As a former Golden Horseshoe winner, I had an opportunity to tour the newly-renovated West Virginia State Museum last Friday.  I stayed almost two hours and could have stayed quite a bit longer.  Random thoughts from that visit:

  • It was really nice to see Golden Horseshoe winners my mother’s age who received the award during World War II when no ceremony was held in Charleston finally dubbed as knights.
  • Kay Goodwin was right.  The original design work needed to be redone.  The design of Matthew Martin Design Works is light years better than the original design.
  • I am sure the West Virginia State Museum compares favorably with other state museums across the country.  In hindsight, I am glad the State of West Virginia spent so much money on this project.  Every state needs a showplace.
  • I am happy the designers gave short shrift to West Virginia’s rocks.  I’m sure rocks are exciting to some people, but not to me.  At the same time, I would have liked to have seen more about West Virginia’s first non-European or European settlers.
  • I liked the museum’s effort to clarify where the history we learned in school might not have been as accurate as we were taught.  Morgan Morgan might not have been West Virginia’s first European settler!  Who knew?
  • After seeing the displays on Monongah and the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel, I appreciate even more the importance West Virginia and America place on worker health and safety today.
  • I have never understood the connection drawn between the U.S.S. West Virginia, which the Japanese sank at Pearl Harbor and the U.S. later raised, to West Virginia history.  I’m pretty sure it never sailed up the Ohio, Kanawha or Potomac Rivers even once.
  • I liked what Senator Byrd had to say about being a West Virginian (never mind that he’s hasn’t lived here for decades), but it would have been nice to have heard more from common folks.
  • What’s with those fleas?