Tygart Valley River
Tygart Valley River | |
---|---|
Pocahontas County, WV | |
• coordinates | 38°28′06″N 79°58′51″W / 38.46833°N 79.98083°W[1] |
• elevation | 4,540 ft (1,380 m)[2] |
Fairmont, WV | |
• coordinates | 39°27′54″N 80°09′11″W / 39.46500°N 80.15306°W[1] |
• elevation | 863 ft (263 m)[1] |
Length | 135 mi (217 km)[3] |
Basin size | 1,329 sq mi (3,440 km2)[4] |
Discharge | |
• location | mouth |
• average | 2,855.07 cu ft/s (80.847 m3/s) (estimate)[5] |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Middle Fork River, Buckhannon River |
• right | Conley Run |
The Tygart Valley River — also known as the Tygart River — is a principal
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] (The Tygart is thus the "East Fork" of the Monongahela.) Downstream of Elkins, the Tygart 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.[4][7]
Along its course the river collects
Discharge
At its mouth, the river has an estimated mean annual flow volume of 2,855 cubic feet per second (80.8 m3/s).
At an upstream gauge near the community of Dailey in Randolph County, the annual mean flow of the river between 1915 and 2005 was 358 ft3/s (10 m3/s). The highest recorded flow during the period was 19,900 ft3/s (564 m3/s) on May 17, 1996. Readings of zero were recorded for several months during autumn of the years 1930 and 1953.[10]
History
The Tygart Valley was first settled by
The brothers John and Samuel Pringle, who had taken up residence along the
Several minor actions occurred in the Valley during the
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]
|
|
|
See also
References
Citations
- ^ a b c d Geographic Names Information System. "Geographic Names Information System entry for Tygart Valley River (Feature ID #1553309)". Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- GNISsource coordinates. Retrieved on March 12, 2007.
- ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed August 15, 2011
- ^ ISBN 0-9778498-0-5.
- ^ a b United States Environmental Protection Agency. "Watershed Report: Tygart Valley River". watersgeo.epa.gov. Archived from the original on 2021-07-03. Retrieved 2021-07-03.
- ^ ISBN 0-89933-246-3.
- ISBN 0-9778498-0-5.
- ^ United States Army Corps of Engineers. "Tygart Lake". Archived from the original on 2011-05-17. Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- ^ "Valley Falls State Park". Retrieved 2007-03-12.
- ^ a b Ward, S. M.; G. R. Crosby. "Water Resources Data, West Virginia, Water Year 2005". United States Geological Survey. pp. Monongahela River Basin. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
- ^ 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). pp. 180–181.
- ^ Rice, Otis K. and Stephen W. Brown (1993). West Virginia, A History, 2nd Edition, The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. p. 29.
- ISBN 0-87012-703-9.
Further reading
- Hamilton, Carolyn Fortney (2004). West Virginia's Lower Tygart Valley River: People and Places. ISBN 978-0-929915-32-6.