What is West Virginia’s maritime heritage?
West Virginia’s rivers boast some of the best whitewater in the nation. More tranquil rivers have served as transportation highways. The first boats to ply West Virginia’s rivers most likely were birch bark canoes. In the 1770s, flatboats, pirogues, and keelboats came into use, followed in the 1820s by steamboats. Many river port towns developed in West Virginia along the Ohio and the Potomac and boat-building flourished in places like Charleston, Huntington, Murraysville, and Wheeling. The river boats of West Virginia brought colonial surveyors and settlers to the region, delivered mail and merchandise, and carried the region’s raw materials like salt and lumber to market. River boat transportation was so successful that even the railroads hauled coal from West Virginia’s mines to river barge coal tipples for shipping elsewhere. Today, boats are still used on West Virginia’s rivers to transport coal, steel, and other products.
