Residents choose a 'Wild, Wonderful' welcome sign

CHARLESTON -- Tabulation of the results from the final round of voting for West Virginia's official roadway welcome sign was completed this morning and 57.5 percent of the nearly 49,000 West Virginians who voted said they want the state to be known as "Wild, Wonderful," the governor announced on Oct. 31.

"Wild, Wonderful," which was on West Virginia's Interstate highway welcome signs from 1975 until 1991, is the clear winner with 28,046 votes, followed by "Almost Heaven," with 17,591 votes and "The Mountain State" with 3,120.

Residents cast 41,284 votes using the state's online voting system, while 7,473 voted by telephone. In total, since the slogan contest was announced Sept. 5, more than 110,000 votes were cast by West Virginians.

"I'm delighted we had such a large number of West Virginians who took the opportunity to choose their favorite slogan," Manchin said. "I truly want to thank everyone for their participation and for the creative suggestions many provided during the first round of voting. We had a lot of worthy entries, but it is clear that West Virginians love to call this state 'Wild, Wonderful.'"

The governor now will take the results to the Legislature in January and ask that the members codify the people's selection so that they can be assured their wishes will be consistently followed.

"I look forward to working with the Legislature to make this slogan our official welcome," he said.