62 Cool and Unusual Things to Do in West Virginia - Atlas Obscura

Unusual
Attractions
in West Virginia

Rock, West Virginia

Lake Shawnee Amusement Park

This abandoned amusement park was built on an American Indian burial ground. Seriously.

Weston, West Virginia

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

A particularly creepy abandoned asylum which sparks interest with the morbid and the ghost hunters.

Moundsville, West Virginia

Archive of the Afterlife

The museum calls itself the "National Museum of the Paranormal" and is full of eerie oddities.

Thurmond, West Virginia

Thurmond, West Virginia

Once connected to the outside world by a single train track, a boomtown-turned-ghost town.

Point Pleasant, West Virginia

Mothman Museum

A small storefront museum explores the history and myth of West Virginia's famous urban legend.

Ansted, West Virginia

Mystery Hole

The "mysteries" of this quintessential roadside oddity were almost destroyed by neglect but were saved by fans of kitschy wonder.

Moundsville, West Virginia

West Virginia State Penitentiary

Beyond your average beatings and shankings, this pen has a pretty bloody undercurrent running through its history.

Fayetteville, West Virginia

New River Gorge Bridge

One day a year it is legal to jump off of this astoundingly tall bridge that spans an Appalachian gorge.

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Unique
Food & Drink
in West Virginia

Snow Cream

Ice cream made with fresh snow is a beloved Southern tradition.

Ohio Valley-Style Pizza

In parts of Ohio, pizza topped with cold, unmelted mozzarella reigns supreme.

Roadkill Cook-Off

West Virginia's annual competition features the likes of squirrel gravy over biscuits and snapping turtle stew.

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Stories
About West Virginia

The recently dated Pitsenbarger Farm in Franklin, West Virginia, is on the state's list of endangered properties.

Why Trees Are the Most Reliable Historians of Early America

Dendrochronology doesn't just work on forests. It works on buildings too.

by Isaac Schultz

January 23, 2020

The Weston State Hospital, once (and again) known as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.

A Cultural Historian Explores an Old Mental Hospital, and Why They Scare Us

They are haunted, but not by ghosts.

by Troy Rondinone

October 31, 2019

A cemetery surrounded by a coal mine in West Virginia.

The Mountaintop Cemeteries Surrounded by Coal Mines

Hard to access and hemmed in by explosive activity, these graveyards are stuck in limbo.

by Jessica Leigh Hester

October 30, 2018

Engraving of salt works on Kanawha River, West Virginia.

Making Salt From an Ancient Ocean Trapped Below the Appalachians

West Virginia was once a seabed.

by Eric J. Wallace

January 8, 2018

A "sea devil" from Icones animalium (1553).

Where to Find the World's Best Hometown Monsters

Here are 25 places to see yetis, sea monsters, Sasquatch, and other cryptids.

by Molly McBride Jacobson

February 24, 2017