The northern panhandle is one of the two panhandles in the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is a culturally and geographically distinct region of the state. It is the state's northernmost extension, bounded by Ohio and the Ohio River on the north and west and the state of Pennsylvania on the east. Its unusual configuration is the result of the Revolutionary-era claims of Virginia's former Yohogania County boundary lying along the Ohio River, conflicting with interpretations of the Colony of Pennsylvania's royal charter. The conflict was settled by compromise in the 1780s.