city, St. Louis county, northeastern Minnesota, U.S. It lies in the Mesabi Range, about 60 miles (95 km) northwest of Duluth. Iron ore was discovered in 1890 by Leonidas Merritt at the site of the nearby city of Mountain Iron. Two years later ore was found at the site of Virginia, which was then laid out as a mining centre and named for the home state of an area lumberman. The city burned down in both 1893 and 1900 and was subsequently rebuilt. Lumbering soon became a major industry as well, with Virginia being the site of the world's largest white-pine mill from 1909 to 1929. In the early 1980s the mining industry suffered economic setbacks, but it remains the basis of the city's economy. Although hematite iron-ore reserves diminished, taconite is now mined. Virginia is also the area's retail hub, and tourism contributes to the local economy. The city is home to a community and technical college campus. A popular event is the Land of the Loon Ethnic Arts and Crafts Festival, which is held every June. The Mineview in the Sky Overlook offers views of the area's deepest open-pit mine. Superior National Forest is north and east of the city, and a large ski and golf resort is several miles east. Inc. village, 1892; city, 1895. Pop. (1990) 9,410; (2000) 9,157.

Virginia, flag ofconstituent state of the United States of America, one of the original 13 colonies. It is bordered by Maryland to the northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, North Carolina and Tennessee to the south, Kentucky to the west, and West Virginia to the northwest. The state capital is Richmond.

History and nature make Virginia a leading tourist centre. Within its borders lie many important historical monuments. They include colonial restorations and reconstructions, such as those at Williamsburg; the homes of Washington ( Mount Vernon), Jefferson ( Monticello), and other noted Virginians; and many of the battlefields of the American Revolution and Civil War. Although it is increasingly an industrialized and urbanized state, much of Virginia's land remains under forest cover as it descends from the mountains and valleys in the west to the beaches of the Atlantic shore. Area 40,600 square miles (105,154 square km). Pop. (2000) 7,078,515; (2006 est.) 7,642,884.

Western Virginia comprises three physiographically defined mountain provinces. From west to east, the first of these is the Appalachian Plateau, the smallest of the provinces, located in the southwestern tip of the state. The next two provinces run from northeast to southwest, generally paralleling the state's western boundary. The Valley and Ridge province consists of linear ridges in its western segment and the Great Appalachian Valley (also known as the Great Valley) in its eastern region. The Blue Ridge province is mostly a region of rugged mountains, part of a range stretching southwestward from Pennsylvania to South Carolina. The state's highest point, Mount Rogers (Rogers, Mount), at an elevation of 5,729 feet (1,746 metres), lies in the Blue Ridge area.

Forests of the Tidewater and Piedmont areas have mainly pine and some hardwood. Cover other than trees includes marsh grass in the Tidewater and broom sedge, crabgrass, wire grass, and cultivated crops elsewhere. The mountainous areas contain tracts of various coniferous species and hardwoods such as hickory and oak. Bluegrass and field crops generally cover nearby valleys. Wildflowers and berry bushes abound, depending on climate and soils.

At the time of European settlement of the Great Valley of Virginia in the early 18th century, large herds of native bison were prevalent along the banks of the Shenandoah River, but, as elsewhere, the bison populations were destroyed as settlers moved westward. Black bears still are found in Virginia's mountains and in the Great Dismal Swamp. Common fauna are rabbits, chipmunks, squirrels, opossums, muskrats, woodchucks, foxes, and deer. Less common are otters, beavers, mink, and wildcats. The main game birds are doves, quail, ducks, and geese; a few wild turkeys and woodcocks may be found. Scavengers include coastal seagulls and the ubiquitous turkey vulture. Predatory birds include a number of hawks, owls, and the golden and bald eagles. There are numerous songbirds, including the cardinal, the state bird. Poisonous reptiles include rattlesnakes, copperheads, and water moccasins. Game fish and smaller panfish abound in Virginia's inland waters and offshore. Chesapeake Bay is one of the world's richest marine-life estuaries, noted for finfish, blue crabs, oysters, and clams. Although some yearly commercial and sport fishing catches have suggested generally plentiful stocks, concerns have been raised about overfishing and the diminishing populations of some species.

For more than a century, the greatest growth has occurred in the urban corridor, an area that stretches south from Washington, D.C., through Arlington county and the city of Alexandria to Richmond before bending southeast to the Hampton Roads area, which comprises the towns of Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Portsmouth. This corridor is often classified as an extension of the great population mass, or megalopolis, arcing across the northeastern United States from Boston to Washington, D.C. Other metropolitan areas include the urban environs of Roanoke and Lynchburg, as well as those around the smaller cities of Danville, Bristol, and Charlottesville.

The U.S. Department of Defense not only is a major employer in Virginia but also conducts a significant amount of business through contracts with private firms within the state. Military facilities in Virginia, including the Defense Department's headquarters at the Pentagon building in Arlington county (Arlington), cover more than 400 square miles (1,000 square km). The numerous military installations throughout the state offer training, engineering, supply, and transportation services, and all have had a considerable effect on local economic conditions and employment. Among the most prominent military establishments are the transportation-training centre for the army at Fort Eustis and, at historic Fort Monroe, the headquarters of the Army Training and Doctrine Command and the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) Cadet Command. Naval activities are concentrated around the Norfolk naval base, the largest U.S. Navy (United States Navy, The) installation in the world. The U.S. Marine Corps (United States Marine Corps, The) facility at Quantico is a major development and education base. The U.S. Air Force (United States Air Force, The) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have major installations in the Hampton– Newport News area. The U.S. Coast Guard (United States Coast Guard) has a large facility near Yorktown, as do the U.S. Naval Weapons Station and the Naval Supply Center. Military intelligence training is conducted at Camp Peary Naval Reservation near Williamsburg, while the CIA, a civilian agency, is located in Langley.

Although the state's port facilities are among the busiest in the country, with the port of Hampton Roads a leading U.S. port in foreign tonnage, Virginia's major transportation facilities are roads, railroads, and airports. Most road traffic is north-south, adding to Virginia's status as a “bridge” state between the country's northeastern and southeastern regions. The striking 17.6-mile (28.3-km) Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel complex links Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore with Virginia Beach, east of Norfolk. Comprising a trestled roadway raised above the mouth of the bay and two tunnels (under the main shipping channels), it is one of the largest structures of its kind.

The present revision of the Commonwealth of Virginia's constitution of 1776 was adopted in 1970 and ratified the following year. In it the state retains the organization of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The only elected administrative officials are the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the attorney general; each serves a four-year term, and the governor is the only one who cannot serve consecutive terms. Virginia's General Assembly, a bicameral legislature, consists of a Senate of 33–40 members and a House of Delegates of 90–100 members. The Assembly meets annually in Richmond.

Virginians enjoy a lively cultural life, rooted largely in the state's colonial history and in its central role in the early development of the United States. Virginia has more than 100 historical societies and museums. Most notable is the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, which houses one of the most extensive collections of materials pertaining to colonial America and to the early republic; the society regularly exhibits segments of its holdings.

Millions of visitors annually are attracted to the state's historical sites as well. Foremost among these is Colonial Williamsburg, a living museum staffed by highly trained historical interpreters, who, dressed in period clothing, reenact various aspects of colonial life in and around the town's expertly restored 17th- and 18th-century buildings. Striking examples of colonial architecture also are found at such preserved homes as George Washington's Mount Vernon, near Washington, D.C., and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, near Charlottesville. Monticello and the nearby University of Virginia (Virginia, University of) are of particular interest to historians of art and architecture. Finally, monuments of the American Civil War abound in Virginia. In the northern part of the state, the battlefield known to Southerners as Manassas and to Northerners as Bull Run is particularly significant; notable in the south-central region is Appomattox Court House, the site of Gen. Robert E. Lee (Lee, Robert E.)'s surrender to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant (Grant, Ulysses S.) in 1865.

The original inhabitants of Virginia arrived some 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. These were people of Paleo-Indian culture, who, like their successors, the Archaic-culture (Archaic culture) people, lived mainly by hunting and fishing. From about 1000 BCE the Woodland culture (Woodland cultures) began to make pottery and to grow such crops as corn (maize), beans, and squash. The coastal areas of eastern Virginia supported a significant population of indigenous peoples who fished in the rivers and bays and hunted wild fowl. At the time of European settlement, in the early 17th century, various tribal groups lived in the area. However, the early English settlers dealt mostly with the Powhatan confederacy, an alliance of some 30 Algonquian (Algonquian languages)-speaking peoples of the Tidewater region, united under the powerful chief Powhatan.

The purposes of the representatives of the Virginia Company of London, who landed at present-day Jamestown (Jamestown Colony) in May 1607, were not only to colonize but also to Christianize, to open new areas for trade, and to guard against further inroads by the Spanish, who already had colonized what is now Florida. Hunger, poor shelter, hostility from the indigenous peoples, and rampant disease plagued the company's early years, but, while the settlement tottered constantly on the brink of dissolution, a tobacco industry was established by John Rolfe (Rolfe, John) and a representative assembly was convened. Rolfe's marriage in 1614 to Pocahontas, daughter of Powhatan, brought temporary peace between the indigenous populations and the English; however, after the death of Pocahontas and her father, a war broke out between the two groups. In 1624 the company's charter was revoked, and Virginia was established as England's first royal colony. In the following years new settlements were made, and local administrative systems were developed.

The governorship of Sir William Berkeley (Berkeley, Sir William)—begun in 1642, interrupted from 1652 to 1660 by Puritan (Puritanism) rule in England, and ended in 1677—marked the solidification of the colony. The many anti-Puritan supporters of Charles I who fled to Virginia after the king's death in 1649 added an important element to the population, much of which consisted of indentured servants of European or African descent. The first Africans had been taken to Virginia in 1619, but race-based slavery began to grow rapidly only after the 1660s. Soon the institution was protected by Virginia law, and the number of slaves in the colony rose steadily until the American Revolution (1775–83). (For a more detailed account of the nature of slavery in the colonies, see race: The history of the idea of race (race).)

In 1699 the colony's capital was moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg. The next several decades were a period of expansion as well as of internal strengthening. Virginia had the largest population of any American colony, and, as tobacco crops wore out the soil, Virginians began to move steadily westward in search of new land. Settlers from the Tidewater region spilled over into the Piedmont, across the Blue Ridge, and, by the 1740s, into the Ohio country beyond, there running afoul of French ambitions for that region. For decades the popularly elected assembly of colonial Virginia, the House of Burgesses (Burgesses, House of), led the way in opposing royal prerogatives in the colony, and, following England's prohibition of westward expansion in 1763, a concerted drive to rationalize rebellion began. On the eve of the American Revolution, Virginia had more than 120,000 residents, many of them persons of considerable sophistication and learning, and a stable—if narrowly based—economy.

Virginians were among the leaders of the American Revolution and of the events leading to it, including the convening of the First Continental Congress, a body of delegates to speak on behalf of the colonies, in 1774. It was at a convention in Virginia in 1775 that the legislator Patrick Henry (Henry, Patrick) uttered his famous words, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson, Thomas) was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, while George Washington (Washington, George) assumed command of the armies. It was at Yorktown that the British armies were forced to surrender to combined American and French forces on Oct. 19, 1781, which led to acknowledgement of the colonies' independence in the Treaty of Paris (part of the Peace of Paris (Paris, Peace of) collection of treaties) in 1783. In 1788 Virginia became the 10th state to ratify the Constitution (Constitution of the United States of America).

The state continued its national leadership in the following decades, furnishing four of the first five presidents of the United States, including Jefferson (1801–09) and James Madison (Madison, James) (1809–17). Another Virginian, John Marshall (Marshall, John), served as chief justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835 and was largely responsible for establishing an independent federal judiciary in the early republic.

Controversy over the movement to abolish slavery intensified in the mid-19th century, particularly after the election of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln, Abraham), an advocate of emancipation, to the presidency. The Southern states perceived an increasing threat to their agricultural livelihood, which was based on the institution of slavery; in 1861 Virginia followed 10 other Southern states in seceding from the Union to become the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy. Richmond became the capital of the Confederacy, and Virginia was the chief battleground during the ensuing war—the American Civil War—between the United States of the North (North, the) and the Confederate States of the South (South, the).

The Confederacy's Army of Virginia and the United States's Army of the Potomac engaged each other throughout the war. The most noteworthy encounters in Virginia included the battles of Bull Run (Bull Run, battles of) near Manassas in 1861 and 1862; the Seven Days' Battles near Richmond and the Battle of Fredericksburg (Fredericksburg, Battle of) in 1862; the Battle of Chancellorsville (Chancellorsville, Battle of) in 1863; and the Battle of the Wilderness (Wilderness, Battle of the) and the Petersburg Campaign in 1864–65. In April 1865 the Confederate commander Robert E. Lee (Lee, Robert E.) surrendered to the Union commander Ulysses S. Grant (Grant, Ulysses S.) at Appomattox Court House in southern Virginia to end the war. During the war the state lost one-third of its territory, the 50 counties west of the Allegheny Mountains, to the formation of a new antislavery state, West Virginia (1863).

In 1867 Congress placed the South under military rule, and the Republican Party became the dominant political influence for a brief period. Under Republican Reconstruction in Virginia, African American men were granted the right to vote, education was improved, and a commitment was made to supporting and rebuilding the railroads. Virginia was readmitted as a state of the Union in 1870.

Byrd remained in office until 1965, and, after his death the following year, his organization collapsed. By the late 1960s segregation had ended, schools were open to both black and white students, and African Americans were voting freely. In 1989 Virginia elected its first African American governor, Douglas Wilder (Wilder, Douglas). Meanwhile, Virginia also developed solid two-party competition, with the Democratic and Republican parties controlling the state legislature and the governorship at various times. The Republicans generally have won most of Virginia's congressional seats and at least one of the state's two seats in the U.S. Senate since the 1960s.

Introductions to the state are provided by Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Virginia, Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion (1940, reissued 1992), still worth consulting; and Jean Gottman, Virginia in Our Century (1969), a comprehensive analysis through 1968. DeLorme Mapping Company, Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer, 5th ed. (2003), contains topographic maps. Local geography and history are combined in Raus McDill Hanson, Virginia Place Names (1969); and James Hagemann, The Heritage of Virginia: The Story of Place Names in the Old Dominion, 2nd ed. (1988). Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia (1975, reissued 2003), analyzes the social basis of early Virginian political thought; while J. Harvie Wilkinson III, Harry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia Politics, 1945–1966 (1968, reissued 1984), recounts more-recent events. Ben C. McCary, Indians in Seventeenth-Century Virginia (1957, reprinted 1992), briefly discusses the groups of Native Americans, their numbers, and their cultures at that time.Louis D. Rubin, Jr., Virginia: A History (1977, reissued 1984), provides a survey of the state's development over two centuries. Various periods in the state's past are described in Richard L. Morton, Colonial Virginia, 2 vol. (1960); Warren M. Billings, John E. Selby, and Thad W. Tate, Colonial Virginia: A History (1986); Virginius Dabney, Virginia, the New Dominion (1971, reprinted 1992); Parke Rouse, Virginia: The English Heritage in America (1966), on the period before the Civil War, with a short epilogue that gives a contemporary assessment of the state; and A.W. Moger, Virginia: Bourbonism to Byrd, 1870–1925 (1968). Raymond Gavins, The Perils and Prospects of Southern Black Leadership: Gordon Blaine Hancock, 1884–1970, 1st paperback ed. (1993; originally published 1977), provides valuable background on race relations in Virginia in the first half of the 20th century. Robert A. Pratt, The Color of Their Skin: Education and Race in Richmond, Virginia, 1954–1989 (1992), is an excellent study of school desegregation in Virginia. Scholarly articles on Virginia's history are printed in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography (quarterly).Robert J. Norrell