Charleston

Charleston lies where the Elk River joins the Kanawha in a narrow valley among the forested hills of western West Virginia — the only flat ground for miles in a state that is almost entirely mountains. The river valley made it a natural settlement and salt-producing center, and after West Virginia split from Virginia during the Civil War, Charleston became the permanent state capital in 1885. Its gilded-dome capitol rises beside the Kanawha.

The Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio, carries barge traffic past the chemical plants that the valley's salt brine and natural gas spawned. Steep wooded ridges hem the city into the river bottom, the typical Appalachian pattern of building wherever the land lies flat. Charleston is the largest city and government center of a rugged, thinly populated state.

• West Virginia
  The Mountain State, entirely within Appalachia located in