West Virginia is famed for its natural resources, breathtaking sceneries, prosperous coal, mining, and manufacturing industries, and colorful festivities that keep millions of visitors coming back each year. These visitors are from neighboring states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania as well as other countries.If you are going to West Virginia for the first time, you will need a good map to start with. A map is an accurate two-dimensional depiction of a place where you want to go. It will help you locate specific locations as it shows roads, highways, rivers and boundaries.

A map also emphasizes relations between key landmarks in the place.Some maps come with the so-called geological maps, typically found above the base map. The regular map usually has light colors so it can be distinguished from the colorful geological map. Each color in the geological map stands for a specific geologic unit, a volume of a specific type of rock while the lines represent contacts (where a geological unit is found), faults and folds.You will most probably need a road map when you visit West Virginia for the first time. A road map shows roads, locations, directions and distances.

It is also referred to as a navigational map, which can be further classified into aeronautical maps, nautical maps, railroad maps and community maps.To be able to use a map, you must know how to read it. Take note that the scale refers to the ratio between a small length on a road map and the actual distance on the area being mapped. Scale can be expressed in different ways.

In most road maps, a scale is expressed through a graphic or bar scale, a line that is subdivided to depict the specific area.If you want to know the distance between two counties in West Virginia?for example, Wheeling and Charleston?you can use a ruler to mark the distance between the two counties and position the ruler along the graphic scale to determine the distance.A West Virginia map, however, may not give you all the details you need if you are looking for a specific location in a county or a city.

You can use a county map or a city map that specifically shows streets, roads, highways, buildings, schools, universities, hospitals, waterways, bridges, historical and recreational places, hotels and other places of interest.

By: Damian Sofsian