Grafton National Cemetery was established in 1867-1868 as a burial site for Civil War soldiers. Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster General of the Union Army and one of the principal architects of Arlington National Cemetery contributed to the designs for the new cemetery, including its terraced landscape and original superintendent's lodge. The cemetery was dedicated on June 14, 1868 by West Virginia's first Governor, Arthur Boreman. In its first years of operation, over 1,200 Union soldiers were reinterred from various parts of the state to the national cemetery in Grafton. In 1903, Private Thornesberry Bailey Brown, believed to be the first Union soldier killed in the Civil War, was reinterred at Grafton National Cemetery where a special monument was dedicated to his memory. 

By Kyle Staubs

​Last Friday, May 13th was the 40th Anniversary of the first dedication of the New River Gorge Bridge while it was being constructed (the final dedicated occurred on October 22, 1977, the day the bridge was opened to the public). Construction on the bridge began in June of 1974. Designed by Michael Baker Company with the direction of Chief Engineer Clarence V. Knudsen and by the U.S. Steel’s American Bridge Division, the New River Gorge Bridge is made from COR-TEN steel and cost $37 million to complete. 

At that time of its completion, the New River Gorge Bridge was the world's longest single-span arch bridge. The bridge was also the largest project ever coordinated by the West Virginia Department of Highways. Today, the bridge is the third longest in the world and the third highest bridge in the United States. The bridge is 3,030 feet long and 69.3 feet wide with four lanes and a center divider. Statistics show that the regular traffic on the bridge is 16,200 vehicles per day.

By Ray Smock

​​At Shepherd University’s commencement on Saturday, May 7, I was witness to one of the best commencement addresses I have ever heard in more than a half-century of paying attention to such things. Jim Leach,  former Republican congressman from Iowa, and the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, who is currently  University of Iowa Chair of Public Affairs and Visiting Professor of Law at the College of Law, explained in powerful terms the threat posed to American Democracy by the hyper-partisan, uncivil nature of American politics in recent times.