21/03/2024
Kanawha Falls situated at the confluence of the Gauley and New Rivers in West Virginia marks the end of the long trek the New makes from a small spring in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, through the valleys of Virginia and the gorges of West Virginia. Just upstream from this fall the New meets the Gauley with barely a nod to the power of both.
Thomas Jefferson regarded the New and Kanawha Rivers as a single river, referring to it as "the Great Kanhaway" in his Notes on the State of Virginia, written in 1781, revised in 1782, in which he described the river as follows:
"The Great Kanhaway is a river of considerable note for the fertility of its lands, and still more, as leading towards the headwaters of James River. Nevertheless, it is doubtful whether it’s great and numerous rapids will admit a navigation, but at an expense to which it will require ages to render its inhabitants equal. The great obstacles begin at what are called the great falls, 90 miles above the mouth, below which are only five or six rapids, and these passable, with some difficulty, even at low water. From the falls to the mouth of Greenbriar is 100 miles and thence to the lead mines 120. It is 280 yards wide at its mouth."
Photo by American Byways
