.....I have 8097 West Virginia Streams listed by the elevation at their mouths. That is too many to list here, but I have included the Greebrier River Tributaries as an example. If you click on the waving flag below, you may view these mountain streams.
Tributaries of the Greenbrier River
River...............Length in WV.........Area in WV
Ohio.................277.1................2993
New/Kanawha..........184..................3030
Elk..................172.1................1536
Greenbrier...........167.5................1656
Little Kanawha.......167..................2320
Guyandotte...........165.7................1670
Cheat................159..................1328
South Branch Potomac.133..................1493
Tygart Valley River..133..................1374
Potomac bove H.F.....112*.................9371*
West Fork River......102..................882
Great Kanawha........97...................1526
North Branch Kanawha.97*..................1328*
New..................87...................1504
Big Sandy/Tug Fork...81.8.................1072
Coal.................70...................880
Tug Fork.............55...................990
Monongahela..........37...................567
Big Sandy............26.8.................82
James................0*...................80*
Youghiogheny.........0*...................71*
* denotes that this is not a West Virginia River
.....West Virginia is drained by by trinutaries of three great rivers that empty their waters into the sea: the Ohio, the Potomac, and the James.
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.....Of the 8097 streams of West Virginia that I have listed in my records, 7581, or about ninty-four percent, are tributaries of the Ohio River. The Ohio Drainage stretches from west to east and from north to south. This drainage includes some of the highest mountains as well as the broad western valleys of the Kanawha and of the Ohio itself. Most of the coalfields of West Virginia are also included in the drainage. From the wild and swift mountain streams of the eastern and southern mountains, to the caalm and placid streams of the west, the waters of the streams of the Ohio Drainage have played an importaant role in the history of West Virginia. More than a third of the streams of the West Virginia Ohio River Drainage belong to its largest tributary: the Kanawha/New. The waters of 2600 West Virginia Streams flow out of the mouth of the Kanawha into the Ohio river at Point Pleasant.
.....With at least 503 listed tributaries, the Potomac River drains much of the Ridge and Valley section of the Eastern Panhandle. Because the state of Maryland owns all the way to the West Virginia shore of the Potomac, neither the main stream nor the North Branch of the Potomac can be technically claimed as West Virginia Rivers and are there not listed in the main document that I have compiled and have in hardcopy. The highest point, Spruce Knob, and the lowest point, Harpers Ferry, in West Virginia are located in the Potomac River Drainage. The head spring of the Potomac River is marked by the Fairfax Stone in Fairfax Stone State Park.
..... The South Branch River and its North and South Forks rise in the romote mountains of Virginia before flowing generaly north through the Panhandle. This drainage was important to both the North and the South and was the scene of numerous Civil War engagements.
.....Most people are unaware that the James River Drainage extends into West Virginia. The James has at least twelve tributaries that drain a remote section of Monroe County. The chief of these are Cove Creek and Potts Creek. The Cove Creek Divide can be seen as a gentle rise just east of Moncove Lake. After traversing a wild and narrow gorge, Cove Creek joins with Sweet Springs Creek and is then known, as Dunlap Creek and eventually joins the Jackson River at Covington. Potts Creek flows through Waitville and a beautiful remote valley before passing out of West Virginia into Virginia where it also joins the Jackson River at Covington. The Jackson River joins with the Cowpasture River near Clifton Forge to form the mighty James. The Potts Creek and Cove Creek Valleys were the scenes of early settlement by settlers from the Valley of Virignia. The family names of these settlers are still prominant in the area today.