Posted in West Virginia August 04, 2015 by

Some People Don’t Know That West Virginia Was The First To Do These 12 Things

Ready for some Mountain State trivia? West Virginia has been the birth place of many ideas and inventions. Here are just a few things that West Virginia was first at. How many of these did you already know about?

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1. We were the first state to implement a state sales tax.
Tracy O/Flickr
That happened on July 1, 1921.
2. We're the first and only state formed by seceding from a Confederate state.
Mitchell's New General Atlas
We of course seceded from Virginia and officially became a state on June 20, 1863.
3. A WVU player was the first female to dunk a basketball during a college game.
Reisio
That honor went to Georgeann Wells in 1984.
4. Our Memorial Tunnel was the first to be monitored by television.
Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers collection
5. Land that became part of West Virginia was where the first land battle of the Civil War took place.
Public domain
That happened in Philippi, W.Va.
6. One of our streets was the first to paved with bricks.
Flickr user vxla
The first brick road in America was Summers Street in Charleston. Engineer Mordicai Levi paved it in 1870. (Note: this isn't Summer Street).
7. The first black woman to serve in a U.S. government body served here.
Analogue Kid
Minnie Harper Buckingham, of McDowell County, was appointed to fill her husband’s unexpired term in the state House of Delegates in 1928.
8. Mothers' Day was first celebrated here.
Brian M. Powell
It was first celebrated at Andrews Church in Grafton on May 10, 1908.
9. West Virginia native Chuck Yeager was the first pilot to break the sound barrier.
That happened on October 14, 1947.
10. The Oakhurst Links was the nation's first golf course.
The golf course is located in White Sulphur Springs.
11. A West Virginian is credited with starting Grandparents Day.
David Monniaux
Marian McQuade of Oak Hill started the holiday.
12. Outdoor advertising began in West Virginia
Jarek Tuszynski
It got its start with Mail Pouch tobacco ads on the sides of barns and businesses.

What else was West Virginia first at?