June 20, 2025 - It was 162 years ago today when a young nation first learned that “Mountaineers are Always Free.”

Since then, we West Virginians have worked hard to make our mark on bettering not only ourselves and our beloved Mountain State but also this great land in which we are so privileged to live.

June 20, 1863 saw West Virginia born from the Civil War as the 35th state. Since then, our natural resources — coal, natural gas and timber — have helped to power a growing nation.

Our natural beauty and wild and wonderful landscape are a playground for many seeking to connect with the outdoors, and led just a handful of years ago to the New River Gorge area being designated as the nation’s newest national park.

As we celebrate year 162 of the Mountain State, it is fair, though, to analyze exactly what we’re celebrating.

We call West Virginia “Almost Heaven.” We tell people it is wild and wonderful. Our forests and rivers, mountaintops and beautiful valleys are worth celebrating. Our whitewater streams, our wildlife and our historic sites make us worth a visit.

Time and again we have been told out-of-state visitors will be back not only because of that, but because of the people. West Virginians are among the most welcoming, helpful people around, they tell us. That certainly is true. It is only part of the story of West Virginia, however.

Our history is one of battling adversity, whether through a brutal war that often pitted brother against brother or in coping with economic and technological change.

Our history includes eras during which we permitted our beautiful hills and valleys to be devastated by timbering and coal mining. Long ago, we vowed that would never happen again.

Our history is replete with instances, as we saw this week here in Ohio County, where disasters can strike, leaving friends and neighbors homeless and causing loss of life. But our fine people, as they always do, join together to help rebuild, to help mourn and, most importantly, to show our love and respect for one another.

We are among the nation’s hardest-working people. Companies appreciate our work ethic.

Now, of course, we face both economic and social upheaval. Politics continue to drive us apart, we’re told.

Nonsense. As we see time and again, West Virginians, while they have their differences, are a united people. We love our God, we love our hills and hollers, we love our peaceful solitude, and we love one another. Manufactured division meant only to generate profit for unseen corporations can’t get in the way of that. The drug abuse epidemic, while improving, continues to kill our friends and neighbors. Far too many are taking their own lives. Economic hardships are tearing families and communities apart.

Somehow, we will get through this. That’s what West Virginians do.

Today, then, we face many challenges. But it is worth asking on our birthday: Are there any people you would rather have on your side than your fellow Mountain State residents?

The answer is no.

That is reason enough for us to celebrate both our state itself and the people who make it, appropriately, almost heaven.

Happy birthday, West Virginia.