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31-543: It is formed at the town of Gauley Bridge in northwestern Fayette County , approximately 35 mi (56 km) SE of Charleston , by the confluence of the New and Gauley rivers 2 mi upstream from Kanawha Falls . The waterfall is 24 ft high and has been a barrier to fish movement for more than 1 million years. The river flows generally northwest, in a winding course on the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau , through Fayette, Kanawha , Putnam , and Mason counties, past

62-579: A major geological section of the Appalachian Highlands physiographic region of the United States called a physiographic region. A physiographic region is a large portion of land that is grouped by several factors. Each region has similar geology, topography, and groups of plants and animals. There are eight physiographic divisions in the 48 contiguous United States. Each division is divided into provinces, there are 25 provinces in

93-600: Is a town in Fayette County , West Virginia , United States. The population was 614 at the 2010 census . The Kanawha River is formed at Gauley Bridge by the confluence of the New and Gauley Rivers. Two miles to the southwest of Gauley Bridge, in Glen Ferris , is Kanawha Falls , a popular stopping point on Midland Trail Scenic Highway . The community was named after a bridge over the Gauley River near

124-481: Is land and 0.05 square miles (0.13 km ) is water. As of the census of 2010, there were 614 people, 279 households, and 159 families living in the town. The population density was 388.6 inhabitants per square mile (150.0/km ). There were 361 housing units at an average density of 228.5 per square mile (88.2/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 98.9% White , 0.3% Native American , and 0.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.5% of

155-618: The Adena culture beginning the construction of numerous skilled earthwork mounds and enclosures more than 2000 years ago. Some of the villages of the Fort Ancient culture survived into the times of European contact. The area was a place of competition among historical American Indian nations. Invading from their base in present-day New York , the Iroquois drove out or conquered Fort Ancient culture peoples, as well as such tribes as

186-582: The Adena culture built at least 50 earthwork mounds and 10 enclosures in the area between Charleston and Dunbar , as identified by an 1882 to 1884 survey by the Bureau of Ethnology (later part of the Smithsonian Institution ). Three of their mounds survive in the valley, including Criel Mound at present-day South Charleston, West Virginia . Evidence has been found of the Fort Ancient culture peoples, who had villages that survived to

217-779: The Elk River , at St. Albans by the Coal River , and at Poca by the Pocatalico River . Major impoundments in the Kanawha River watershed include Claytor Lake and Bluestone Lake on the New River, Summersville Lake on the Gauley River, and Sutton Lake on the Elk River. Collectively, they have a capacity of 14 percent of the average annual flow at Charleston. The reservoirs on New and Gauley Rivers reduced

248-523: The Huron and Conoy . By right of conquest, the Iroquois, Lenape (Delaware), and Shawnee reserved the area as a hunting ground. They resisted European-American settlement during the colonial years. Eventually the settlers took over by right of conquest . The watershed contains significant deposits of coal and natural gas . As of 1998, about 7 percent of the coal mined in the United States came from

279-918: The Canawagh..." This area is the lower area of today's St. Albans, West Virginia . After the Treaty of Fort Stanwix , "The Kanawhas had gone from the upper tributaries of the river which bears their name, to join their kinsmen, the Iroquois in New York; the Shawnee had abandoned the Indian Old Fields of the valley of the South Branch of the Potomac; the Delaware were gone from the Monongahela;

310-807: The Cherokee who claimed all the region between the Great Kanawha and Big Sandy, had never occupied it." quoting Virgil A. Lewis (1887), corresponding member of the Virginia Historical Society. The river's name changes to the Kanawha River at the Kanawha Falls . The Treaty of Big Tree between the Seneca nation and the United States established ten reservations. This formal treaty was signed on September 15, 1797. Lewis

341-445: The Kanawha River watershed. A thriving chemical industry along the river banks provides a significant part of the local economy. In colonial times, the wildly fluctuating level of the river prevented its use for transportation. The removal of boulders and snags on the lower river in the 1840s allowed navigation, which was extended upriver by the construction of locks and dams by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers starting in 1875. By 1898

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372-640: The United States , published in 1916. The map was updated and republished by the Association of American Geographers in 1928. The map was adopted by the United States Geological Survey by publication in 1946. The classification hierarchy used in the 1916 publication of the American Association of Geographers was division/province/section/subsection. The use of province in this hierarchy undoubtedly confounded

403-469: The United States. Each province is then divided into sections, creating 85 different physiographic sections in the United States. The Kanawha section is one of those 85 sections. The Kanawha section encompasses areas of Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio. The two major cities in the section are Pittsburgh, PA and Charleston, WV. "Ka(ih)nawha" derives from the region's Iroquoian dialects meaning "water way" or "canoe way" implying

434-421: The age of 18 living with them, 42.8% were married couples living together, 15.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.9% were non-families. 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.80. In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.6% under

465-461: The age of 18, 11.7% from 18 to 24, 26.3% from 25 to 44, 23.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.0 males. The median income for a household in the town was $ 22,500, and the median income for a family was $ 25,987. Males had a median income of $ 26,250 versus $ 19,688 for females. The per capita income for

496-610: The area. The first white person to travel through Virginia all the way to the Ohio River (other than as a prisoner of the Indians) was Matthew Arbuckle, Sr. , who traversed the length of the Kanawha River valley arriving at (what would later be called) Point Pleasant around 1764. In April 1774, Captain Hanson was one of an expedition: "18th. We surveyed 2,000 acres (8.1 km) of Land for Col. Washington, bordered by Coal River &

527-521: The cities of Charleston and St. Albans , and numerous smaller communities. It joins the Ohio at Point Pleasant . An environmental overview and summary of natural and human factors affecting water quality in the watershed was published in 2000. Paleo-Indians , the earliest indigenous peoples , lived in the valley and the heights by 10,000 BC as evidenced by archaeological artifacts such as Clovis points . A succession of prehistoric cultures developed, with

558-585: The effort to develop a physiographical map consistent across the North American continent since Canada used province as the term for its first-level political subdivision. Province in Canada is a loose analogy for state in the US, and obviously would create great confusion if the same word was used in two vastly different geographical classifications. As late as 1914, the terminology used by an AAG publication used

589-433: The estimated 100-year flood discharge under 20th-century climate by about half at Kanawha Falls. Kanawha Falls is the upstream limit of several fish species that broadly inhabit the Ohio River watershed. Above the waterfall, the watershed has fewer fish species overall, a relatively high number of species found nowhere else in the world, and nearly as many non-native species as natives. The Kanawha River lends its name to

620-411: The metaphor, "transport way", in the local language. The glottal consonant of the "ih" (stream or river, local Iroquois) dropped out as settlers and homesteaders arrived. Some say that it comes from a Shawnee word that means "new water" or that its a Catawba word meaning "friendly brother". The river has also had historical alternate names, alternate spellings and misspellings including Wood's River for

651-609: The original town site. Gauley Bridge was close to the site of the Hawk's Nest incident , in which hundreds of people died in the 1920s and 1930s. Gauley Bridge is located at 38°10′04″N 81°11′49″W  /  38.167815°N 81.197079°W  / 38.167815; -81.197079 (38.167815, -81.197079). According to the United States Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 1.63 square miles (4.22 km ), of which 1.58 square miles (4.09 km )

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682-440: The population. There were 279 households, of which 23.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 34.8% were married couples living together, 16.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 43.0% were non-families. 37.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size

713-632: The project made the Kanawha the first fully controlled river navigation system in America. The river is now navigable for barge traffic to Deepwater , an unincorporated community about 20 miles (32 km) upriver from Charleston. Multiple West Virginia state record fish were caught along the Bluestone Lake. In addition to the New and Gauley River headwaters, the Kanawha is joined at Charleston by

744-524: The time of European contact, such as Buffalo and Marmet . They were driven out by Iroquois from present-day New York . According to French missionary reports, by the late 16th century, several thousand Huron , originally of the Great Lakes region, lived in central West Virginia. They were partially exterminated and their remnant driven out in the 17th century by the Iroquois ' invading from western present-day New York. Other accounts note that

775-709: The town was $ 11,820. About 26.7% of families and 33.4% of the population were below the poverty line , including 49.7% of those under age 18 and 24.7% of those age 65 or over. U.S. Route 60 , WV 16 , and WV 39 all intersect in Downtown Gauley Bridge. Physiographic regions of the United States The physiographic regions of the contiguous United States comprise 8 divisions, 25 provinces, and 85 sections. The system dates to Nevin Fenneman 's report Physiographic Divisions of

806-441: The town. The population density was 458.6 inhabitants per square mile (177.0/km ). There were 374 housing units at an average density of 232.4 per square mile (89.7/km ). The racial makeup of the town was 97.43% White , 0.68% African American , 0.68% from other races , and 1.22% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.36% of the population. There were 325 households, out of which 28.0% had children under

837-660: The tribe known as Conois , Conoy, Canawesee , or Kanawha were conquered or driven out by the large Seneca tribe, one of the Iroquois Confederacy , as the Seneca boasted to Virginia colonial officials in 1744. The Iroquois and other tribes, such as the Shawnee and Delaware , maintained central West Virginia as a hunting ground. It was essentially unpopulated when the English and Europeans began to move into

868-430: The tributary known today as the New River, for Colonel Abraham Wood , an English explorer from Virginia, the first European known to have explored the river in the mid-17th century. Archaeological artifacts, such as Clovis points and later projectiles, indicate prehistoric indigenous peoples living in the area from the 12,500 BC era. Peoples of later cultures continued to live along the valley and heights. Those of

899-763: The west side of the Chesapeake Bay and below the Potomac River . They were also known to the colonists there as the Piscataway . They later migrated north to Pennsylvania , to submit and seek protection with the Susquehannock and Iroquois. The spelling of the Indian tribe varied at the time, from Conoys to Conois to Kanawha . The latter spelling was used and has gained acceptance over time. Gauley Bridge, West Virginia Gauley Bridge

930-428: Was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.87. The median age in the town was 43.5 years. 19.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 8.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 24.9% were from 25 to 44; 30% were from 45 to 64; and 17.3% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the town was 48.4% male and 51.6% female. As of the census of 2000, there were 738 people, 325 households, and 205 families living in

961-630: Was granted a large tract of land near the mouth of the Great Kanawha River in the late 18th century. The Little Kanawha and the Great Kanawha rivers, the two largest in the state, were named for the American Indian tribe that lived in the area prior to European settlement in the 18th century. Under pressure from the Iroquois, most of the Conoy/Kanawha had migrated to present-day Virginia by 1634, where they had settled on

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