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PARKERSBURG - Local historians, happy with the creation of a Civil War sesquicentennial commission, are disappointed at the exclusion of the Mid-Ohio Valley from the roster.

Gov. Joe Manchin recently named a 13-member West Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission. No appointees are from Wood County, a fact not sitting well with local historians who point to the area's influence in the creation of the state. The nearest is from Glenville.

"I have been promoting this area and it is unfortunate we get left out," said local historian Dave McKain, director of the Oil and Gas Museum in Parkersburg. "The story is here."

McKain and fellow historian Jim Miracle, head of the Wood County Landmarks Commission, cite several historical figures from here who had roles in the formation of the state. Peter Van Winkle, Arthur Boreman, William Stevenson, Jacob Blair and John Moss, all Wood County residents, played monumental parts in the development and early years of West Virginia, McKain said.

"Wood County and this area played a major role in the Civil War with the railroad, and the resources and the politics," McKain said. "It was this area that helped put the state together during the Civil War. It has only been the last couple of years people started paying attention to Parkersburg in the Civil War."

Members of the commission are: Peter Carmichael, Ph.D., Morgantown, Eberly Professor of Civil War Studies at West Virginia University; Sheila Coleman-Castells of Eglon, president and chief executive officer of Sangha Consulting Inc. and a lecturer at Frostburg State University; Arthur E. DeMatteo, Ph.D., Glenville, assistant professor of history in the Glenville State College Department of Social Sciences; Connie Park Rice, Ph.D., Morgantown, a lecturer in the Department of History at West Virginia University and assistant editor of West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies; Mark Snell, Ph.D., Shepherdstown, a professor of history at Shepherd University; Victor Thacker, Ph.D., Elkins, provost and dean of faculty at Davis and Elkins College; Beth White of Dunbar, a published Civil War historian and lecturer on Civil War era subjects; and Richard Wolfe of Bridgeport, president of the Rich Mountain Battlefield Foundation.

Members of the commission who represent the state are Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley; Betty Carver, commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Tourism; Kay Goodwin, secretary of Education and the Arts; and Randall Reid-Smith, commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.

Manchin will also name a representative from the House of Delegates.

Miracle said it was difficult to argue with the governor's selections, but someone from the area would have been nice.

"They are well educated and I have heard a lot of the names in history circles," he said. "These are very esteemed folks, but I'd like to see some local historians.

"I would have liked to have somebody from here on it," Miracle said. "It seems liked they picked their people and that was it."

The commission will plan and promote state activities for observances of the 150th anniversaries of John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry on Oct. 16 and the Civil War and West Virginia statehood, which will be celebrated statewide in 2013 with a special event at West Virginia Independence Hall in Wheeling.

"A lot of the attention for the Civil War over the years has been where the big battles are, at Rich Mountain and Harpers Ferry and that part of the state, and we have always been left out, and I have been trying to get that corrected," McKain said

Miracle maintains Parkersburg was a significant rail depot and staging point.

Despite the lack of Mid-Ohio Valley representation, McKain said the positive aspect is West Virginia was putting together a celebration.

"I am tickled to death they are doing something," McKain said. "There are a couple of guys really pushing this and it is good for the state."