60 free West Virginia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
51 free West Virginia trivia questions with answers. West Virginia is the only state that lies entirely inside Appalachia, the only one born out of the Civil War, and the home of the world's largest steerable radio telescope, a Cold War bunker for Congress, and a red-eyed cryptid with its own festival. This quiz covers all of that and more: how the state split from Virginia, why the capital bounced between Wheeling and Charleston, what happened at Blair Mountain and Matewan, and where the pepperoni roll came from. Easy questions cover the nickname, the state song and the bridge on the quarter; harder ones get into the Hatfields and McCoys, the Golden Delicious apple, the Greenbrier bunker and the natives who broke the sound barrier, became the NBA logo, or calculated John Glenn's orbit. Every answer has been checked against a published source and carries a link, so you can settle a Mountaineer argument on the spot. Good for road trips down I-79, WVU tailgates and anyone who feels the tug of country roads.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20 of which year?
1863
It and Nevada were the only two states admitted during the Civil War, and it came in as a slave state that had promised gradual abolition.
Q 02Along with West Virginia, which other state was admitted to the Union during the Civil War?
Nevada
West Virginia's western and northern counties had set up a 'Restored Government' under Francis Pierpont in 1861 before petitioning Congress.
Q 03What is West Virginia's state motto, Montani Semper Liberi, in English?
'Mountaineers are always free'
The whole state is inside the Appalachian region, which also explains the nickname The Mountain State.
Q 04What is West Virginia's capital and most populous city?
Charleston
It sits where the Elk River meets the Kanawha and has only about 49,000 residents.
Q 05Which city served as West Virginia's first capital, from 1863 to 1870?
Wheeling
The capital moved to Charleston, back to Wheeling in 1875, and permanently to Charleston after the capitol burned in 1885.
Q 06West Virginia is the only state that lies entirely within the area served by which body?
The Appalachian Regional Commission
That is the formal definition of 'Appalachia', and the state's average elevation of about 1,500 feet is the highest of any state east of the Mississippi.
Q 07How many panhandles does West Virginia have?
Two
The northern one reaches up between Ohio and Pennsylvania toward Pittsburgh; the eastern one includes Harpers Ferry near Washington.
Q 08What is the highest point in West Virginia, at 4,863 feet?
Spruce Knob
It is also the highest point in the whole Allegheny range and sits inside the Monongahela National Forest.
Q 09Which town is West Virginia's easternmost and its lowest point above sea level?
Harpers Ferry
It sits where the Shenandoah meets the Potomac at the meeting point of three states, and hosts the Appalachian Trail headquarters.
Q 10Which abolitionist raided the federal armory in the state's eastern panhandle in October 1859?
John Brown
Colonel Robert E. Lee commanded the operation that retook the arsenal; 'John Brown's Fort' is the state's most visited tourist site.
Q 11How high above the New River is the roadway of the New River Gorge Bridge?
876 feet
When it opened in 1977 it was the world's highest bridge carrying a regular road, and it is on the state quarter.
Q 12For how many years was the New River Gorge Bridge the world's longest single-span arch bridge?
26
Its 1,700-foot arch is now the seventh longest and the longest outside China.
Q 13On Bridge Day each October, what do people do off the New River Gorge Bridge?
BASE jump with parachutes
Army veteran Burton Ervin made the first jump in August 1979 and is considered the father of Bridge Day.
Q 21The Hatfield-McCoy feud played out along which river on the West Virginia-Kentucky line?
The Big Sandy's Tug Fork
'Devil Anse' Hatfield led the West Virginia side and Randall McCoy the Kentucky side from 1863 to 1891.
Q 22Which winged, red-eyed creature was reportedly seen around Point Pleasant in 1966–67?
Mothman
John Keel's 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies linked the sightings to the Silver Bridge collapse; the town now holds an annual festival.
Q 23Where did the first witnesses of the Point Pleasant creature say they saw it, in November 1966?
Near 'the TNT area', an old munitions plant
Q 14In what year was New River Gorge redesignated a national park and preserve?
2020
Jimmy Carter had made it a national river in 1978; the 53-mile stretch has some of the best whitewater in the country.
Q 15The New River, despite its name, actually rises in which state before flowing into West Virginia?
North Carolina
It joins the Gauley to form the Kanawha, which carries the water on to the Ohio.
Q 16Which two rivers meet in Fayette County to form the Kanawha, West Virginia's largest inland waterway?
The New and the Gauley
The Kanawha runs 97 miles to Point Pleasant on the Ohio, and its valley has been an industrial hub since the early 1800s.
Q 17Which state borders West Virginia to the northwest, across a major river?
Ohio
The Ohio River marks that border; it runs 981 miles from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois.
Q 18What is West Virginia's official state rock?
Bituminous coal
The state gemstone is a fossilised Mississippian coral; coal became the state's great treasure in the second half of the 19th century.
Q 19The 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest US armed uprising since the Civil War, pitted coal miners against whom?
Lawmen and strikebreakers backed by mine owners
About 10,000 miners faced 3,000 'Logan Defenders' for five days in Logan County.
Q 20Which Cork-born labour organiser was called 'the most dangerous woman in America' for rallying West Virginia's miners?
Mother Jones
Mary Harris Jones took the name in 1897 and was still organising into her nineties.
Two young couples told police about a large black figure with glowing red eyes on November 15, 1966.
Q 24Which two songwriters wrote 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' with John Denver?
Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert
The married pair got the idea driving Clopper Road in Maryland; the single peaked at number two in 1971.
Q 25In what year did 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' become one of West Virginia's official state songs?
2014
It joined three others; West Virginians have called their home 'Almost Heaven' ever since the song.
Q 26Green Bank, West Virginia hosts the world's largest fully steerable what?
Radio telescope
It sits inside the National Radio Quiet Zone, where wireless signals are restricted so they do not swamp faint signals from space.
Q 27The Greenbrier resort hid a Cold War bunker built for whom?
The US Congress
Code-named Project Greek Island, it was decommissioned as soon as the Washington Post exposed it in 1992.
Q 28For its first 125 years, the Greenbrier resort was known by what name?
White Sulphur Springs
Visitors have come to 'take the waters' there since 1778.
Q 29The pepperoni roll, West Virginia's unofficial state food, was first sold in 1927 in which town?
Fairmont
Giuseppe Argiro sold them at the Country Club Bakery as a lunch that coal miners could carry into the pit.
Q 30West Virginia's official state fruit is which apple variety, first found in Clay County?
Golden Delicious
Anderson Mullins sold the tree to Stark Brothers for $5,000 in 1914; Clay County has held a festival for it since 1972.