Andrew's world West Virginia history

  You remember that part of the movie Without A Paddle where Seth Green's character says, “what's with all these satanic names?”   Well, here in West Virginia, we have an answer for that. We have a group of rock formations that people refer to as “the devil’s tea table”. You've probably seen these rocks that actually do resemble a table. Most likely, these were formed by erosion. “Tea table” rocks are what geologists call them, the reason for the devil part is people say that the devil himself really does come to these “tables” to have his tea.   Legend has it that a long time ago two men were returning home from work in a small boat going down the Elk River. One of the guys looked up on the hill and spotted a rock formation he wanted to go check out, the other man thought it was time for a break anyway, so they pulled ashore. The guy who wanted to check it out eagerly hoped out of the boat and went on up the hill while his friend just sat back in the boat assuming his f

I just finished the book visitors from lanulos by Woodrow Derenberger. You've probably heard about Woodrow, allow me to refresh your memory, he was the guy from Mineral Wells, WV, who claims to have had several encounters with Indrid Cold. He first saw him in 1966. Indrid is from the planet Lanulos. Now, I know what you're thinking but let me assure you Derenberger wasn't a lunatic. He seems to have been educated, respected and he said he didn't drink. An organization called NICAP (National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena) actually had him tested to see if he was insane and he wasn't, but of course they never published this. Derenberger wasn't the only one that saw Mr. Cold the first night he saw him, in fact there were other similar reports in WV and one in New Jersey. Listen to Mr. Derenberger talk about his first experience... https://youtu.be/QP_NFPjgCXA?si=xRqJg5pLLzbDdTlS      In the book, Derenberger tells all of his experiences with Mr. Col

     Ya know, writing my last post got me thinking about a documentary I watched recently called breaking the sound barrier . This documentary showed me how groundbreaking what Chuck Yeager did really was. Growing up around here you hear a lot about Chuck Yeager, I mean Lincoln county is really proud to be the home of Chuck Yeager, I mean what with 214 being called "yeager highway" and stuff like that. I guess all of WV is proud of him, Charleston airport was renamed Yeager airport in his honor. Despite all that, I don't think people really stop to think about what he did.      Before Chuck Yeager reached supersonic flight, people thought it impossible. I mean it was called the sound barrier for a reason. People thought we had already reached the limits of what a person could do in an airplane in WWII. Pilots had died before this, attempting mach 1.     As part of the air force's project x1, Chuck, only 24 years old, flew the Bell x1rocket, which was shaped like a .5

    There's a rumor that Chuck Yeager flew a jet under the Southside bridge in Charleston. I've heard about this legend a million times, and I'm sure you have too. I've been seeing things about it circulating around the internet lately. So, is it true?      I did a little research, thinking if it really happened, there has to be some kind of record of it. I hoped to find an old newspaper article or something. I didn't find that, but I did find something that will "clear it up" as Chuck himself put it.      There's an article on wvencyclopedia.org where Mr. Yeager says he did do it- on October 10th, 1948, after spending the weekend with mom and dad in Hamlin.      The I64/ 77 bridge just up the river from there is named after him, although he didn't fly under that one. Chuck Yeager passed away in 2020. Rest in peace, Sir Edit- I think the article may be from his auto biography 

    I'm not just interested in history, pre- history also interests me and I have done a lot of research on both. I know, we all think about dinosaurs when we hear "prehistoric". According to wv.gov, scientists have never found dinosaur fossils in the region that is currently West Virginia. There were now extinct prehistoric animals like the Mammoth and Mastodon.      One of the animals that existed here was a huge ground sloth which was a herbivore and could reach heights of ten feet. One of these sloths became the WEST VIRGINIA STATE FOSSIL. That's right, we have an official state fossil.       President Thomas Jefferson acquired this fossilized skeleton back in 1797 from a limestone cave in what is now Monroe County, WV. He originally thought it was the bones of a prehistoric lion and gave it the genus name "megalonyx" (great claw) it was later described as being an extinct ground sloth from the ice age and was renamed megalonyx jeffersonii, in honor of T

                                            Our capitols   As I mentioned before when I wrote about the Wheeling conventions, our original Capitol was in Wheeling, WV. It was in the Linsly Institute building. This was viewed as a temporary Capitol. This building served as the state Capitol from June 20 th , 1863- April 1 st , 1870.The Linsly Institue building was built in 1858 and is still a Wheeling landmark.   Something more permanent was needed, so in 1870, the state Legislature decided Charleston would be the permanent seat. The building was started in 1869 and completed in 1870, located at what is now Capitol Street ( Capitol Street was called sixth street prior to the Capitol building being there) and Lee Street. It was built by the state house company, a corporation, which was led by John P. Hale, a prominent Charlestonian. It is said that John ended up paying for much of the project himself. The building was leased to the state by the state house company. John did all this be

  Photo sourced from Pintrest.com          Britannica.com defines “paranormal” as very strange . Not able to be explained by what scientists know about nature and the world..     We have had several things in the mountain state that would fall under that category. Usually, when people hear “paranormal ”, they think of ghosts, but you can’t forget the cryptids. “ Cryptid” is usually defined as an animal that is said to exist but isn’t proven to.     We have had at least a couple of those over the years, but one is unique to West Virginia. I’m of course talking about the Flatwoods monster AKA the Braxton County monster AKA Braxxie .   Back in 1952, in the small West Virginia Village of Flatwoods, something terrified six kids, a mother and a dog. The story goes two young brothers had been playing in their school yard on September 12 th, 1952, the boys were 12 and 13 years old. They were playing there with their friend, who was ten years old. The three boys saw a red light