This Week in West Virginia History Highlights McDowell County Founded 1858

McDowell County traces its origin to a division of Tazewell County, Virginia when the new county was created Feb. 28, 1858, a fact highlighted in a "This week in West Virginia history" feature published Feb. 20, 2026 that spotlights events tied to the calendar week of Feb. 22-28. The feature specifically named the Feb. 28 creation as one of the notable dates for the week.

The Feb. 20, 2026 publication arrived ahead of the Feb. 22-28 window and served as a calendar reminder that McDowell County’s founding date falls within that week. With today dated Feb. 25, 2026, the county’s original creation on Feb. 28 looms days away on the anniversary calendar; Feb. 28, 2026 will mark 168 years since the county was formed from part of Tazewell County, Virginia.

The weekly feature framed the county’s origin alongside other historical events tied to Feb. 22-28, using the Feb. 20 release to foreground specific dates rather than broad eras. The item’s concrete note that McDowell County was created Feb. 28, 1858 anchors the county’s founding to a documented legal change in county borders originating in Tazewell County, Virginia.

For McDowell County, the Feb. 28 date now carries the simple arithmetic of anniversaries: 1858 to 2026 equals 168 years. The Feb. 20 feature’s timing places that 168th anniversary within the same week it highlighted, making the history item a direct prompt for residents and institutions to recall the county’s legal beginning on Feb. 28, 1858.

As the calendar reaches the close of the Feb. 22-28 week called out in the Feb. 20, 2026 feature, Feb. 28 remains the specific founding date recorded in the historical note: McDowell County created Feb. 28, 1858 from part of Tazewell County, Virginia. The weekly history item on Feb. 20 placed that exact date and origin at the center of the week’s remembered events.