Short answers, pulled from the story.
West Virginia was admitted to the Union on the 20th of June 1863. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation admitting the state after a series of complex constitutional conventions in Wheeling following the Virginia Secession Convention vote on the 17th of April 1861.
Tribes like the Moneton, Tutelo, Shawnee, Iroquois, and Siouan language tribes navigated the region before European arrival. The Shawnee were the last Native tribe to inhabit the area and were driven out during the Shawnee Wars between 1811 and 1813.
The discovery of bituminous coal transformed West Virginia from isolated farming communities into an industrial powerhouse. The state produced more coal than any other state except Wyoming and developed extensive rail networks like the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway completed in 1872.
The highest point in West Virginia is atop Spruce Knob at 4,863 feet. This peak is covered in a boreal forest of dense spruce trees at altitudes above 4,000 feet.
The 2020 United States census recorded a population of 1,793,716 for West Virginia. This figure represents a 3.2% decrease from the 2010 United States census.