Del. Ward’s state amphibian.

I see that Del. Jeion Ward has introduced HB 156: Shenandoah Mountain Salamander; designating as official state amphibian, a bill that does precisely what you’d think it would. This would join Del. Jackie Stump’s bill that designated the Virginia Big-eared bat as the Virginia state bat earlier this year and the 1998 Albo vs. Grayson battle that pitted the snake-lover against the turtle-lover, respectively, in an effort to name the state reptile. (It ended in a stalemate.)

For the record, here’s our official state whatevers:

• Amphibian – Shenandoah Mountain Salamander (Plethodon Virginia).
• Artisan Center – “Virginia Artisans Center,” located in the City of Waynesboro.
• Bat – Virginia Big-eared bat (Corynorhinos townsendii virginianus).
• Beverage – Milk.
• Blue Ridge Folklore State Center – Blue Ridge Institute located in the village of Ferrum.
• Boat – “Chesapeake Bay Deadrise.”
• Dog – American Foxhound.
• Emergency medical services museum – “To The Rescue,” located in the City of Roanoke.
• Fleet – Replicas of the three ships, Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, which comprised the Commonwealth’s founding fleet that brought the first permanent English settlers to Jamestown in 1607, and which are exhibited at the Jamestown Settlement in Williamsburg.
• Flower – American Dogwood (Cornus florida).
• Folk dance – Square dancing, the American folk dance that traces its ancestry to the English Country Dance and the French Ballroom Dance, and is called, cued, or prompted to the dancers, and includes squares, rounds, clogging, contra, line, the Virginia Reel, and heritage dances.
• Fossil – Chesapecten jeffersonius.
• Gold mining interpretive center – Monroe Park, located in the County of Fauquier.
• Insect – Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio glaucus Linne).
• Motor sports museum – “Wood Brothers Racing Museum and Virginia Motor Sports Hall of Fame,” located in Patrick County.
• Outdoor drama – “The Trail of the Lonesome Pine Outdoor Drama,” adapted for the stage by Clara Lou Kelly and performed in the Town of Big Stone Gap.
• Outdoor drama, historical – “The Long Way Home” based on the life of Mary Draper Ingles, adapted for the stage by Earl Hobson Smith, and performed in the City of Radford.
• Shell – Oyster shell (Crassostrea virginica).
• Song emeritus – “Carry Me Back to Old Virginia,” by James A. Bland, as set out in the House Joint Resolution 10, adopted by the General Assembly of Virginia at the Session of 1940.
• Sports hall of fame – “Virginia Sports Hall of Fame,” located in the City of Portsmouth.
• War memorial museum – “Virginia War Museum,” (formerly known as the War Memorial Museum of Virginia), located in the City of Newport News.

I want to be the official state blogger.

11:05pm Update: Kenton’s got a picture of one of the little guys. He’s cute, in a slimy sort of a way. The salamander, I mean.