StatesFacts
Menu

All 50 states

West Virginia state symbols

West Virginia has 29 official state symbols, and almost all of them were adopted by legislative resolution rather than by statute. The oldest are the Great Seal and motto of 1863; the rhododendron, chosen by schoolchildren in 1903, is the oldest natural symbol. Public votes and school classes picked many of the rest, from the cardinal and the black bear to the timber rattlesnake and the northern red salamander.

29 official designations · every law checked October 23, 2026

Chosen by the public

West Virginia has a tradition of letting the people pick. In 1903 public school pupils voted for the rhododendron, which beat the honeysuckle and the wild rose by more than 15,000 votes and became the state flower. A 1949 resolution let schoolchildren and civic groups choose a state bird and tree by vote: the cardinal beat 10 other birds, including the robin and the bluebird, by more than 11,000 votes, and the sugar maple won as state tree. In a 1954-55 poll by the state’s natural resources agency, teachers, students and sportsmen picked the black bear, the only bear native to the state, though the Legislature did not adopt it until 1973. At the same time it named the brook trout, which sportsmen had chosen almost unanimously in another poll, the state fish.

Rocks, gems and fossils

West Virginia’s gem, adopted in 1990, is not a true gemstone but a silicified fossil coral, Lithostrotionella, turned to chalcedony, from seas of about 350 to 325 million years ago, found in Greenbrier and Pocahontas counties. Monongahela silt loam, covering more than 100,000 acres in 42 counties, became the state soil in 1997. A petition by a Mingo County high school student led to bituminous coal becoming the state rock in 2009; the resolution traces the state’s coal back to John Peter Salley, who found it in 1742 and named the Coal River.

In 2008 the Legislature named the state fossil: Jefferson’s ground sloth, whose bones Thomas Jefferson described in 1797 from a limestone cave in what is now Monroe County. Caspar Wistar recognized them in 1799 as those of a giant ground sloth, and the species was named after Jefferson in 1822.

Animals by students

Eighth graders at Romney Middle School in Hampshire County were behind two symbols: the timber rattlesnake, named the state reptile in 2008, the first state to choose it, and the northern red salamander, named the state amphibian in 2015, whose resolution compares its red to fall maple leaves and to the red bandanas of the Mine Wars. The monarch became the state butterfly in 1995, and the honey bee, chosen over the lady beetle after long debate, the state insect in 2002.

Apples and colors

The Golden Delicious apple, which the 1995 resolution credits Anderson Mullins with finding in Clay County in 1905, replaced the plain apple as state fruit. Old gold and blue became the state colors in the centennial year of 1963, and the state tartan, adopted in 2008, is based on an old shawl found at the Daughters of the American Revolution museum in Barboursville, with each color standing for something in the state, from the cardinal to coal.

History and culture

The Hall Model 1819 flintlock rifle, made at Harpers Ferry and described in its resolution as the first breech-loading rifle adopted by any nation’s military, became the state firearm in 2013. The Shay No. 5 at Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, built in 1905, is the state steam locomotive. Other official titles go to the Greenbrier Valley Theatre, the River City Youth Ballet Ensemble, the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine and the Grafton Memorial Day Parade.

2 1860s 1880s 1 1900s 1 1920s 3 1940s 3 1960s 2 1980s 4 8 2000s 5 2010s
Official symbols adopted per decade. The busiest decade was the 2000s, with eight.

Flag, seal, song, motto and nickname

Animals

Plants and fungi

Earth and sky

Food and drink

Songs, words and language

Culture and history

Places and institutions

Questions about West Virginia's symbols

What is the West Virginia state bird?
The northern cardinal, chosen in a 1949 vote of schoolchildren and civic groups, in which it beat 10 other birds.
What is the West Virginia state flower?
The rhododendron, or big laurel (Rhododendron maximum), adopted in 1903 after a schoolchildren's vote.
What is the West Virginia state animal?
The black bear, the only bear native to West Virginia, chosen in a 1954-55 poll and adopted in 1973.
Is "Country Roads" the West Virginia state song?
It is one of four official state songs, adopted in 2014. The others are "West Virginia, My Home Sweet Home," "The West Virginia Hills" and "This Is My West Virginia."
What is the West Virginia state fossil?
Jefferson's ground sloth, whose bones Thomas Jefferson described in 1797 from a cave in what is now Monroe County. It was adopted in 2008.
Photo credits (9)

Something out of date? Tell us and we will check it against the law.

Sources