The New International Encyclopædia/Great Kanawha

GREAT KANAWHA, kȧ-na̤′wȧ. A large river of West Virginia. It rises between the Blue Ridge and Iron Mountains, in northwestern North Carolina, whence it flows north-northeast under the name of the New River through the western part of Virginia; then turning to the northwest, it breaks through several ridges of the Alleghanies (Map: West Virginia, C 3). After receiving Gauley River in Fayette County, W. Va., it takes the name of Great Kanawha, flows for about 100 miles through a picturesque region abounding in coal, salt, and iron, and joins the Ohio River at Point Pleasant, after a total course of about 400 miles. By means of a system of locks and movable dams, constructed at a cost of $4,000,000, slack-water navigation has been made possible throughout the year up to the picturesque Kanawha Falls, about two miles below the mouth of the Gauley.