Canis lupus hominis

If you are interested in labor history or in West Virginia history in general, this is a good film. I don’t know how long it will be on youtube, so enjoy it while it’s there.

Source.

This is true story, and it does have a lot of violence in it. Just a warning.

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Unionizing the coal mines of Southern West Virginia was a truly bloody affair, and it something that was taught to every child in West Virginia’s schools until recently.

Now, you just learn that the Battle of Point Pleasant–a battle in Lord Dunmore’s War– was the first battle of the American Revolution.

Talk about screwy. The people who fought in Lord Dumnore’s War were fighting for Lord Dunmore, the colonial governor of Virginia. They were fighting for the crown, not against it! That particular war was about driving the Shawnee and Mingo across the Ohio, opening up Trans-Allegheny Virginia for more European settlement.

I have learned a bunch of interesting and probably untrue facts about West Virginia.

And as I’ve mentioned, my knowledge of West Virginia history, geography, and government got me knighted. Yes, I’m a Knight of the Golden Horseshoe. This award is given to eighth-graders who score high enough on a test that is given every year.

In eighth grade, students are required to spend a semester studying West Virginia, which is taught in that “everything about West Virginia is awesome” sort of mindset. This test is the crowing achievement of any student who has taken that course.

The name for the award is derived from an expedition that Alexander Spotswood, then Virginia’s Royal Governor, led across the Blue Ridge in 1716.  They made it to the Shenandoah River, which I should mention, isn’t a major river in West Virginia. It is a major river in Virginia that happens to empty into the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, which means it courses through only the eastern tip of West Virginia. The Blue Ridge Mountains are just to the East of the Shenandoah River.

So you know what that means?

John Denver was not well-versed in geography!

When Spotswood’s expedition reached the Shenandoah, they celebrated, and then went back home to Williamsburg.  Spotswood gave the members of his party small gold stickpins made in the shape of horseshoes.

For some reason, West Virginia decided to use this as a honor for its students who did well on that test.

All I can say is John Denver never would have earned one.