No Ordinary Task: Hidden Stories from West Virginia’s History

West Virginians are a proud lot, and keenly aware of their state’s history and culture. A love for the state’s history and the complete conviction in the motto Montani Semper Libre (mountaineers are always free) are inherent traits of West Virginians. No Ordinary Task takes on the job of adding several more stories, many of which have been rarely told in text, to the lexicon of West Virginia history. The topics in this book include the contemptuous and divisive path of West Virginia Statehood, the 1960 West Virginia Presidential Primary that made the Kennedy Presidency possible, the invention of artificial limbs during the Civil War, the birth of the petrochemical industry, the coveted Golden Horseshoe, the early salt industry and technologies that made subterranean drilling possible, the early development and use of penicillin in the state, a glass industry survivor from state’s first natural gas boom, and the New Deal projects that were built in the state. These articles tell the stories of innovators, strivers, and the compelled and compelling people who took on no ordinary tasks and accomplished them.