New River Gorge National Park and Preserve United States

Legendary

A scenic, deep river gorge carved in the Appalachian Mountains.

Photo by Mike Goad

The New River is one of the oldest rivers on Earth. Nobody agrees on exactly how old, but it was already flowing before the Appalachian Mountains finished rising around it.

That's why it runs north when most rivers nearby run south. The mountains grew up around the river, and the river just kept cutting.

Over millions of years it carved a gorge nearly 1,000 feet deep through southern West Virginia. In doing so, it sliced through layers of rock and exposed thick seams of coal along the canyon walls.

For a long time nobody could reach it. Then in 1873 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway finished a line through the gorge, and the rush began.

More than 50 mining towns sprang up along the river. Places like Thurmond, Nuttallburg, and Kaymoor had schools, stores, and rows of company houses packed onto the steep slopes.

The coal from this gorge was famous for burning with almost no smoke. Henry Ford leased the mines at Nuttallburg in 1920 to fuel his car factories.

By the middle of the 1900s the mines were closing. Forests grew back over the towns, and the gorge went quiet.

In 1976 a bridge opened across it, 876 feet above the water and 3,030 feet long. It cut a 40-minute drive down to less than a minute.

On November 10, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a law making the area the New River Gorge National River. Then on December 27, 2020, Congress upgraded it to a national park and preserve.

The odd name is a compromise. About 7,000 acres are a national park where hunting is banned, wrapped inside 65,000 acres of preserve where it's allowed.

Walk the catwalk under the New River Gorge Bridge, or visit on the third Saturday in October for Bridge Day, when the road closes and parachutists jump off. Hike down to Nuttallburg to see the restored coal tipple and conveyor climbing the hillside. Ride the rapids on a rafting trip through the lower gorge.