Published May 1961 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
From the Office of UNITED STATES SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD Room 342, Old Senate Office Building, Washington 25 D. C. Volume I -- Number 21 5-26-61 BYRD‘S EYE VIEW A Public Service Column by SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD THE SCULPTURE OF VIRGINIA IS UNIQUE AMONG THE STATES Tourists coming to West Virginia often remark that the topography of the State is unlike that of any other in the Union. They scan the sculpture of our hills and mountains, interlaced as they are by narrow valleys and short, deep hollows, and they find them unique. Of course, our State is indebted to the mysterious, though tremendous, forces in Nature for its outstanding physical attractiveness. Many millions of years ago, these forces heaved and shook the earth's skin until the, Allegheny Plateau was formed. Then, through the ages, water and wind have washed and eroded the Plateau, into the highly dissected hills and mountains which characterize West Virginia. There are many unique features about our State, some perhaps unknown to many West Virginians. Certainly, they are unknown to most tourists, and a universal knowledge of them may prove exceedingly valuable to our budding tourist industry. For example, most of the Appalachian Mountain States have their greatest extent east and west. Thus, they include large areas of lowland as well as high mountains. But only West Virginia lies wholly within one of the mountain belts of the Appalachians and has no lowlands as such. Its lowest elevation is the 247-foot mark at Harper's Ferry, on the Potomac River drainage. West Virginia is the only State in the Union the boundaries of which are almost wholly within a mountain range and its subdivisions. For this reason, its average altitude of 1,500 feet above sea level is 300 feet higher than any of the other 27 States which lie entirely, or partly -east, of the Mississippi River. Thus, for pure and invigorating air, our Mountain State has no Eastern equal. Of course, six Eastern States have points of elevation higher tl.an our Spruce Knob; but none can brag of marching mountains, such as we have in West Virginia, nor of the number of streams and rivers with which cur State is blessed, nor of the natural springs whose beneficial waters have been sought out by man since an ancient age. Not a square mile of marshland is to be found in all of West Virginia, despite the regular passage of vapor clouds across our rugged mountains. Unlike many other States in the Nation, West Virginia enjoys a natural system of drainage which is total. This, too, makes our State a healthier place to live in and to visit. But the sculpture of our State is unique in still another fashion. It harbors more salt licks than any other Eastern State, and for this reason it was a bloody Indian battleground before the white man trod its soil. These salt licks have also made our State a hunter's paradise, for many wild animals, especially deer, travel hundreds of miles from neighboring States to get their fill of this vital mineral. West Virginia has been variously known as "The Mountain State," and "The Panhandle State," It deserves to be known as "Nature's Wonder State." -- 30 --