Discover Kanawha

Travelers looking to combine culture and history can explore Kanawha through a range of themes. The West Virginia State Museum presents the history, culture, and art of West Virginia, as well as paleontology, archaeology, and geology. A visit thus takes you from human history and artistic expression to traces of earlier life and the state’s geological themes.

Museums, Music, and Events

The Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences of West Virginia also brings a range of interests together in one place: the 240,000-square-foot building houses the performing arts, visual arts, and sciences under one roof. Museum admission includes access to the Avampato Discovery Museum and the Juliet Art Museum.

Mountain Stage is a distinctive choice for live music. The public radio program has been running since 1983; most of its live shows take place at the Culture Center Theater on the grounds of the State Capitol in Charleston. If you’d like to plan your stay around a specific cultural program, you can take venues and dates into account. FestivALL brings together performances, concerts, and visual art over ten days in Charleston. The Vandalia Gathering in Charleston features traditional Appalachian music, offering a different musical focus.

History in Architecture and Landscape

At the West Virginia State Capitol Complex, the 293-foot dome stands out with its gold leaf. A very different scale awaits you at Criel Mound in South Charleston: the mound is 35 feet high and 175 feet in diameter. It is the largest of about fifty conical Adena culture mounds in an area west of Charleston that extends to Institute. The height and diameter give a sense of the size of this individual monument; its place within a larger group also provides another point of historical context.

If you’d also like to include nature-themed activities in your trip planning, the Spotted Salamander Trail is an accessible educational trail for wheelchair users. It offers a different experience from museums and architectural monuments, with the trail itself at its center. You can therefore prioritize the different themes according to your interests, whether you’re mainly interested in art, history, music, or an educational trail.

Markets and Regional Traditions

Capitol Market is a year-round indoor and outdoor market in a turn-of-the-century train station. Its offerings include seasonal goods, gifts made in West Virginia, artisan chocolate, cheese, and wine. This combines the market building’s historic setting with changing seasonal goods and other products from the state.

J.Q. Dickinson Salt-Works offers another glimpse of regional tradition, with experiential tours. A seventh-generation family hand-harvests natural salt there from an ancient ocean trapped beneath the Appalachians in West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley. This background gives salt production a specific geological and family connection. The tours and the handcraft passed down through generations offer different ways to connect with local traditions.

Planning Your Trip

West Virginia International Yeager Airport offers passengers dining, shopping, lounges, and free Wi-Fi. It is located near the junction of three major interstate highways.

When choosing a hotel, you can first consider which of the themes mentioned are most important to your trip: visiting a museum, seeing live music, exploring historic sites, or visiting a market will each lead to a different focus in your planning. Then check the location of each accommodation option to see how well it suits your plans.

Discover more destinations: Charleston, Elkview, Cross Lanes, Dunbar, East Bank, St Albans, South Charleston, Lincoln County.

For the broader travel overview: West Virginia.