New River Gorge National Park and Preserve

Public Lands Institute

Geological age: ~325 Mya Pennsylvanian and Mississippian sandstone, shale, and coal seams.
Epoch: Pennsylvanian (Carboniferous).
Native lands: Shawnee (Shawanwaki) and Cherokee (Aniyvwiya) maintained hunting territories throughout the New River drainage; Shawnee forces under Chief Cornstalk fought Virginia militia at the Battle of Point Pleasant (October 10, 1774), a decisive engagement leading to the Treaty of Camp Charlotte (October 19, 1774), in which the Shawnee agreed to cease hunting south of the Ohio River and recognize Virginia's territorial claims; Seneca (Onöndowa'ga:') of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy maintained the Seneca Trail corridor (present US-219) through the region; Moneton peoples documented in pre-contact archaeological evidence; more than 400 archaeological sites along the New, Gauley, and Bluestone Rivers record at least 11,000 years of continuous Indigenous occupation; Shawnee removal to Oklahoma completed under federal pressure by the post-Civil War era.
Displacement & Tenure: New River Gorge area was part of Virginia's colonial charter (1609) and not included in the Virginia Cession of 1784 to the federal government; lands remained under private Virginia and later West Virginia (statehood June 20, 1863) ownership through coal and timber grants; federal acquisition began when Congress established New River Gorge National River (November 10, 1978, Pub. L. 95-625), with NPS purchasing coal and timber company lands through the 1990s; designated National Park and Preserve December 27, 2020.
Shadow History: The gorge's coal company towns enforced a scrip economy in which workers were paid in currency redeemable only at company stores, with markups ensuring perpetual indebtedness; armed guards controlled movement in and out of gated communities. African American miners comprised more than 25% of West Virginia's mining workforce by 1909; Helen, WV (developed by East Gulf Coal Company) enforced strict residential and educational segregation above ground while Black and white workers received equal wages for equal work underground; NPS documents segregated housing, schools, and churches at Nuttallburg and Helen. Coal processing operations associated with the gorge's mines introduced heavy metals into New River tributaries, a pattern documented across the Appalachian coalfield. Segregated CCC companies operated in the region 1933-1942 following Director Robert Fechner's 1935 segregation order.
Ecology: Mixed Mesophytic forest with oak-hickory on xeric south-facing slopes and hemlock-hardwood (Tsuga canadensis, Fagus grandifolia) in cool mesic coves; understory of Rhododendron maximum and mountain laurel; 1,383 vascular plant species documented across 41 community types.
Hydrology: New River drains into the Kanawha River and the Ohio River system; park corridor encompasses approximately 295 km of New River watershed; tributaries include the Bluestone and Greenbrier Rivers; gorge characterized by pools, shoals, riffles, and cascades.
Acreage: 72,186
GPS: 38.0700° N, 81.0758° W

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