CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A new book, "Fascinating West Virginia" - recounting odd and turbulent Mountain State episodes through the years - is to be released by The Charleston Gazette this week in time for the West Virginia Book Festival on Oct. 11-12.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A new book, "Fascinating West Virginia" - recounting odd and turbulent Mountain State episodes through the years - is to be released by The Charleston Gazette this week in time for the West Virginia Book Festival on Oct. 11-12.
The book contains longtime Editor James A. Haught's accounts of wide-ranging topics such as:
The Portuguese wine fraud that ensnared savvy bankers and other investors.
A Civil War-era plantation owner's devotion to his beloved slave woman and their 13 children that created the state's largest black community, Institute.
The Kanawha County uprising against "godless textbooks" that produced school bombings and prison terms.
The pot plane crash involving zany smugglers who later, amazingly, won an Academy Award.
Notorious scandals of the Barron and Moore administrations.
Mothman, the Braxton County Monster, serpent-handler churches and other oddities.
"Deathwind" Wetzel who stalked Indians like prey.
Corruption that was purged from the United Mine Workers by West Virginia reformers.
Bootleggers and gambling operators who slipped protection money to a few police insiders in the era when vice was illegal, instead of operated by the government.
A new book, “Fascinating West Virginia†— recounting odd and turbulent Mountain State episodes through the years — is to be released by The Charleston Gazette this week in time for the West Virginia Book Festival on Oct. 11-12.
These and other chapters of state lore are drawn from Haught's columns during his half-century at West Virginia's largest newspaper. After growing up in a Wetzel County farm town with no electricity, he joined the Gazette staff in 1953 and covered thousands of events over five decades - including 13 years when he was the state's only full-time investigative reporter.
"Fascinating West Virginia" contains many past Gazette news photos. The book is being printed by a Kanawha County bindery, The Printing Press Ltd. Cost is $15 at the newspaper and Book Festival, tax included. If copies must be mailed, shipping expense will be added.
In the past, the Gazette has printed numerous books by staff members - such as John Morgan's history of West Virginia governors; Jim Dent's anthologies of humor columns; Andy Hansroth's Mountain State hunting and fishing guide; Sandy Wells' collection of "Innerviews" profiles; "Snapshots of the 20th Century" by Rosalie Earle; a Charleston history for the capital's 200th anniversary by Morgan and Robert J. Byers; "West Virginians Who Made a Difference," prepared for the turn of the millennium; "Man, That's Cooking" by Delmer Robinson; "The Main Ingredient" by Byers and Tara Tuckwiller; and others.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A new book, "Fascinating West Virginia" - recounting odd and turbulent Mountain State episodes through the years - is to be released by The Charleston Gazette this week in time for the West Virginia Book Festival on Oct. 11-12.
The book contains longtime Editor James A. Haught's accounts of wide-ranging topics such as:
The Portuguese wine fraud that ensnared savvy bankers and other investors.
A Civil War-era plantation owner's devotion to his beloved slave woman and their 13 children that created the state's largest black community, Institute.
The Kanawha County uprising against "godless textbooks" that produced school bombings and prison terms.
The pot plane crash involving zany smugglers who later, amazingly, won an Academy Award.
Notorious scandals of the Barron and Moore administrations.
Mothman, the Braxton County Monster, serpent-handler churches and other oddities.
"Deathwind" Wetzel who stalked Indians like prey.
Corruption that was purged from the United Mine Workers by West Virginia reformers.
Bootleggers and gambling operators who slipped protection money to a few police insiders in the era when vice was illegal, instead of operated by the government.
These and other chapters of state lore are drawn from Haught's columns during his half-century at West Virginia's largest newspaper. After growing up in a Wetzel County farm town with no electricity, he joined the Gazette staff in 1953 and covered thousands of events over five decades - including 13 years when he was the state's only full-time investigative reporter.
"Fascinating West Virginia" contains many past Gazette news photos. The book is being printed by a Kanawha County bindery, The Printing Press Ltd. Cost is $15 at the newspaper and Book Festival, tax included. If copies must be mailed, shipping expense will be added.
In the past, the Gazette has printed numerous books by staff members - such as John Morgan's history of West Virginia governors; Jim Dent's anthologies of humor columns; Andy Hansroth's Mountain State hunting and fishing guide; Sandy Wells' collection of "Innerviews" profiles; "Snapshots of the 20th Century" by Rosalie Earle; a Charleston history for the capital's 200th anniversary by Morgan and Robert J. Byers; "West Virginians Who Made a Difference," prepared for the turn of the millennium; "Man, That's Cooking" by Delmer Robinson; "The Main Ingredient" by Byers and Tara Tuckwiller; and others.
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Posted By: Anonymous(5:36pm 10-05-2008)
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The story of "Deathwind" Wetzel brings to mind "Liver Eating Johnson," the westerner who lived roughly one hundred years later and likewise devoted his life, after a similar bloody experience, to killing all Indians, and upon whom the the movie JEREMIA JOHNSON is based. Rather than scalping his victims like Wetzel, Johnson cooked and ate their livers instead.
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