West Virginia turned 163 on Saturday, June 20, 2026, and Charleston marked the occasion with a statehood celebration honoring the day the Mountain State entered the Union.
The state was admitted on June 20, 1863 — carved out of Virginia during the Civil War after western counties refused to follow the Confederate secession. That origin story doesn’t have a clean parallel anywhere else in American history, and it’s the thread that runs through every anniversary observance.
One hundred and sixty-three years.
Charleston served as the backdrop for this year’s festivities, as it has for statehood observances in years past. Details on the full schedule of events — speakers, performers, or any official program — weren’t immediately available from WCHS’s initial report.
West Virginia Day has been a recurring fixture on the state calendar, though the scale of any given year’s celebration tends to vary. Whether Saturday’s event drew a crowd larger or smaller than prior years wasn’t confirmed in early reports.
The complete rundown of what took place in Charleston on Saturday hadn’t been published as of Friday evening.
Reported by WCHS. Read the original report.
