WV: 150th Birthday

From Yahoo:
"West Virginia, born in war, marks 150th birthday"

West Virginia, born in the turmoil of the Civil War and now a growing energy hub, marks its 150th birthday on Thursday with statewide bell-ringing, a giant cake and beard-growing contests. The four-day festival commemorates when Union sympathizers in western Virginia, opposed to their state's support for the slave-owning Confederacy, voted in Wheeling on June 20, 1863, to form their own state. To celebrate the Mountain State's anniversary at the Capitol, Governor Earl Ray Tomblin is cutting a birthday cake that measures 8 feet long and more than 3 feet (1 meter) high. Tomblin addressed the legislature in Wheeling to signal the start of festivities for the state of 1.9 million people. He will officiate from the Capitol over a statewide bell-ringing celebration. West Virginia, the 35th state admitted to the Union, has planned more than 140 events to mark the sesquicentennial. They include concerts, fireworks, beard-growing contests, free steamboat rides, exhibitions, Civil War re-enactments and a baseball game using period rules and equipment.

             

^ West Virginia should be commended for leaving Virginia and the Confederacy behind. The state may be rural and poor, but they seem to have good morals unlike Virginia. My parents and I have camped several times in West Virginia and had a good, fun time. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/west-virginia-born-war-marks-150th-birthday-173729569.html