Follansbee, WV

Follansbee is a Brooke County city on the Ohio River in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle, between Weirton and Wellsburg. The 2020 census counted 2,853 residents. The Follansbee brothers bought farmland in 1902, built a steel mill, and laid out a company town around it; the city incorporated in 1906. Immigrants from Britain, Wales, and Italy came for mill work, and by the 1920s Follansbee had grown into a busy industrial town with its own baseball team, community house, and swimming pool. The steel era still shapes the streets, even after the old coke-making plant closed in 2022.

State Route 2 runs as Main Street, the Ohio River holds the western edge, and Weirton and Steubenville make the valley feel like one connected working region. Lou Holtz was born here, adding a sports footnote to a place better known for metal and river traffic. Follansbee's local scoop is a West Virginia steel town whose name came from the mill builders, with an Ohio River address and a Northern Panhandle family tree.