Find Your Best Life in These Charming Small Towns in West Virginia

While the Advantage Valley of West Virginia is known for great cities like Charleston and Huntington, this dynamic region also offers perfect smaller communities to call home.

By Amy Antonation on October 21, 2023

Jeff Adkins

The Advantage Valley of West Virginia has no shortage of outdoor resources, growing business communities and local traditions. While residents of the region are never too far away from larger cities like Huntington and Charleston, the region’s smaller communities are attracting newcomers with affordable housing, revitalized downtowns and the ability for each citizen to make a real impact on their town.

Here’s why three Advantage Valley residents – all of whom live in cities of less than 8,000 people – choose these idyllic small towns in West Virginia.

Jeff Adkins

Like a Hurricane

“Here, like the British, we say ‘Hurr-i-ken,’” says Megan Tarbett, a West Virginia native who grew up in Henderson just across the Kanawha River from Point Pleasant.

She attended graduate school in Pennsylvania before moving to Charleston for a job with the West Virginia Library Commission. But she missed the connections that came more easily in a small city, and in 2015 took a job as Putnam County Library director. Shortly after, she moved to Hurricane, the county’s largest city (population 6,800).

“I was part of this community because of my job, but I wanted more of it,” she says of the move. “We say the best thing about Putnam County is the people, and the best thing about that is the ability for everyone to work together. I’ve never worked in a place where everyone works hand in hand for us to move forward.”

She credits that to a common desire to show the area is a great place to live and work. “If it’s Friday or Saturday, you don’t have to go to Huntington or Charleston,” she says. “Putnam is still growing, and the amenities are great.”

Case in point: A new skatepark opened in early 2023 at Hurricane’s City Park.

Jeff Adkins

It’s Point Pleasant

Point Pleasant is home to just over 4,000 residents, but its most famous citizen is 10 feet tall, with wings and glowing red eyes: It’s the Mothman, which has been the subject of multiple books and films thanks to a rash of alleged sightings in the late 1960s. (Even Tarbett has a personal connection to the cryptid: “My dad was finishing up high school when it all went down, and always joked that he was the Mothman,” she says.)

Mason County native Chris Rizer, executive director of Main Street Point Pleasant, credits the legend in part for the growth of the city’s downtown area.

In 2000, he says, the commercial vacancy rate on Main Street was 87%. By 2017, that figure had decreased to 60%, and today it’s just 7%.

“It comes down to two things,” he says of that growth. “The big one we can’t ignore is the Mothman. The Mothman Festival and Mothman Museum started coming together in 2003; that insane change in tourism and the local economy has helped drive vacancies down. It’s also a new generation taking pride in their community. Millennials have started opening their own businesses. … Them being successful gives everyone else the confidence to start their own.”

With the construction of Nucor Corp.’s steel mill in Mason County expected to result in 800 new manufacturing jobs, Rizer anticipates a big impact to his city.

“Development authorities are there to bring in plants and everything, but Main Street Point Pleasant is here to make sure people want to live and spend money in the city.”

Rizer’s favorite thing about Point Pleasant? Its full schedule of events. “When I was little, Point Pleasant didn’t have a lot going on,” he says. “We’d go through Point Pleasant straight to Huntington or Charleston. Now, we have an event about every weekend. During COVID, I didn’t leave [the city] once.”

Jeff Adkins

Ripley, Believe It

At just over 3,000 residents, Ripley is small, but it claims to have the nation’s largest small-town Fourth of July celebration. With seven days of multiple parades, concerts and community gatherings, its patriotism is definitely on display every summer.

But that’s just one of the reasons Meghan Parsons chooses to live in her native Jackson County.

“I chose to stay in the community after college and raise my children here because I enjoyed the small-town feel,” says Parsons, who works at the Jackson County Development Authority.

She cites its low crime rates, quality schools and health care, and outdoor activities, as well as a strong sense of community. “I would explain Ripley and Jackson County as a community that bands together, works together and looks out for one another. Many of us are multi-generational families,” she says. Parsons’ own family has lived in the county for at least four generations – proving Ripley is a great place to raise a family.

Jeff Adkins

Small Businesses Power Small Towns in West Virginia

There are certainly many spectacular small towns in West Virginia, but this great state also has plenty of great small businesses in those communities. West Virginia native Matt Snyder has always enjoyed hand-making furniture, learning and perfecting his craft years ago during a two-year stint in New Mexico. When he returned to Advantage Valley, he started Bear Wood Company in 2014. 

“Like Steve Jobs, I began my company in the garage,” Snyder says. “Today, I have a 4,000-square-foot showroom and main wood shop in Hurricane, along with a showroom in Charleston. Also, a third showroom recently opened in Morgantown.” 

Snyder and his team use their hands to make every piece of furniture they sell, always crafting their products out of reclaimed natural wood – never particle board, pressboard or laminates. 

“Our final products are often made from wood that has been around for 100 years or more,” he says. “We reclaim the wood, rework it and build products that should last another 100 years.” 

Visitors can even see the craftspeople working at the Hurricane location. “If you buy a beautiful walnut, oak or cherry table from us, you know it came from West Virginia,” Snyder says. 

Snyder adds that he enjoys doing business in Advantage Valley. “Small businesses like mine get a lot of support from the entire community,” he says. “For example, not only am I doing business with my banker and my accountant, but I’m also good friends with both of them.”