| Wirt County Journal | |
| Type: | Weekly newspaper |
| Founder: | Fred Haverty and George Roberts |
| Foundation: | 1908 |
| Headquarters: | 430 Court St, Elizabeth, WV 26143 |
| Circulation: | 2,094 |
| Circulation Date: | 2016 |
| Circulation Ref: | [1] |
The Wirt County Journal is a newspaper serving Elizabeth, West Virginia, and surrounding Wirt County.[2] Published weekly, it has a circulation of 2,094 and is owned by Little Kanawha Publishing Inc.[3]
Founded in 1908 as a Democratic paper by Fred Haverty and George Roberts,[4] [5] it was sold in 1917 to Ross Wilson and C. H. Snodgrass.[6] [7] Wilson, who at various times during his tenure as publisher was also a local teacher and school superintendent,[8] edited the journal for the next 28 years.
In 1914, a fire started by a gas explosion wiped out the newspaper's offices along with those of the Elizabeth Messenger, causing $50,000 worth of damage.[9]
Ross Wilson retired from the business in 1946, turning the paper over to his son, Woodrow "Woody" Wilson,[10] an Army Air Corps fighter pilot returning from World War II.[11] During Woody's tenure the paper acquired and merged with the Kanawha News.[10] By 1960, it was the only newspaper in Wirt County,[8] a fact made more salient by the county's lack of either a local radio or television station.[12]
Woody Wilson retired in 1983.[11]
The staff of the journal has served as local experts on the culture of Wirt County for the national press, particularly during the homecoming of Jessica Lynch,[13] a Wirt County native.