Seal of West Virginia
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The West Virginia State Seal was adopted in 1863. The center of the seal contains a boulder that has been inscribed June 20, 1863, the date West Virginia became a state. In front of the boulder lies two crossed rifles and a Liberty Cap to state the State's importance of fighting for liberty. The two men on either side of the boulder represent agriculture and industry. On the left stands a farmer with an ax and plow before a cornstalk. On the other side stands a miner with a pickax, and behind him an anvil and sledge hammer. The outer ring contains the text "State of West Virginia" and the state's motto "Montani Semper Liberi", ("Mountaineers Always Free").
[edit] Reverse
The reverse side of laurel and oak leaves, log house, hills, factories and boats is the Governor’s Official Seal.
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The Great Seal and Coat-of-Arms of West Virginia "...The reverse of the Great Seal is to be encircled by a wreath composed of laurel and oak leaves, emblematical of valor and strength, with fruits and cereals, productions of the state. For device, a landscape. In the distance, on the left of the disc, a wooded mountain, and on the right a cultivated slope with the log farmhouse peculiar to this region. On the side of the mountain, a representation of the viaduct on the line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in Preston County, one of the great engineering triumphs of the age, with a train of cars about to pass over it....." by the Honorable Joseph H. Diss Debar of Doddridge County. 1863
