Welch, WV

Welch is the McDowell County seat at the confluence of the Tug and Elkhorn rivers, a mountain city shaped by coal, county government, and flooding. It was incorporated in 1893 and named for Isaiah A. Welch, the surveyor who helped lay out the town. The McDowell County Courthouse gives the city a visible civic center, and the Veterans Day parade has run continuously since 1918, giving the calendar a tradition that reaches across generations. Floods in 2001 and 2002 nearly destroyed Welch, and the city still deals with roads and crossings that can be cut off by high water. The result is a place where courthouse business, coal-country history, and river conditions are all part of the same daily geography.