud?

  22. 22.

    kdaug

    the cows are lying under the shade tree biding their time

    For WHAT? You have cow ninjas in West Virginia?

  24. 24.

    Joseph P.

    @Zaftig Amazon: West Virginia would be considered the Switzerland of America—had corrupt politicians not sold out to Big Coal and allowed them to steal trillions of WVA’s mineral wealth and destroy its supreme beauty in the process. It’s outrageous that WVA remains the second poorest state in spite of making a few corporatists and politicians fabulously rich.

    Beautiful picture, though.

  26. 26.

    gbear

    the cows are lying under the shade tree biding their time

    For WHAT? You have cow ninjas in West Virginia?

    They’re waiting for the day they can legally gay marry the farmer’s daughter.

  28. 28.

    Jennifer

    …but here is one that just stands out above many of the rest- IT’S BEAUTIFUL!

    Hmmmmm. And here I had been thinking it was the mountain mammas.

  30. 30.

    kdaug

    @Linkmeister:

    John Denver had something to say about West Virginia, as I recall.

    Oh, damn you to hell, sir. To hell.

    Spent half my childhood on a sailboat, and my dad would play that song over and over.

    And that stupid “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” song.

    Know the worst thing about a sailboat?

    It’s a long swim to dryland.

    Next worst is two sisters and a dad who snores.

    Emphatically.

  31. 31.

    Quaker in a Basement

    the air is crisp and clean and smells like fresh cut grasses (although the later cuts smell sweeter), the sky is blue, everything is a lush green, and the cows are lying under the shade tree biding their time

    …and a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of cousins.

  32. 32.

    Randy P

    @kdaug: Dang, you beat me to it. I immediately thought of the line from Chicken Run, “Them chickens is OORganized”.

    John: Lived for years just outside of Washington, DC, but I’m afraid all I ever saw of WV was Harper’s Ferry and a couple of nearby towns. We used to like to go up that way for quick getaways. I’m guessing you’re deeper into the state than that.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I always love driving through WV. It is a gorgeous part of the country.

    Also, for all my fellow classical music lovers, may we have a sad for the great German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who died today at age 86. RIP.

  34. 34.

    Randy P

    @kdaug:

    And that stupid “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” song.

    And in the 70s, every performer had a variety show for a little while, including Tony Orlando and Dawn. I’m embarrassed to admit I liked a lot of their songs, even that one for a little while.

  35. 35.

    JoyfulA

    That’s just what I was thinking about my part of Pennsylvania today, only the greens are greener and the mountains closer (and green! unlike those pointy ones out west).

    And when I stand under the tulip tree in the front yard, the odor of roses is overwhelming on the breeze.

    Life is good, even though I just learned I need another new knee.

  36. 36.

    NCSteve

    I was born and raised in the Appalachian foothills in eastern(ish) Kentucky and grew up trampling across them, enthralled by their beauty. Then I saw West Virginia and knew I hadn’t known what beauty really was.

    Except for the parts where they’ve blown all the mountains to shit and shoved the bits into the nearest watershed, of course. And Institute. That ginormous Dow plant in Institute is one of the scariest damn things I’ve ever seen.

  37. 37.

    jl

    Has Tunch taken care o’ that there Manchin feller yit? Lemme know when that varmint is finished off.

  38. 38.

    RedKitten

    John, you and the doggies have got to get your butts up to Nova Scotia, already. That picture looks eerily similar to the countryside near where I live.

  39. 39.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    I’m not much of a flatlander in any part of the country, but the green is nice, and something I miss in the desert sometimes. Though, being at the foot of a huge national forest, the green and mountains are only about 10 miles away.

    I do love the beauty of the Appalachia mountains, at least the part that doesn’t look like hammered shit from unregulated rampant strip mining.

    But you can have the cold clammy winters, and hot humid summers. I could live on an asteroid rather than live with that shit again.

  40. 40.

    John

    Life is old there: older than the trees, younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze. It’s almost heaven!

  41. 41.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    “… the cows are lying under the shade tree biding their time.”

    Lazy American cows, get out there and become steak!

  43. 43.

    J.W. Hamner

    Can’t say I’ve spent any real time in West Virginia proper, but I’ve traveled a ton through the Shenandoah Valley which includes the edges of it… definitely beautiful country.

  45. 45.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Violet:

    The coal mining companies are working hard to level the state. When they are done they can pave the state and change the motto to:

    West Virginia, America’s Biggest Parking Lot!

  46. 46.

    Citizen_X

    Someone’s gotta stand up for West Virginia–and Slim Whitman–and against John Denver. And that someone would be Daniel Johnston:

    I’m goin’ back to the place that I used to call home
    I’m goin’ back to the place where the antelope never roam
    Wild West Virginia
    Home of the naive

    This boy’d be mighty pleased to see them rollin’ hills, rollin’ hills
    No I don’t like John Denver
    But I always will remember those rollin’ hills
    I got a backwoods woman, underprivileged mama, farmer in the dell
    Crooked politicians, crater bomb roads
    But oh I love it so

    Those rollin’ hills
    Wild West Virginia
    Rollin’ hills
    Wild West Virginia

    Get to shiverin’ by the Ohio River in the cold winter
    When a snowflake falls on your face you feel just like an iceberg
    But I wouldn’t trade it for this sticky hot weather in Texas
    I’m gonna make an exodus to them rollin’ hills

    Wild West Virginia
    Rollin’ hills
    Wild West Virginia

    I get this wheelin’ feelin’
    Singin’ like Slim Whitman “Oh how I wanna go home”
    Away from them big city slickers
    Skinny intellectuals and them tall buildin’s
    Back to wild West Virginia
    Home of the naive

    This boy’d be mighty pleased to see them rollin’ hills
    Wild West Virginia
    Rollin’ hills

    God is an artist
    And He painted a pretty picture
    And He called it West Virginia
    With those rollin’ hills, rollin’ hills, rollin’ hills
    Wild West Virginia
    Wild West Virginia
    Wild West Virginia

  48. 48.

    JWL

    I’ve travelled across country twice to tour The 2 Virginia’s Civil War battlefields. To this day, I consider Harpers Ferry-in-springtime to be one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

  50. 50.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    @Quicksand:

    The green or not green relative to mountains, is mostly a question of age, and to a lesser extent weather and climate. I can look out my window and see 10,000 foot mountains, green as Irish clover fields. At least on the north facing sides.

  51. 51.

    BobbyK

    I grew up on a farm and after the first cut is when the clover comes up and clover rocks!! Oh and cows just LOVE clover.

  53. 53.

    brettvk

    I live in the Missouri Ozarks, and I’ve driven through WV, and there are resonances. Which is why both areas were settled by the Scot-Irish contingent during the European migration, and why they share the self-defeating, god-bothering redstate mindset that blocks social progress and enables economic exploitation. The Ozarks have the advantage of few natural resources besides beauty, so they haven’t been as despoiled as the Appalachians. Tyson chicken factories and Walmart just can’t do as much damage as fast as mountaintop removal.

    But I know what you’re talking about, Mr Cole. There are few emotions like those you feel when you’re looking out on the land you were meant to live on, sensing the life of the earth rise up through your feet and fill your heart. I can be moved to tears by the beauty of the Ozarks. Life is far from perfect, but there are compensations in living in the place that your heart knows is home.

  54. 54.

    Irony Abounds

    Arizona has some breathtakingly beautiful areas as well, but both states suffer from a common curse: there are a lot of batshit crazy wingnuts living in them.

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @burnspbesq:

    Somewhere in Heaven, Schubert is getting to meet the first person who ever figured out how to really sing his shit.

    I never tire of listening to DFD sing Schubert.

  64. 64.

    PurpleGirl

    My parents went to West Virginia for their honeymoon. One of the places they visited were the Luray Caverns and they drove around the Smoky Mountains.

  67. 67.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Irony Abounds:

    Alas, I fear no state is free of batshit crazy wingers, even deep blue outposts on the Left Coast like Washington and Oregon…two states of scenery out the wazoo (literally, in the case of Pullman…).

  69. 69.

    The Red Pen

    I just found this at Free Republic and had to share. It is a comment about the Arizona secretary of state asking Hawaii about Obama birth certificate.

    They have made it simple because they already know that HI can’t respond, otherwise they will either get it from the administration for saying “no” or getting in legal hot water for saying “yes” – opening themselves up to prosecution. and don’t forget that it becomes within Sheriff Joe’s jurisdiction if they lie. Next step, all candidates are required to provide a certified BC. Everyone else will do it without problem. Of course they cannot provide the “forged” one. They could be prosecuted for trying to pass off a forgery. They would have to provide another. But then, everyone will wonder what the big deal is. All the other candidates provided proof with ease.Backed into a corner.

    It’s hard to imagine the universe in which this seems like an intelligent remark.

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2885435/posts?page=17#17

  70. 70.

    PurpleGirl

    I’ve never been through West Virginia, but the pictures are lovely.

    There are spots in the Hudson valley that are as breathtakingly beautiful. Drive north on the Taconic and the vistas are incredible.

  75. 75.

    JPL

    @Spaghetti Lee: Decades ago I lived outside of Springfield for two years. A few months after our move, I left in early summer for 1 month road trip visiting relatives. Upon my return my landmarks were gone and I got lost among the mazes of corn fields. Would have been nice if GPS and cell phones were available but unfortunately not.

  77. 77.

    bemused

    @dlnelson:

    Yes, it is. Too damn hot for NE MN today….88. Definitely not the what we normally get in May and no way I was going to garden in this heat. We’re probably going to get a hell of a thunderstorm.

    WVA is beautiful, driven through the state a few times.

  78. 78.

    tworivers

    I liked Morgantown the one time i visited. The mountains reminded me a bit of New Hampshire too (a very good thing, in my book)

  79. 79.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @bemused:

    Too damn hot for NE MN today….88. Definitely not the what we normally get in May

    You realize, of course, that Al Gore is fat, right?

  82. 82.

    EconWatcher

    One of the many charming things about our host is how he often stops to count his blessings, and shares them with all of us. It’s a healthy habit and a good lesson. I’m counting my blessings today because the lovely Mrs. EconWatcher, who went back to school to update her skills, just earned her Master of Accountancy today. She’s enjoying a rare and well-deserved night out with the girls. I’m on kiddie patrol, the kiddies are in bed, and i’m sipping a Newcastle Nut Brown Ale. Life is good……

  83. 83.

    eemom

    @PurpleGirl:

    erm, Luray Caverns are in Virginia and the Smoky Mountains in NC and Tennessee.

    But as an expat New Yawkah myself I can easily see how they all look alike. ; )

  85. 85.

    JPL

    @Raven: The corn hid all the surrounding buildings so who knows. Actually I was with my sister and 4 children and it was midnight and we were driving around cornfields for an hour. I refused to call home and get directions from the hubby because who doesn’t know their way home. Truth be known I should have swallowed my pride an hour earlier. They have tall corn in Illinois as you know.

  89. 89.

    sparrow

    I should add, that they are all hugging the colorado border for sweet life and are actually the size of large hills. But they count!

  91. 91.

    KCinDC

    I was unaware that the latest preoccupation of the rightosphere has been the discovery that some family recipes Elizabeth Warren submitted to a cookbook were based on recipes from elsewhere. They call this plagiarism. Gasp! I know it’s hard to believe that family recipes aren’t always created de novo with no reference to any dish previously known on earth.

    Picking up on that, one of the denizens of NRO’s Corner accused Warren of plagiarizing passages in a book she wrote with her daughter, only it turns out that the other book with matching passages was actually published *after* Warren’s. The Corner post has since been retracted and an apology posted, but of course the smear will now live on forever.

  92. 92.

    JoyfulA

    @rammalamadingdong: I’ve had two hips and a knee replaced. My orthopedic surgeon told me a year ago that when my “moderately osteoarthritic” remaining knee started bothering me, come for a shot, so I did. It turns out it deteriorated so much that it’s beyond bone on bone: One bone is wearing a groove into the other one. The x-rays look like I shouldn’t be able to stand up, and the doc says before long, I’d need stabilizing pins, etc., included in the surgery.

    When you get your knees, try to get a knee-bending exercise machine sent home with you from the hospital. It’s a one-month rental, IIRC. You just lie down with a good book, strap a leg into the apparatus, and turn it on. It bends your knee over and over again, with no effort on your part, to make your leg strong and flexible. I’m actually looking forward to it.

  94. 94.

    Raven

    @JoyfulA: Fak! My right knee is killin me on and off. I quit running 10 years ago and swim daily but I think I’m still goin down.

  95. 95.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @KCinDC:

    Picking up on that, one of the denizens of NRO’s Corner accused Warren of plagiarizing passages in a book she wrote with her daughter, only it turns out that the other book with matching passages was actually published after Warren’s. The Corner post has since been retracted and an apology posted, but of course the smear will now live on forever.

    The stupid. It burns.

  99. 99.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @sparrow:

    Reminds me a bit of some friends who were kind enough to allow me to ride with them on their way to their home in Florida from Fort Gordon, Georgia, to visit my aunt and uncle living north of Tampa.

    We drove over the highest point in Florida, and my reaction was “this isn’t even a difficult hill to ride a bicycle up back in Eugene.”

  102. 102.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    West Virginia is great, unless you are African-American, then you have two choices, better be ballin for the ‘Neers! Or don’t let the sun down on you in Mingo County. Cue the beginning of Dueling Banjos

  106. 106.

    J R

    Dueling Banjos was in Georgia.

    We have a lot of banjo players in W Va, but they’re peaceful, as opposed to rapists. I was out west with some friends working on the winter camp when we passed some AZ neighbors driving out – when you meet new neighbors in the country, you always ask or tell where you’re from, West Virginia.

    So the two AZ neighbors look at each other, and the driver says, not to go with a stereotype, but do any of you play banjo?

    And being honest, I had to say, I’m the only guy in the truck who does’t play banjo at all…

    The Arizona guys told us they were into old tyme music – not blue grass, and we had to confess that we were all more into old music than new grass blue grass.

    Kenny Wayne Shepherd will be in gown tomorrow, at the Blues Festival. I’ll be working the backhoe, but wishing I was at the Blues fest.

    Have a good weekend, all!

    JR, in W Va, where it is truly beautiful most all the time.

  108. 108.

    Smedley theuncertain

    @kdaug: That’s why so many of us are single handed sailors.
    My music,my tranquility…
    One more week grinding the keel and she’s back in the water. Yo Ho!

  109. 109.

    JoyfulA

    @Raven: Go to an orthopedic surgeon and get an x-ray of that knee. It might be osteoarthritis and worn out and in need of replacement, or you might have torn something running, like my husband did. He’d been running 5-10 miles/day, and the surgeon told him not to run anymore unless somebody’s chasing him.

    Or if you don’t have good insurance, try to tolerate it until Medicare with economy-size bottles of ibuprofen, 4/day.

  112. 112.

    InvincibleIronyMan

    Lovely! Looks just like Hertfordshire, England, where I come from.

  113. 113.

    stratplayer

    This reminds me very much of the gently rolling farmland of my native territory of Central New York. Lovely.

  114. 114.

    zonker

    As a WVian, I admit to getting completely freaked out in the great mid-west. I was driving back from New mexico heading into Oklahoma City at night, in WV when you are driving down the interstate and see the lights of town, you are five minutes from town. I saw the lights of OKC and it took almost an hour to actually get to town. I had friend at Marshall who was from Kansas. I took him deer hunting in Rone County with me once when he was here. He invited me and my cousin to come to Kansas an go pheasant hunting with him, so with directions in hand we made the drive. We were in a diner trying to figure out exactly how to get there when the waitress saw us looking at the map and asked if she could help. We told her where we were going and she said “If you’ll just go over the next hill….”it took five minutes for my cousin and I to stop laughing.

  115. 115.

    Jill

    Yes, but 40% of Democrats in your state voted for that Texas prison inmate in the primary. That would negate a sh!tload of beauty for me, at least.

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