Beaver, WV

Beaver is a census-designated place in Raleigh County, West Virginia, just outside the Beckley area. The 2020 census counted 1,129 people. The community sits along Beaver Creek at the mouth of Little Beaver Creek, while the larger regional map runs across the tableland by Interstate 64, U.S. 19, and West Virginia 3. That split between creek-bottom settlement and high-ground infrastructure is the useful way to place Beaver.

Several regional institutions are in the Airport Road corridor. Raleigh County Memorial Airport occupies the tableland, and the National Mine Health and Safety Academy brings a federal training campus focused on mining safety to the same area. Southern Regional Jail is nearby as well. The local place-name has moved over time—from Beaver to Oxley to Glen Hedrick and back to Beaver—while the transportation and training corridor kept expanding. The local scoop is a small Raleigh County community whose map includes both a creek settlement and the airport-and-academy district that connects the county to the wider region.