West Virginia County Map: All 55 Counties

In 1861, western Virginia delegates opposed to secession from the United States convened the Wheeling Convention, declaring the Confederate Richmond government illegal and establishing the Restored Government of Virginia. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed West Virginia the 35th state of the Union.

Under the West Virginia Constitution of 1872, the state was divided into magisterial districts within each county. Article IX, Section 10 established a fundamental safeguard: each county is governed by three commissioners, but "no two of said commissioners shall be elected from the same magisterial district."

This constitutional geographic residency restriction prevents a single populous town from monopolizing the commission, guaranteeing that rural hollows and farming valleys have equal representation on the county board.

Southern West Virginia—comprising counties like McDowell, Logan, Mingo, Boone, and Raleigh—developed around the great bituminous coal seams of the Pocahontas and Kanawha coal basins. These counties were the site of dramatic labor history milestones, including the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain in Logan County.

The Northern Panhandle (Ohio, Marshall, Brooke, Hancock) stretches along the Ohio River between Ohio and Pennsylvania, historically famous for Wheeling iron nail manufacturing and Weirton steel mills.

The Eastern Panhandle (Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan) lies in the Shenandoah Valley and Potomac River basin. Benefiting from commuter rail into Washington, D.C., Berkeley and Jefferson counties are the fastest-growing counties in West Virginia. In east-central West Virginia, Randolph County spans 1,040 square miles of dense hardwood timber and Monongahela National Forest wilderness.