Kenova: Where Three States Meet in a Name

Kenova sits at the westernmost point of West Virginia, right where the Big Sandy River runs into the Ohio and Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia all converge within sight of each other. The name captures that geography in a single word: KEN for Kentucky, O for Ohio, VA for Virginia, the old abbreviation West Virginia still carried from its parent state. The town grew around the Norfolk and Western Railway and was incorporated in eighteen ninety-four. It grew as a rail hub, and the clever portmanteau it was given remains one of the more unusual place names in the tri-state region.