New River

… is formed on the Ashe-Alleghany county line by the junction of North Fork and South Fork New River. It flows NE and NW into Virginia and West Virginia and enters Kanawha River at Charleston, W.Va. In its meanderings, it crosses the North Carolina-Virginia line into Alleghany County several times. Named because of the discovery of the river in 1749, when the boundary between North Carolina and Virginia was extended 90 mi. The surveyors crossed what they thought was "a large branch of the Mississippi which runs between the ledges of the mountains," and which, in the words of Governor Gabriel Johnston, "Nobody ever drempt of before." Designated a National Scenic River in 1976; now a state park.