西弗吉尼亚州小档案：
人口：约200万
面积：约62，628平方公里，排名第41州
州府：查尔斯顿Charleston
西弗吉尼亚州，原来是弗吉尼亚州之一部。1861年退出，自成一州。1863年20日成为美国第35州。本州箴言：“山地人总是自由”Mountaineers Always Free。以“山杜鹃花”rhododendron为州花。
州府是查尔斯顿Charleston，位于本州西部。大商港亨丁顿Huntington在本州西境俄亥俄河畔。本州大专学院20多所。其中以西弗吉尼亚大学为最著名，创于1867年，地点在本州北部之摩根当Morgantown。
本州特征有二：第一，它是美国东南部山地区内之州。全境由高原与山地组成，无平原。州的别名也叫做“山颠之州”Mountain State。第二，烟煤产量甚富。在各州之中，名列前茅。
本州为内陆之州，北接宾夕法尼亚及马里兰二州，东与南两方面，邻弗吉尼亚州，西界肯塔基及俄亥俄二州。西部及中部属于亚利加尼高原AlleghenyPlateau。东部是亚利加尼山地。全区都是阿帕拉契山地之一部。主要矿产为烟煤、天然气、石及盐。主要农产为牛奶，也出产水果。硬木材森林面积约占本州面积之一半。工业方面，塑胶及合成织维最著名。
本州旅游业很盛。可以猎火鸡、鹿、熊。有24座州公园。最著名是哈发·费理国家历史公园Harpers Ferry National Historical Park。
Introduction简介
The first people to live in the area that is now West Virginia were Indians called the Mound－Builders of the ancient Hopewell and Adena cultures．
The Mound－Builders disappeared around the year 1，000．They may have moved somewhere else．They may have all died．Or they may have mixed in with other Indians．Nobody knows for sure．When the Mound－Builders left，the Woodland Indians came to live in this area，the Cherokee（切罗基族（北美易洛魁人的一支）人），Delaware and Shawnee Indian tribes．Many of the Native Americans had died in tribal wars or disease during the late 1500s．
In the 1600s，Europeans started crossing the Appalachian Mountains to explore the area．In 1606，England established the Virginia Colony．This very large area of land included what is now West Virginia．In 1669，King Charles II granted land patents（专利权），including the eastern part of the present state of West Virginia，to supporters of his family．
Alexander Spotswood from Virginia came in 1716and claimed the land for England．By 1719，Thomas，Lord Fairfax，had consolidated（巩固）claim to the entire 5，282，000acres in his own name．
The white settlement of present－day West Virginia probably began with the first Germans in search of religious freedom at Mecklenburg［梅克伦堡州［德意志民主共和国州名］（濒波罗的海）］（present－day Shepherdstown）in 1727，despite earlier claims that Morgan Morgan had been the first．
Winning a dispute over the state of Virginia in 1746，Fairfax was officially granted all the land to the North Branch of the Potomac［波拖马可河（美国东部重要河流，流经首都华盛顿）］by the King of England．Fairfax had the land surveyed and leased to European immigrants in a manner similar to the European feudal system（封建制度）．He also sold much of it to land speculators．
Over the next two decades，England granted other large tracts of property to various land companies，attempting to copy Fairfax’s success，but the Native Americans，French，and scattered（分散的）settlers complicated their efforts．
Dispute over land in the Ohio Valley in the 1740s led to armed conflict in 1754．Treaties between the British，French，and Native Americans in the 1740s failed to clear title to the property in question．The French had laid claim to the territory on the basis of explorations of Robert Cavelier，the Sieur de La Salle and Celeron de Bienville．The British claims were based also on early explorations，as well as the original charter of the colony of Virginia，which claimed all the territory extending to the Mississippi River．Treaties with the Iroquois in 1722and 1744，and with the Delaware and Shawnee tribes in 1752，gave England a more legal claim．However，under terms of the Native American concept of the land，many tribes other than the Iroquois，Delaware，and Shawnee claimed rights to the territory．Forced into a confrontational stance（姿态）with Great Britian，the Native Americans allied with the French，who primarily wanted the territory for trading purposes rather than for settlement，which Native Americans perceived（感到，认识到）as a threat to their way of life．As a result，much of the French and Indian War（or Seven Years War），from 1756and 1763，took place in the Appalachian region．
Early defeats in the French and Indian War led Virginia Governor Dinwiddie to construct forts in present West Virginia as defensive positions from attack．These forts became a boundary（边界，分界线）that approximate the eastern border of West Virginia．Native American warriors（战士，勇士）attacked Fort Evans in present－day Berkeley County in 1756，and Forts Seybert and Upper Tract in present－day Pendleton County in 1758，as well as sites throughout the Monongahela，New River，and Greenbrier（绿蔷薇）valleys．In November 1758，the British captured Fort Duquesne（renamed Fort Pitt）at the mouth of the Ohio River at present－day Pittsburgh（匹兹堡（美国宾西法尼亚州西南部城市，是美国的钢铁工业中心）），securing the Ohio Valley．The Treaty of Paris in 1763ended the French and Indian War，giving England title to virtually all territory east of the Mississippi River．The 1768，peace treaties forced Cherokee and Iroquois out of West Virginia．Colonists rushed to settle the land between the Alleghenies and the Ohio River．The Alleghenies Mountains separated the western and eastern counties of Virginia，which soon became very different in social and economic structure．
With the French eliminated，the Native Americans were left alone in their fight against colonial agression．In the summer of 1763，the Delaware and Shawnee tribes decided to attack settlements west of the Allegheny Mountains．Under the Ottawa chief Pontiac，Native American warriors captured（夺取）most of the trans－Allegheny forts，with the exception of Fort Pitt．On August 6，1763，British forces，under Colonel Henry Bouquet destroyed Delaware and Shawnee forces at Bushy Run in present－day western Pennsylvania，paving the way for colonial settlement．However，England’s King George III’s Proclamation（宣布）of 1763prohibited（禁止，阻止）settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains in an attempt to avoid contact with Native Americans．