New River Ends in Gauley Bridge West Virginia

The newly formed South Fork of the New River at the Greenway Park in Boone

March 2013

All photos and illustrations by Pat Johns ©2013 - present
All Rights Reserved
See links to article references at the end of the article.

What determines where a river starts or ends?

It can be a little arbitrary on both ends, but a river usually begins with a trickle and ends with a whoosh into another body of water where its original name is left behind, along the way gathering up creeks and smaller rivers who give up their identities to the larger body of water.

Watauga County gives birth to two rivers. The Watauga River starts on or near Grandfather Mountain and heads west across to Tennessee into Watauga Lake and out again 20 more miles where its name is lost in Boone Lake.

The New River is 320 miles long and is a part of the Ohio River Watershed. It gets two starts in Watauga County. The South Fork starts between Blowing Rock and Boone. The North Fork starts on Elk Knob. They join in Ashe County and flow north into Virginia. Many geologists believe that the unusual northern flow of the river means that the river is older than the Appalachian mountains it flows through. The mountains shot up around the river. Many called it the second or third oldest river on the planet.

A gentle start

New River in Gauley Bridge West Virginia

The New River gets a gentle, protected start in North Carolina. In 1965, The Appalachian Power Company sought approval to dam the river in North Carolina to build water storage reservoirs. Public disapproval built over time and, in 1975, the NC General Assembly declared the 26.5-mile stretch of the river from Dog Creek to the Virginia state line a State Scenic River. A few months later, the Secretary of the Interior designated the same portion of the river as a part of the National Wild and Scenic River System.

The New River State Park today covers 2,200 acres and has facilities for camping, hiking, canoeing and fishing. According to the Blue Ridge Heritage Area website (see link below):

"Its placid, slow-flowing waters wind through bucolic farmlands, past both grassy meadows and rugged hillsides. Its banks are covered with wildflowers in season, and good trout and bass fishing can be had from both boat and bank.

"Designated a National Scenic River in 1976, this gentle river is perhaps best enjoyed by canoe. Three river access areas offer ideal campsites and opportunities for picnicking and fishing.

"Traveling by car along the narrow, winding roads in the New River area, visitors may feel as if they have been transported into a bygone era as they pass small farms, churches, and country stores."

The river's path gets bumpier as it approaches the Virginia/West Virginia border. It is impounded in Summers County West VA into Bluestone Lake, a flood control reservoir that can grow to over 36 miles long when "full."

From this location, all the way to its end, the New River flows through the New River Gorge National River park, 70,000 acres of park along 53 miles.

But further north in Fayette County the final ride of the New River gets wild and convoluted. It first passes under the famous New River Gorge Bridge, famous because every year hundreds of adventurers jump off the bridge, almost 900 feet above the New River, in the annual Bridge Day ® which celebrates the opening of the bridge in 1977. Over 800 made the jump in 2012. The event, famous for bungee jumping, no longer allows bungee jumping since an accident in 1993. They have moved on to BASE jumping. See a video of Bridge Day ® at right. According to their website (see link below):

"BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span, and Earth. BASE jumpers leap from any and all of these four fixed objects with parachutes designed specifically for rapid deployment. Known around the world as the most extreme of extreme sports, BASE jumpers look forward to Bridge Day ® every year."

The Hawks Nest Disaster

Just past Hawks Nest, the New River rushes down toward the town of Gauley Bridge.

In 1927, the State of West Virginia allowed a project which would provide more power to the Union Carbide silicon alloys plant in Alloy, just below Gauley Bridge. Workers employed by contractor Rinehart & Dennis began building a 3-mile re-routing of the river through the solid rock of Gauley Mountain. Workers found silica mineral deposits while carving out the tunnel and were asked to add silica mining to their work. Silica was used in electroprocessing steel.

The workers were not given masks to use during this work and it has been documented that visiting executives did wear masks. Many of these men developed a lung disease, silicosis, from their prolonged, unprotected exposure to silica dust. Many died, some within a year of exposure. Many of the workers had come up from the South for the work. Most were Black migrant workers. There is not even an approximate death toll from this disease because many men left for home when they became ill.

Hawks Nest State Park near the beginning of the Hawks Nest Tunnel

New River Winery in Lansing NC near Boone NC

According to the National Park Service website (see link below):

"The men hired to construct the tunnel were migrant workers desperately traveling Depression Era America in search of employment. The majority of the Hawks Nest workers were African-Americans.

"Since the drilling of the tunnel was not technically a mining operation, there were no underground safety regulations in place. The men were working in confined spaces with no ventilation, dust control, or dust masks. Quickly they fell victim to silicosis, the deadly accumulation of silica particles in the lungs. The men were unable to tolerate these conditions for more than a couple of months before they fell ill and had to be replaced.

"The mystery of the Hawks Nest tragedy is the uncertainty of its final results. The companies involved never acknowledged responsibility, or provided information to help account for the total number of people who died or were disabled by the tunnels construction. The estimates for deaths from this tragedy range from 700 to 2000, with several thousand more sick and disabled. "

Gauley Bridge makes use of the waters passing through with this hydroelectric power plant.

Rush to the End

When the New River emerges from the Hawks Nest Tunnel, it roars down Gauley Mountain to the town of Gauley Bridge where it has become a wide river unrecognizable from its beginnings in Watauga County.

At Gauley Bridge, the New meets with the Gauley River to form the Kanahwa which moves forward to join into the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The place where the New and Gauley form the Kanawha is called the Gauneka, a combining of their names.

The town of Gauley Bridge has just over 700 residents but they are joined every year by many visitors who take time out just to see the remarkable confluence of these waters in this beautiful mountain setting, a view with a special meaning to those of us in Watauga County who walk past the New River's beginnings at The Greenway in Boone or the New River State Park in Ashe County.

Out With the New: Our New River ends in Gauley Bridge West VA

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