West Virginia conjures up many images: rugged mountains, rushing rivers - and soon, some lawmakers hope, a poisonous snake and a long-extinct sloth with ties to a former president.

Legislatures throughout the country annually consider adding to already-bulging lists of state symbols that confer official status on everything from dessert to folk dances. And while they may offer a lighthearted break from budget battles and other headaches, advocates say they can provide valuable lessons about the democratic process.

Proposals before the Legislature would add two symbols to the state's relatively modest list of 10. A class at Romney Middle School in Hampshire County has proposed naming the timber rattlesnake the state reptile, while another resolution would designate Megalonyx jeffersonii as the state fossil.

The latter is the remains of a giant prehistoric ground sloth discovered in Monroe County in the 18th century and later named after the third president.

Such bills are common, and politicians usually present them with a heavy dose of humor.

"A lot of people seem to think politicians are the state reptile," joked Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, who introduced the rattlesnake resolution in the Senate. "Hopefully this will change that perception."

Beneath the jokes, though, there's a good lesson for the students who propose the idea, backers say.

"They walk out of here with a real, practical understanding of how the process works," said Robert Wolford, whose eighth-grade students chose the rattlesnake by secret ballot from a field of amphibious nominees.

Introducing nonvoters to the electoral process was a driving force behind the growth of state symbols, which date to the 19th century, according to author Benjamin Shearer.

States had long used official seals, which were legally required for legislation and other acts of government. But legislatures began to branch out into naming official flowers, trees and other symbols as a way of involving children and women - who could not vote - in democracy.

Legislatures throughout the country annually consider adding to already-bulging lists of state symbols that confer official status on everything from dessert to folk dances. And while they may offer a lighthearted break from budget battles and other headaches, advocates say they can provide valuable lessons about the democratic process.

Proposals before the Legislature would add two symbols to the state's relatively modest list of 10. A class at Romney Middle School in Hampshire County has proposed naming the timber rattlesnake the state reptile, while another resolution would designate Megalonyx jeffersonii as the state fossil.

The latter is the remains of a giant prehistoric ground sloth discovered in Monroe County in the 18th century and later named after the third president.

Such bills are common, and politicians usually present them with a heavy dose of humor.

"A lot of people seem to think politicians are the state reptile," joked Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, who introduced the rattlesnake resolution in the Senate. "Hopefully this will change that perception."

Beneath the jokes, though, there's a good lesson for the students who propose the idea, backers say.

"They walk out of here with a real, practical understanding of how the process works," said Robert Wolford, whose eighth-grade students chose the rattlesnake by secret ballot from a field of amphibious nominees.

Introducing nonvoters to the electoral process was a driving force behind the growth of state symbols, which date to the 19th century, according to author Benjamin Shearer.

States had long used official seals, which were legally required for legislation and other acts of government. But legislatures began to branch out into naming official flowers, trees and other symbols as a way of involving children and women - who could not vote - in democracy.

Women's garden clubs at the end of the 19th century would make nominations for state flowers, said Shearer, who along with his wife, Barbara, has written three editions of "State Names, Seals, Flags and Symbols." Votes on symbols were held among schoolchildren in some states.

"The thinking was, this was an experience of democracy for people who couldn't vote," he said.

Since then, lawmakers have found other uses for the process. States choose symbols to brag about native farm products, entice tourists to visit or draw attention to an aspect of local history or culture.

Not that the process is always smooth. In Shearer's home state of Florida, lawmakers wrangled in 2006 over whether key lime pie or pecan pie should win the state's official designation. A marketing push by industry lobbies - what can only be called Big Pie - saw the nod go to key lime.

"A lot of legislatures nowadays think they should be talking about the economy or issues like that, so it's controversial in that regard," Shearer said.

Still, the new designations multiply. Between the second and third editions of the Shearers' book, a gap of about four years, they had to make roughly 450 changes.

West Virginia lawmakers have been restrained compared to their counterparts elsewhere. Like most states, West Virginia has a state flower, a state bird and a state animal. It doesn't have anything to match Georgia's state peanut monument (it's in Turner County), Massachusetts' state muffin (corn, thanks), or Texas' official epic poem ("The Legend of Old Stone Ranch," naturally).

Of course, the Mountain State may soon become the only one in the country to officially recognize the timber rattlesnake, which does not appear to be a particularly tourist-friendly animal.

But the snake has been unfairly tagged with a bad reputation, Division of Natural Resources Assistant Chief of Wildlife Management Paul Johansen said, noting the animals aren't aggressive and rarely bite humans. And besides, as the resolution notes, the rattler "kills mice and rats at no cost," which budget-conscious lawmakers can certainly respect.

"It reminds you that we are still a republic," Shearer says of such resolutions. "We tend to think, you know, McDonald's is everywhere and we're all the same, but when you look around you realize there really are some differences."