Postcard-Geography Album: West Virginia, “Mountain State”

 This week's postcards are of West Virginia from Sidetracked Stephanie.

She sent four lovely postcards: one of a state map, one of a statue of a mountaineer with the state motto, "Mountaineers are always free." and two of beautiful landscape scenes.

One student colored a state map for the page, which includes the state bird, the Cardinal and the state flower, the Rhododendron. It also has a picture of a coal mine.

He also colored in the state on the US map.

When I asked Steph what would be a dish to represent West Virginia she said, "Pizza Rolls."

Our favorite store-bought pepperoni rolls come from Chico Bakery.)

The boys were happy about this because they love them. (Here is our recipe for pepperoni rolls, which we call Pizza Bites.

Then I remembered reading something about West Virginia having a large Italian community, so I asked Steph about it. She wrote back, "When I first read your email, I thought we didn't have much of an Italian community here. I did a swagbucks search for more information. This is what I found: Italian heritage is especially strong in Mountaineer Country, where...at least 11% of the population of the Mountaineer Country has Italian ancestry. Many Italians originally immigrated to West Virginia in the early twentieth century to work in the coal mines throughout the state. Specialty glass factories in this region were largely an Italian immigrant industry... Italian stonemasons were also common in the early communities. This information came from http://www.wvculture.org/arts/ethnic/mountaineer.html

"With its multitude of mountains and the highest elevation east of the Rockies, it's no wonder West Virginia's nickname is the "Mountain State." Abundant natural resources make it a leader in both industry and recreation, from glassmaking to rock climbing. Historic sites and sights include Harper's Ferry and the annual Native American Pow Wow, along with Lost World Caverns and White Sulphur Springs. Noteworthy West Virginians include Chuck Yeager and Olympian Mary Lou Retton." 

We have "visited" 31 states with our postcard-geography album.
We still need postcards for these states:
Mississippi, New Jersey, Vermont and Wyoming.
If you live in any of these states and would like to help us with this project, please leave a comment on how I can get in touch with you. Thank you!