Baldwin Canoe Rental

1. Introduction

West Virginia, constantly covered with forests and known by the name of the State "Mountain", offers breathtaking scenery, natural resource-related, and all year round, outdoor activities.

Once rich in coal and wood, it has been shaped by mining and railway logging that the extract, but when decades of withdrawal has begun to exhaust these products, hardware, green mountains covered with side-products has been successful, ie, hiking, biking, fishing, rafting, climbing, and hunting tourists and sports fans alike. His New River Gorge, which offers many similar activities, is equally beautiful with its steep banks and areas of blue, while the principle city of Charleston, revitalized in the years 1970 and 1980, now features museums, the Art, shopping malls, restaurants and theaters world-class.

2. Charleston

Located in the Kanawha River and sporting a readily marketable grid system of streets, it is subdivided into at the Capitol Complex and downtown with the East End Historic District between the two.

In the former projection, which is the heart of state government, the ubiquitous visible gold-domed Capitol itself. Constructed of buff Indiana limestone and 4,640 tonnes of steel, which is the temporary installation of a railway siding for transport, the building had been planned in three phases over a period of eight years from 1924 to 1925 West Wing, from 1926 to 1927 for the East Wing, and from 1930 to 1932 for the rotunda of connection. It was officially opened by Governor William G. Conley June 20, 1932, to mark the 69th anniversary of West Virginia statehood.

His golden dome, which extends five feet higher than the Capitol in Washington, is gilded with 23 carat gold leaf and a half, applied between 1988 and 1991 as a small square to cover the copper and other surface lead.

Two-thirds of its interior, which includes 535,000 square feet divided into 333 rooms, consisting of Italian travertine, imperial derby, and Tennessee marble and the chandelier in the rotunda, its centerpiece, is composed of 10,180 pieces Czech glass illuminated by 96 light bulbs. Weighing 4000 pounds, he is suspended from a 54-foot brass and bronze chain.

In front of State Capitol, but always within the complex, is the West Virginia Cultural Center. Opened in 1976 and operated by the Division of West Virginia Culture and History, was created to showcase the state's artistic, cultural and historical heritage and houses of the West Virginia State Museum, archives and library history, a gift shop, and a place for cultural events, entertainment, and related programs.

The first, a collection of elements representing the state land, people and culture, is divided into 24 scenes covering five major periods: Prehistory (3 million years BC to 1650 AD) Frontier (1754-1860), civil war and the 35th State (1861-1899), industrialization (1900-1945), and Change and Tradition (1954 to the 21st century). The 24 performances themselves trace the evolution of the state and include periods such as "coal forests", "the Des Plaines River," Wilderness "," The Fort "," Harper's Ferry, "Building the Rails The Coal Mine "," Main Street, West Virginia, "and" New River Gorge.

Thirteen memorials and statues honoring West Virginia, for their contribution to the state and the nation through the Capitol complex of landscaped gardens.

Culture can also be experienced at Clay Center for Arts and Sciences, a modern, 240,000 square meters, the complex three levels, which opened July 12, 2003 and is one of the most ambitious economic , cultural and educational organizations in the history of West Virginia. Investment science, visual arts and performing arts under one roof, the center houses the double level Avampato Discovery Museum, an interactive.