Lighthouses of the United States: West Virginia

The United States of America is a federal union of 50 states and a capital district. The state of West Virginia is in the Appalachian Mountains west of Virginia and southeast of Ohio. When Virginia seceded from the Union to join the Confederate States in 1861 its western counties refused to go along. They organized a separate government and West Virginia was admitted to the Union as the 35th state in 1863.

The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley, based in Louisville, Kentucky, maintains aids to navigation on the Ohio River along the northwestern border of the state and on the Kanawha River, an important tributary of the Ohio. Most of those aids are simple post lights.

To be listed here a lighthouse must actually serve as an aid to navigation. This means it must be located on a navigable lake or river and must be lit as a navigational aid at least during the local boating season.

ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. USCG numbers are from Volume 5 of the U.S. Coast Guard List of Lights.

General Sources
U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center: Light Lists
The USCG Light List can be downloaded in pdf format.
Navionics Charts
Navigation chart information for West Virginia.
Ohio River Lighthouses
Wheeling Intake Pier
Date unknown. Active (privately manitained); focal plane about 39 ft (12 m); two red flashes every 6 s. Light mounted on a square concrete water intake pier. Google has a street view and a satellite view. Located just off the east bank of the river in the Warwood neighborhood on the north side of Wheeling, a city in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle, a narrow strip between Pennsylvania and Ohio. Accessible only by boat. Site open, tower closed. Owner/operator: Wheeling Water Deoartment. USCG 5-23540.
Wheeling Island Foot
Date unknown. Active; focal plane about 30 ft (9 m); green flash every 4 s. Approx. 28 ft (8 m) skeletal mast. No photo available but Google has a distant street view and a satellite view. Located on the west bank of the east (main) channel of the river near the south end of Wheeling Island. Site and tower closed. Owner/operator: U.S. Coast Guard. ARLHS USA-1394; USCG 5-23590.
Summersville Lake Light
Summersville Lake Light, October 2012
Contributed photo copyright Terri Shifflett,
courtesy of Donna Keblesh; used by permission
Inland Lighthouse
* [Summersville Lake]
2012. Active; focal plane about 165 ft (50 m); flashing white light. 104 ft (32 m) round steel tower with lantern and double gallery. Lighthouse painted white, lantern and gallery black. Terri Shifflett's photo is at right, Jaime Pettry has a photo, Michael Wiley has a 2017 photo, Cliff Franks has a drone view, and Google has a satellite view. In 2009 workers building the Beech Ridge Wind Farm lost one of the new turbine towers when it rolled away down the mountainside. Steve and Donna Keblesh, owners of the Summersville Lake Resort, bought the runaway tower section and had it transported by a circuitous 100 mile (160 km) route to the resort. Erecting the tower and completing it as a lighthouse involved engineers and technical education students from several surrounding counties. The resort has a web page for the lighthouse. The lighthouse is open to guided tours daily, but visitors should be aware that climbing the stairway in the narrow tower is strenuous. Summersville Lake is a reservoir on the Gauley River in central West Virginia; it is the largest lake in the state. The lighthouse stands high above the lake, providing wonderful views, but it has little if any navigational value. Located at the resort, on Summersville Lake Road (WV 129) off US 19 near Mount Nebo in Nicholas County. Site open, tower open daily (admission fee). Owner/site manager: Summersville Lake Retreat.

Notable faux lighthouses:

Adjoining pages: Northwest: Ohio | Southwest: Kentucky

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Posted March 17, 2013. Checked and revised September 24, 2023. Lighthouses: 2. Site copyright 2023 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.