On a warm weekday afternoon in Point Pleasant, I found myself not riding a train across the Ohio…read moreRiver but instead walking and driving beneath the massive Point Pleasant - Kanauga Railroad Bridge, a 3925-foot Pennsylvania through truss who sheer scale is impossible to appreciate until you're directly under it. Built originally in 1885 and then replaced with new truss spans in 1908 while reusing the original piers, the bridge's engineering feels astonishingly advanced for something conceived in the late nineteenth century, especially given that it was completed without a single construction fatality, which is a rarity for Ohio River crossings of that era. Standing beneath its towering steel and hoping to hear the hum of the modern Kanawha River Railroad trains overhead, I was struck by how this structure has carried more than a century of rail traffic while remaining one of the most impressive pieces of infrastructure in the region. [Review 925 of 2026 - 235 in West Virginia - 26106 overall]

It's just a small monument marking the place of where Fort. Randolph used to stand…read more The site where Fort Randolph was built emerged as a strategic location in the years before the American Revolution. In the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768, the British acquired title to present-day West Virginia from the Iroquois. Thereafter, British colonists and land speculators began to explore the region. One of the first to do so was George Washington, a planter and politician from Virginia, who in 1770 made a long canoe trip down the Ohio River to examine the land around Point Pleasant. Many other British colonists and surveyors did the same over the next few years.

On a bright Friday afternoon, the Jackson County Courthouse in Ohio really does project a certain…read morejudicial presence. The building was completed in 1868 in a Greek Revival design by architect R.C. Saunders, using red brick and concrete. The most striking feature is the large south-facing portico, framed by square brick pillars at the corners and two central columns rising to a flat roof. Behind that, the structure steps upward to a peak topped with a square cupola and clock, giving the courthouse a balanced but authoritative profile. Jackson County itself was formed in 1816 and named for Andrew Jackson, the War of 1812 figure who later became the President of the United States. Walking around the courthouse in the bright sun, the brick columns and portico amplify that sense of civic weight and even with later mid-20th-century repairs after a fire, the building still reads as a classic small-town expression of judicial power. [Review 932 of 2026 - 311 in Ohio - 26112 overall]

Sunday afternoon and still open for business, but I had places to be so I stuck to the perimeter…read moreafter parking and focused on the historic Putnam County Courthouse, which is absolutely the star of the show here in Winfield. It was built in 1900 after the original courthouse was lost to a windstorm. It is a Frank Pierce Milburn* design in full Romanesque Revival style, complete with brickwork, a hip roof and those great octagonal corner towers that give it a distinctive profile. Even without going inside, it's one of those buildings that immediately feels important, the kind of courthouse that anchors a town's identity and makes you glad you took a few minutes to detour off the highway and walk around it. There's also a modern Judicial Building adjacent that handles most of the day-to-day court operations, but the historic courthouse is easily the more impressive structure and the one worth stopping for if you're passing through. Winfield has been the county seat since Putnam County was formed in 1848, and seeing both buildings side by side gives a nice sense of how the county's history and its present coexist. Even a quick lap around the grounds makes it clear why this courthouse has held its place for more than a century. *I've seen dozens of Milburn courthouses including the Bland County Courthouse and the Wythe County Courthouse in Virginia, the Rowan County and Burke County Courthouse in North Carolina, the Wilkes County Courthouse in Georgia and the Boyd County Courthouse in Kentucky. And more. [Round number review 26100 overall - 919 of 2026 - 230 in West Virginia]

This marker is located in just the right spot, along the walkway in the Tu-Endie-Wei State Park…read morethat leads to the Point Pleasant Battle Monument. It has the same text on both sides, reading "Livia Nye Simpson, born 1 March 1862, was among youngest female publishers in US with purchase of the Point Pleasant State Gazette in 1888. Organized a DAR chapter in 1901; lobbied for state purchase of Point Pleasant battlefield; and for Congress to recognize site as first battle of Revolution. During WWI, organized Liberty Loan drive, which was used nationally. She died 27 October 1937." The marker was erected in 2005 by the West Virginia Division of Archives and History. She grew up in a river town where newspapers shaped public life, and she used the Point Pleasant State Gazette to give her community a stronger sense of its own history. Her long campaign to elevate the Battle of Point Pleasant blended research, persuasion, and a clear understanding of how public memory is built. She paired that work with mentoring younger women in journalism and civic leadership, treating opportunity as something to be claimed rather than waited for. By the time she died in 1937, she had left Point Pleasant with a preserved battlefield, a confident local press, and a model of determined small‑town leadership. [Review 60 of 2026 - 211 in West Virginia - 25250 overall]

The Civil War Memorial in Ripley stands on North Court Street beside the Jackson County Courthouse,…read morea quiet granite sentinel dedicated in 1915 by the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. It is a simple, upright monument rather than a dramatic statue, and its plainness reflects the town's Union loyalty during the war, when Ripley remained under Federal control except for a brief Confederate raid. The inscription honors Federal soldiers of the 1861 to 1865 conflict, a reminder that this part of western Virginia broke from the Confederacy and aligned with the new state of West Virginia. Its placement near other courthouse‑square markers creates a small civic cluster where the county's layered history sits within a few steps. The memorial's restrained design gives it a quiet quality, as if it were meant to record service rather than dramatize it. [Review 22 of 2026 - 202 in West Virginia - 25213 overall]

One of a few markers in Riverfront Park. this one points out the history of a local hero who served…read morefor West Virginia. The park is quite large and there is plenty of parking here. The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "Born in 1819, Frost was editor of Jackson County's first newspaper, The Virginia Chronicle, which was burned in 1862 during Jenkins Raid for its pro-Union stance. He served as Speaker of the House for the Restored Government of Virginia, 1861-1862, then joined the 11th WV Infantry, rising to colonel, 1863. Frost died on July 19, 1864, from wounds received at Snicker's Ferry." The Frost family moved to Ravenswood, and Daniel married Ellen Sophia Rathbone in 1843. Her father, William Palmer Rathbone, had been a paymaster in the War of 1812, a shipbuilder, and a New York city councilman before moving into what was then western Virginia. The Rathbones were early experimenters in the region's oil fields, and that connection placed Frost in a family that was unusually entrepreneurial for the time. Their children scattered widely after the war, with sons eventually settling in Indiana and Illinois, a reminder of how the upheaval of the 1860s reshaped family geographies. There is no number on the marker which was erected in 2016 by West Virginia Archives and History. [Review 33 of 2026 - 205 in West Virginia - 25224 overall]

This marker is at the convergence of this small creek where t flows into the Ohio. It points out…read morethe historic bridge nearby. The marker reads, "The bridge carrying State Route 7 over Teens Run in Eureka, Ohio was constructed in 1938. The Teens Run Bridge was determined eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2012. The bridge is eligible for its technical distinction specifically, as an example of a state highway department bridge featuring the early adaptation of integral technology to a continuous concrete slab bridge prior to standardization. The primary attribute of an integral bridge is the lack of movable joints in or between the deck and the flexible end supports. "With the goal to eliminate the intermediate deck expansion joints for all multiple span structures, the Ohio Department of Highways Bureau of Bridges had to adapt to the complex analysis and design of these structures as well as employ some technical innovations. The use of more secure foundations to minimize settlement of supports and the employment of flexible integral abutments, has given the Teens Run Bridge the distinction of being the longest and the primary prototype for thousands of similar bridges that were to follow. "This design innovation has its beginning with the appointment of Joseph R. Burkey. He was appointed the Engineer of Bridges for the Ohio Department of Highways in 1925. Mr. Burkey joined the Bureau of Bridges in 1911, and had a long and distinguished career, culminating with his term as chief of the bureau from 1925 to 1939. Under his direction, Ohio became the first state to adopt the routine use of continuous construction for all multiple span bridges. "The Teens Run Bridge was designed and checked respectively by Virgil A. Eberly and Josephine E. Powers, a pioneering female architect. Plans for the bridge were reviewed by both William S. Hindman, the primary reviewer, and William H. Rebe, the bureau's chief design engineer." The marker does not have a date it was installed or the sponsor. [Round number 300 in Ohio - 602 of 2025 - 24163 overall]