WV is my home state, so ya'll back the **** off.
But seriously, it is truly amazing how diverse and different the state is, like different countries.
I grew up in the Eastern Panhandle - that little arm that sticks out to the right. 6 miles from MD, 11 miles from VA, 1 hour 20 minutes from DC. It was WV, it was rural, it was a 2 stoplight town, but we were like a sleeper community just a short drive from DC and Baltimore. No coal, none of the stuff you see elsewhere.
Go to the Northern Panhandle - that point that sticks straight up - and it's like Pittsburgh, in terms of its culture. No coal. But tied to steel. Completely different class of people. Though they are West Virginians, they are nothing like Eastern Panhandle West Virginians, which are more like DC folk.
Northern WV around Morgantown is also unique in its culture. Very different from western WV, where Indy is, and then southern WV where the capitol, Charleston is located, which is a culture more like Kentucky and Southern Ohio.
It's a strange state because of the distance between these sections. Case in point. From the Eastern Panhandle, one can be to the beach in 3.5 hours, Philadelphia in 3 hours, New York City in 5.5 hours, Richmond VA in 3 hours and even into NC in 5.5 hours. However, to travel from the Eastern Panhandle to the West Virginia state capitol in Charleston, it's a 5 hour trip. It's a lot longer from the Northern Panhandle to Charleston. They can be to Buffalo before they can get to their own capitol. It makes for very distinct and different parts of the state.
There are parts that are really really bad, true Appalachia, and/or areas like Indy is seeing. It's always been amazing to me though how very different the state is, by section.