Rand, WV

Rand is a Kanawha County census-designated place on the Kanawha River, where the 2020 census counted 1,543 residents. It sits within the historic Kanawha Salines, the salt-producing district that stretched about ten miles along the river from Witcher Creek toward present-day Charleston. Malden and DuPont City surround Rand, placing the community in a connected stretch of the Kanawha Valley.

The community began as Plus in 1907 after a large Dickinson family tract was purchased. It became Levi, then changed to Rand in the 1930s or 1940s because another West Virginia town already carried the Levi name. Rand's name honors Plus Rand Levi, son of Mordecai Levi, who held the patent for the Brick Road. The brine industry once made this part of West Virginia the largest salt-making area in the United States. The salts were boiled in furnaces and shipped downriver for meat preservation across the Ohio Valley. The river, salt furnaces, and shifting names give Rand a history that follows the valley's industrial development.