WHEELING, W.Va. — The rich history of the Wheeling area will be the topic of discussion on an upcoming edition of C-SPAN’s Cities Tour. The tour has traveled across the country since 2011, but Wheeling is the first stop the tour has made in West Virginia.
“We plan to put together some highlights to capture Wheeling’s unique history that will air on C-SPAN 3 American History TV,” coordinating producer Debbie Lamb said Tuesday on MetroNews Talkline. “Some of its non-fiction literary life will air on C-SPAN’s Book TV.”
Lamb said they have the outline of the show narrowed to five segments.
“West Virginia Independence Hall and we’ll learn about Earl Oglebay, and the historic National Road and it’s impact in building Wheeling and its impact on westward expansion,” Lamb said. “We’ll also learn about Joseph McCarthy’s Lincoln Day speech and how it launched his career and a segment on he Palace of Gold and the history of the Hare-Krishna movement and why they came to West Virginia.”
The segments for C-SPAN Book TV will include interviews with several noted authors from the Wheeling area.
Lamb said the idea is to interview those who know the history best and let them tell the story.
“A lot of our segments are just having the interviewee narrate the story,” she said. “We take ourselves and our questions out of it. We don’t add any commentary, we enjoy hearing from the interviewee about what the story is all about and its significance.”
Lamb said the tour hits about 24 cities each year with three crews in the east and three in the west. She said she’s never been to a city where there was nothing to tell.
“Every city has a story to tell and Wheeling’s is important,” Lamb said.
The segments air on C-SPAN Jan. 17-18.