Capital City: Charleston
West Virginia is a state in the Southern Region of the United States of America. It's often called the "Mountain State", being the only state in the USA to lie completely within a mountain range (in this case, the Appalachians). West Virginia is bordered by five states, on the south and east by Virginia, Maryland to the north and east, the north by Pennsylvania, the north and west by Ohio and Kentucky to the west.
Originally part of the state of Virginia, the residents of the counties that became West Virginia split from the rest of the state in part due to a disagreement over the issues of slavery and secession. These counties elected to remain with the Union, and the new state was born on June 20, 1863. The population of the state today is around 1.7 million people. The capital city is Charleston, and the state motto is "Mountaineers are always free."