Mingo Island no longer exists.  But, in 1774 it was situated close to the Virginia shore near today’s Follansbee.  The island of about 20 acres contained large maple trees on high ground.  Most of the timber was washed away by a great flood in 1832 that reduced the island to half its earlier size. Afterward, the island was covered with scrap willow and slowly eroded away finally disappearing around 1918.  Indians used Mingo Island to fire upon settlers along the Virginia shore.  According to local folk lore, a large rock, known as the “Indian rock” on the hill above Highland Avenue (later known as Banfi Hill) at the corner of State Street, was once used by settlers to shoot Indians across the river and on Mingo Island.

• Mario Cipriani, Oral Interview, Follansbee, WV, January 2011.