Tygart Valley River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tygart Valley River | |
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 The Tygart Valley River in Belington
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| Country | United States |
| State | West Virginia |
| Length | 160 mi (257 km) [1] |
| Watershed | 1,329 mi² (3,442 km²) [2] |
| Discharge | Philippi |
| - average | 1,990 ft³/s (56 m³/s) (2005)[3] |
| Discharge elsewhere | |
| - near Dailey | 366.3 ft³/s (10 m³/s) (2005)[4] |
| Source | Allegheny Mountains |
| - location | Pocahontas County |
| - coordinates | [1] |
| - elevation | 4,540 ft (1,384 m) [5] |
| Mouth | Monongahela River |
| - location | Fairmont |
| - coordinates | [1] |
| - elevation | 863 ft (263 m) [1] |
 Map of the Monongahela River basin, with the Tygart Valley River highlighted
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The Tygart Valley River is a principal tributary of the Monongahela River, approximately 160 mi (257 km) long, in east-central West Virginia in the United States. Via the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 1,329 miles² (3,442 km²) in the Allegheny Mountains and on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau.
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[edit] Course
The Tygart Valley River rises in the Allegheny Mountains in Pocahontas County and flows generally north-northwestwardly through Randolph, Barbour, Taylor and Marion Counties, past the towns of Huttonsville, Mill Creek, Beverly, Elkins, Junior, Belington, Philippi, Arden, and Grafton to Fairmont, where it joins the West Fork River to form the Monongahela River.[6]
Downstream of Elkins, the Tygart Valley River passes through a gap between Rich Mountain and Laurel Mountain, which are considered to be part of the westernmost ridge of the Allegheny Mountains and the boundary between the Alleghenies and the Allegheny Plateau.[2][7] The river collects its two largest tributaries, the Buckhannon River and the Middle Fork River, in Barbour County between Belington and Philippi. Upstream of Grafton, the river was impounded by a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dam in 1938 to form Tygart Lake.[8] Valley Falls State Park is along the river between Grafton and Fairmont.[6][9]
[edit] History
The Tygart Valley was first settled by Europeans in 1753 when David Tygart (for whom the valley and river are named) and Robert Files (or Foyle) located (separately) with their families in the vicinity of present-day Beverly. Although there had been no recent history of conflicts between whites and Indians in that immediate area, that summer a party of Indians traveling the Shawnee Trail discovered the Files cabin and killed seven members of the family. One son escaped and alerted the Tygart family, allowing all to escape. No other white settlement was attempted in present Randolph County until 1772. (It has been thought that Tygart was among those settling then, but this is not certain).[10]
[edit] Variant names and spellings
The United States Board on Geographic Names settled on Tygart River as the stream's name in 1902, and changed it to "Tygart Valley River" in 1950. According to the Geographic Names Information System, the Tygart Valley River has also been known historically as:[1]
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[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Geographic Names Information System. Geographic Names Information System entry for Tygart Valley River (Feature ID #1553309). Retrieved on March 12, 2007.
- ^ a b Rice, Donald L. (2006). "Tygart Valley River", in Ken Sullivan (ed.): The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Charleston, W.Va.: West Virginia Humanities Council, p. 721. ISBN 0-9778498-0-5.
- ^ United States Geological Survey. USGS Surface-Water Annual Statistics for the Nation: USGS 0305450 Tygart Valley River at Philippi, West Virginia. Retrieved on March 17, 2007.
- ^ United States Geological Survey. USGS Surface-Water Annual Statistics for the Nation: USGS 03050000 Tygart Valley River near Dailey, West Virginia. Retrieved on March 17, 2007.
- ^ Google Earth elevation for GNIS source coordinates. Retrieved on March 12, 2007.
- ^ a b (1997) West Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer. Yarmouth, Me.: DeLorme, pp. 25-26, 36-37, 47. ISBN 0-89933-246-3.
- ^ Adkins, Howard G. (2006). "Allegheny Mountains", in Ken Sullivan (ed.): The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Charleston, W.Va.: West Virginia Humanities Council, p. 10. ISBN 0-9778498-0-5.
- ^ United States Army Corps of Engineers. Tygart Lake. Retrieved on March 12, 2007.
- ^ Valley Falls State Park. Retrieved on March 12, 2007.
- ^ Maxwell, Hu (1899). The History of Barbour County, From its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time, The Acme Publishing Company, Morgantown, W.Va. (Reprinted, McClain Printing Company, Parsons, W.Va., 1968), 180-181.
