Andrew's world West Virginia history

     The leader of the Grand army of the Republic  - a group for northern civil war vets, called for a day to remember the civil war soldiers who died in combat and to decorate their graves. He called it "decoration day" and it was to be May 30th, 1868, a date he chose because it wasn't the anniversary of any particular battle. Most northern states held similar ceremonies and by 1890, decoration day was a state holiday in those northern states but southern states still weren't playing ball.      Over the years the holiday became memorial day and instead of just Civil war soldiers, it became about honoring fallen heros from all the wars. I've always known it to be about decorating all graves, not just those of soldiers.      For years the holiday was observed on May 30th just like the original. In 1968, congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday act, which made memorial day the last Monday in May, it also made memorial day a federal holiday. Now all federal employe

    You probably know by now if you've been reading this blog very long that my family and I like to do a little exploring. A couple weeks ago we went by a place I thought was cool. Before we got there, my dad joked with me about this tree having cans of Pringle chips on it, and that the chips were invented there, haha. By the way, this post has nothing to do with chips. Sorry guys. It was a sycamore tree that is apparently the third generation descendant of the tree that two of West Virginia's early settlers lived in for three years. It was near the town of Buckhannon, WV.     Its not uncommon to hear about a person  seeking shelter in one of these big hollowed out sycamores but this is the first I've heard about someone living in one.      The story goes that John and Samuel Pringle deserted their posts at Fort Pitt, which was near present day Pittsburgh, during the French and Indian war, in 1761. They had a couple of other guys with them but they were caught early on. Th

  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