Learn More About International Law in Orlando, West Virginia

During the Civil War the area of Oil Creek and Clover Fork was entirely Confederate. Young men joined the Confederate Army, other residents supported the Confederate cause in less official ways. By the late 1800s several farming communities had developed in the Oil Creek watershed, including Blake, Peterson, Posey Run and others. The community that would become Orlando was named Confluence, as it was located at the confluence of two major tributaries, Three Lick and Clover Fork, with Oil Creek. These little communities in Oil Creek’s watershed tended to include a one room school, one or two churches, and perhaps a general store, blacksmith and/or grist mill. In the late 1800s the Coal and Coke and then the Baltimore and Ohio railroad lines were built and they crossed near the community of Confluence. The community of Confluence became a sizable and prosperous town. In 1917 Confluence’s name was changed to Orlando for reasons that remain unclear. The town of Orlando flourished in the early 1900s, until train routes changed. From the early 1800s until the mid 1900s, most of the land was devoted to family farming and farming for profit. Major industries have included lumbering, livestock, natural gas and oil production, railroad maintenance and hospitality.