Gauley River National Recreation Area
The Gauley River National Recreation Area, located near Summersville, West Virginia, protects a 25 mile (40 kilometer) portion of the Gauley River and a 5.5 mile (8.8 kilometer) segment of the Meadow River in southern West Virginia. Little of the park is accessible via roads; one must travel via the river. At the upstream end of the park is the Summersville Dam, where upper Gauley river trips put in for their adventure. For the first time since the Gauley River NRA was established, the park now owns mid-river access where upper Gauley trips may take off the river and lower Gauley trips may put on. The river accesses recently acquired are the Masons Branch river access and the new Woods Ferry river access.
Whitewater Rafting
Thousands of whitewater enthusiasts come to the Gauley every fall season, to paddle what is considered by many to be the one of the best whitewater rivers in the country. Gauley Season begins the first weekend after Labor Day, and continues for six weekends (five 4-day weekends, and one 2-day weekend). Dropping more than 668 feet through 28 miles of rugged terrain, the Gauley River's complex stretch of whitewater features more than 100 rapids with a steep gradient, technical runs, an incredible volume of water and huge waves. Its vigorous rapids, scenic quality and inaccessibility combine to make Gauley River one of the premier whitewater runs in the world.
Whitewater rafting attracts over 60,000 adventurers to the Gauley River each year. The upper Gauley offers tremendous class III to V+ drops in steep, turbulent chutes such as Pillow Rock, Iron Ring and Sweet's Falls, and rocky routes that demand constant maneuvering such as Lost Paddle and Shipwreck. This section of the river requires experience and minimum age of 16. The lower Gauley is a 12-mile stretch, rated class III to V that feels like a watery roller coaster (minimum age 12 - 14).
Nature and Science
The Gauley River Basin is part of the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau where the age of the rock strata exceeds 300 million years before present. The high knobs and ridges are deeply dissected by young streams that create narrow canyons with steep slopes.
The Gauley River begins in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, at an elevation of about 4,600 feet. Flowing generally west-southwest and draining 1,422 square miles, the Gauley meets the New River at Gauley Bridge and forms the Kanawha River, a major tributary of the Ohio River. The mouth of the Gauley River, 107 miles from its source, is at an elevation of about 600 feet. The resulting average rate of fall is 37.4 feet per mile.
Downstream from Summersville Dam where the boundary of the recreation area begins, the river has cut a gorge of up to 500 feet deep in places. The Gauley River flows through the gorge for approximately 24 miles with a stream gradient of 28 feet per mile. Within the gorge, the river is characterized by alternating pools and rapids with torrential water, boulders and exposed bedrock.
Vegetation is diverse and abundant. Extremes in topography, elevation and microclimate have caused tremendous variation in plant life. Most of the recreation area is below 2,000 feet and contains the central hardwood forest type. Tree species found in this timber type include the red and white oak, American beech, yellow poplar, hemlock and dogwood. Such vegetation supports a wide variety of wildlife species.
There are many rare and threatened species within the recreation area. They include one federally threatened plant species, Virginia spiraea, and five category 2 species, Barbara's buttons, Allegheny woodrat, cerulean warbler, eastern hellbender and finescale saddled darter. Category 2 species may be proposed for threatened or endangered status, but more data is required to confirm the need for such protection. State-listed species of concern found within the recreation area include nine plants, one bird, one butterfly, one fish and two amphibians.
History Timeline
13,000 - 7000 BC
To the north, in the broad valleys leading to the Gauley River, it is possible that occupation by big game hunters of the Paleo-Indian era took place.
7000 - 1000 BC
There is widely dispersed evidence of hunters and food gatherers of the Archaic period.
1000 BC - 700 AD
There is fragmentary evidence from early Woodland period.
700 - 1200
There are artifacts of the hunters and food gatherers of the Armstrong, Buck Garden and Fort Ancient groups of the late Woodland period.
1200 - 1700
It is believed that the area that is now West Virginia became a fairly unpopulated buffer zone between the Iroquois to the north and the Cherokee to the south.
1782 - 1785
William Morris began to acquire land around Peter's Creek.
1783 - 1795
Large land patents were granted, many to speculators.
1790
The Koontz New Road, a rough wagon road built along an Indian trail, was completed between Lewisburg and Charleston.
1791
Henry Morris, Conrad Young and Edward McClung settled near present day Lockwood, in the Kessler's Cross Lanes/Peter's Creek area.
1792
Two young daughters of Henry Morris were killed while going to herd cows. Referred to as the "Morris Massacre."
1795
By this time it appeared the Indians had left the area so more families began settling along the tributaries of the Gauley River.
1800's
The salt industry in the Kanawha Valley created a demand for wood, and later coal.
1818
Roadwork completed on Peter's Creek.
1850 - 1858
Weston and Gauley Bridge Turnpike was built.
1858
A dam was proposed (but never built) on the Meadow River between Big Sewell and Laurel Mountains, 28 miles from its mouth. This dam would have been near Rainelle.
1861
The Civil War battle of Carnifex Ferry was fought.
1867 - 1880
Free schools were organized during the period of reconstruction after the Civil War.
1880
The Koontz and Scholl families arrive from Switzerland and settle the town of Swiss.
1883
Approximate year of the first successful large-scale log drive from Wood's Mill (near Wood's Ferry) downriver to Kanawha.
1885
Timber cutting begins on a large scale.
1885 - 1887
Federal government-sponsored digging of a 100-foot-wide channel in the Gauley River from Gauley Bridge to 3 miles above the mouth of Little Elk Creek takes place.
1893 - 1894
The Gauley Branch of the C&O Railroad was completed, extending from Gauley Junction northward along the Gauley River and up Twentymile Creek to Greendale, a distance of 14.2 miles.
1900's
Great expansion of the coal industry takes place. 1905 The Flynn Lumber Company was established at Swiss.
1905
Around this time, the Cherry River Paper Company, William F. Mosser Company (a tannery), and other industries began operations at Richwood resulting in 21 years of industrial pollution in the Gauley River.
1906
The Meadow River Lumber Company was formed.
1908 - 1909
The Sewell Valley Railroad was built from Meadow Creek, along the main line of the C&O to Rainelle Junction.
1913
Rainelle, on the Meadow River, was incorporated.
1915 - 1916
The Loop & Lookout Railroad extended down the Meadow River to Wilderness (Nallen).
1922
The Kanawha and West Virginia Railroad opens a short line from Belva to Swiss.
1926
The New York Central and Chesapeake and Ohio, forced by the Interstate Commerce Commission to pool their resources in the Gauley River area, form the Nicholas, Fayette and Greenbrier Railway.
1927
The West Virginia State Wild Life League is successful in obtaining funds to clean up the Gauley River, which had become known as the River of Ink because of industrial pollution.
1929 - 1931
Twenty-eight miles of railway, including two tunnels, were built by the NF&G between Swiss and Nallen.
1959
Sayre and Jane Rodman, two mountain climbers from Pennsylvania make the first attempt to raft the whitewater of the Gauley. High water forced the group to return later.
1961
The Rodmans successfully raft the Gauley to Swiss.
1965
The US Army Corps of Engineers completes Summersville Dam, flooding a stretch of whitewater that Rodman says was "absolutely glorious."
1968
John Sweet became the first person to successfully kayak "The Devil's Backbone" rapid. It was later renamed "Sweet's Falls" in his honor.
1970s
Paul Breuer of Mountain River Tours is credited with making the Gauley River a viable river for the commercial whitewater rafting industry.
1985
Congress added recreation to the list of purposes defined for Summersville Dam maximizing the number of potential days for boating on the Gauley.
1988
Gauley River National Recreation Area established as part of the National Park Service.
1997
General Management Plan (GMP) for Gauley River National Recreation area is completed.
Nearby Attractions
Carnifex Ferry Battlefield State Park: Nestled on the rim of the Gauley River Canyon near Summersville, West Virginia, Carnifex Ferry Battlefield State Park is an important Civil War battle site. On September 10, 1861 Union troops led by Brigadier General William S. Rosecrans engaged the Confederates and forced them to evacuate an entrenched position on the Henry Patterson Farm which overlooked Carnifex Ferry. The Confederate commander, Brigadier General John B. Floyd retreated across the ferry to the south side of the Gauley River and on eastward to Meadow Bluff near Lewisburg. This Civil War battle represented the failure of a Confederate drive to regain control of the Kanawha Valley. As a result, the movement for West Virginia statehood proceeded without serious threat from the Confederates.
New River Gorge National River: A rugged, white water river, flowing northward through deep canyons, the New River is among the oldest rivers on the continent.
Located in southern West Virginia, New River Gorge National River was established in 1978 to conserve and protect 53 miles of the New River as a free-flowing waterway.
This unit of the National Park System encompasses over 70,000 acres of land along the New River between the towns of Hinton and Fayetteville. The park and surrounding area are rich in cultural and natural history, with an abundance of scenic and recreational opportunities.
Summersville Lake: The Summersville Lake Project was built under the supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers between 1960 and 1966 at a cost of nearly $48 million. By the end of 1974 it had paid for itself by prevented flood damages in the Gauley and Kanawha River areas estimated at almost $67 million. The dam is on Gauley River near the town of Summersville in Nicholas County, West Virginia, and controls a drainage area of 803 square miles. It is one of the Corps most scenic dams. A rock-fill type, Summersville is the second largest dam of this type in the eastern United States and required 12 million cubic yards of earth and rock. The dam is 390 feet high (about as tall as a 40-story building) and 2,280 feet long. During summer, the lake is raised to elevation 1,652 feet above sea level which provides 2,790 surface acres of water for recreation. During late fall and winter it is lowered to elevation 1,575 to provide maximum space for storage of floodwaters. Water is released from the lake through 1,555-foot long long, 29-foot diameter tunnel controlled at the lower end by three 9-foot diameter valves.
External links
 Official NPS Site
Summersville Lake water levels and outflow
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