Belmont, WV

Belmont is a small Pleasants County city on the Ohio River, part of the Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna metro. It incorporated in 1946, and the name refers to the hills around the town: Belmont, or beautiful mountain. The river and Route 2 provide the practical orientation, with forests, hills, and river islands shaping the county around it. Pleasants County's larger history is tied to river ports, railroads, oil and gas, and power production, and Belmont sits inside that working Ohio Valley landscape.

Belmont Elementary and Pleasants County Middle School share a building overlooking Route 2; the campus serves county students and includes basketball and tennis courts, ball fields, a playground, and a paved track. That school-and-recreation site gives the city a concrete gathering point, while St. Marys handles the county-seat functions nearby. Belmont's local clue is the overlap of a river edge and a countywide school campus: a city named for its hills, with the Ohio River and Route 2 doing most of the orienting.