Product Description
River Canvas Prints
River Canvas Prints
The Elk River is a tributary of the Kanawha River, 172 miles long, in central West Virginia in the United States. Via the Kanawha and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river located entirely within the borders of West Virginia.
The Elk is formed in the Allegheny Mountains in Pocahontas County by the confluence of two short streams, the Big Spring Fork and the Old Field Fork, which join near the community of Slatyfork. It flows above ground for several miles before it sinks into a network of caverns and flows underground for more than five miles. The old riverbed of solid rock, however, remains above ground in this section known as "The Dries." It follows a generally westward course across the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau, through Randolph, Webster, Braxton, Clay, and Kanawha Counties, past the towns of Webster Springs, Sutton, Gassaway, Clay, Clendenin, and Elkview before joining the Kanawha River at Charleston. The Elk's largest tributaries are the Holly River and the Birch River, both of which join it in Braxton County. The upper portion of the river, above Sutton Lake, is a popular cold water trout stream. The Elk River provided the water transportation route needed to float large rafts of logs and crossties, as well as large freight canoes, out of the forests of central and eastern West Virginia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Elk River serves as the source of water for 1500 miles of pipeline that carry its water to customers in central and southwestern West Virginia.
