Q 01/05

West Virginia was admitted to the Union on June 20 of which year?

A) 1861

B) 1865

C) 1870

D) 1863

Answer · why

D) 1863

West Virginia became the 35th state on June 20, 1863, carved from Confederate Virginia; the Willey Amendment made gradual emancipation a condition of ...

Q 02/05

Along with West Virginia, which other state was admitted to the Union during the Civil War?

A) Kansas

B) Nebraska

C) Nevada

D) Colorado

Answer · why

C) Nevada

Nevada was admitted on October 31, 1864, hurried in before Lincoln's re-election; Kansas had joined in January 1861, months before the war began.

Q 03/05

What is West Virginia's state motto in English?

A) 'Wild and wonderful'

B) 'Mountaineers are always free'

C) 'The mountains endure'

D) 'Freedom in the hills'

Answer · why

B) 'Mountaineers are always free'

'Mountaineers are always free' renders the Latin Montani Semper Liberi, adopted with the state seal in September 1863 to mark the mountain counties' b...

Q 04/05

What is West Virginia's capital and most populous city?

A) Wheeling

B) Huntington

C) Charleston

D) Morgantown

Answer · why

C) Charleston

Charleston, at the meeting of the Elk and Kanawha rivers, counted about 48,900 residents in the 2020 census, narrowly ahead of Huntington.

Q 05/05

Which city served as West Virginia's first capital, from 1863 to 1870?

A) Parkersburg

B) Wheeling

C) Martinsburg

D) Clarksburg

Answer · why

B) Wheeling

The capital moved to Charleston, back to Wheeling in 1875, and permanently to Charleston after the capitol burned in 1885.