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32-697: Great North Mountain is oriented along a northeast-southwest axis from its southern terminus along the North Fork Shenandoah River in Rockingham County, Virginia to its northern terminus at U.S. Route 522 in Frederick County, Virginia . In the south, the initial 7 miles (11 km) of the ridge is known Church Mountain. For much of its length, the mountain forms the border between Virginia and West Virginia, in two separate stretches; starting 7 miles (11 km) north of its southern terminus at

64-400: A new river, to be given its own name, perhaps one already known to the people who live upon its banks. Conversely, explorers approaching a new land from the sea encounter its rivers at their mouths, where they name them on their charts, then, following a river upstream, encounter each tributary as a forking of the stream to the right and to the left, which then appear on their charts as such; or

96-404: A shuttle named Shenandoah. Tributary A tributary , or an affluent , is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream ( main stem or "parent" ), river, or a lake . A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean . Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they flow, drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater , leading

128-544: A valley across Shenandoah County , along the western side of Massanutten Mountain . It flows past Woodstock and Strasburg . On the north end of the ridge it turns briefly southeast to join the South Fork from the northwest to form the Shenandoah. The American folk song and river and sea chantey titled " Oh Shenandoah " has been adapted to explicitly reference the river or river valley, although earlier versions referred to

160-521: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article is about a location in Hampshire County , West Virginia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a location in Hardy County , West Virginia is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . North Fork Shenandoah River The Shenandoah River / ˌ ʃ ɛ n ə n ˈ d oʊ ə /

192-517: Is evident, and the limestone is honeycombed with caves. Several have been developed as commercial tourist attractions, including Luray Caverns , Shenandoah Caverns , and Skyline Caverns . On the riverbank, a few miles above Harper's Ferry, is said to be a cave with an opening just large enough for a mounted rider to squeeze through. It widened in the interior to a spacious room where hundreds of Col. John Mosby's raiding troops are said to have hidden from pursuing Union cavalry. The Shenandoah River

224-631: Is the principal tributary of the Potomac River , 55.6 miles (89.5 km) long with two forks approximately 100 miles (160 km) long each, in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia . The river and its tributaries drain the central and lower Shenandoah Valley and the Page Valley in the Appalachians on the west side of the Blue Ridge Mountains , in northwestern Virginia and

256-591: Is within the George Washington National Forest , which offers many hiking and hunting trails, such as the Seven Springs trail, and those leading to an overlook on Big Schloss , a peak in the area. Beside the small town of Orkney Springs, Virginia , at the foot of the mountain, is Shrine Mont , a retreat and conference center owned by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia . The retreat includes

288-732: The Virginia Department of Health (VDOH) states that it is not safe to consume any species except trout which are caught between Waynesboro and Grottoes, Virginia due to elevated mercury levels. In general, the VDOH states that it is not safe to consume more than two fish per month which are caught on the Shenandoah River in Page , Warren , Augusta , or Rockingham counties. In 2017 DuPont agreed to pay $ 42,069,916.78 to address natural resource damages and to implement restoration projects related to

320-566: The eastern panhandle of West Virginia . There is a hydroelectric plant along the Shenandoah River constructed in 2014 by Dominion . The Shenandoah River is formed northeast of Front Royal near Riverton, by the confluence of the South Fork and the North Fork . It flows northeast across Warren County , passing underneath Interstate 66 1 mile (1.6 km) from its formation. Beyond the I-66 bridge,

352-494: The 18th century Oneida Chief Shenandoah and the Missouri River , 1,000 miles to the west. The 1971 hit and signature song of John Denver , " Take Me Home, Country Roads ", prominently mentions the Shenandoah River, and was adopted by the state of West Virginia in 2014 as its fourth official state song . An episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , continuing the tradition of naming their runabout vessels after rivers, has

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384-581: The Cathedral Shrine of the Transfiguration and The Virginia House (formerly known as the Orkney Springs Hotel). Nearby Basye boasts the four season Bryce Resort, which has golf, skiing, mountain biking, and Lake Laura. This Frederick County, Virginia state location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Shenandoah County, Virginia state location article

416-651: The adult redbreast sunfish and smallmouth bass, juvenile populations appeared to be unaffected. The following year more-localized fish kills in Clarke County spread to two of the Shenandoah's three species of sucker: the shorthead redhorse and the northern hogsucker – the former suffering from similar lesions witnessed in the previous year's fish kill. Virginia's Department of Environmental Quality received reports of fish kills near Elkton and between Bentonville and Front Royal in late April 2007 and observed fish exhibiting lesions and strange behavior. Various accounts tell

448-553: The border between Hardy County, West Virginia, and Shenandoah County, Virginia, in the George Washington National Forest . The mountain is crossed by U.S. Route 48 and West Virginia and Virginia routes 55 between Wardensville, West Virginia , and Strasburg, Virginia . According to the Geographic Names Information System , Great North Mountain has been known by the following names: The Board on Geographic Names handed down two official decisions concerning

480-409: The border of Hardy County, West Virginia , Rockingham County, Virginia and Shenandoah County, Virginia , for 26 miles (42 km) with a 4.5-mile (7.2 km) break where the border shifts east to Paddy Mountain around Wilson Cove, followed by an additional 14-mile (23 km) stretch to the north. The ridge reaches its greatest elevation, 3,293 feet (1,004 m), at the peak of Mill Mountain, on

512-586: The east and the Massanutten Mountain range to the west. The North Fork is 105 miles (169 km) long and rises in northern Rockingham County , along the eastern flank of Shenandoah Mountain in the George Washington National Forest . At its formation, the principal feeder on the North Fork is the German River . The North Fork flows initially southeast, down from the mountains, then northeast through

544-451: The handedness is from the point of view of an observer facing upstream. For instance, Steer Creek has a left tributary which is called Right Fork Steer Creek. These naming conventions are reflective of the circumstances of a particular river's identification and charting: people living along the banks of a river, with a name known to them, may then float down the river in exploration, and each tributary joining it as they pass by appears as

576-507: The impacted resources in the South Fork Shenandoah River watershed. Since 2005, the Shenandoah River has experienced several springtime fish kills that have affected several of its native fish species. In 2005, redbreast sunfish and smallmouth bass along a 100-mile (160 km) stretch of the South Fork Shenandoah River began dying of lesions caused by bacteria and fungi. Although the fish kill eventually wiped out 80% of

608-424: The joining of tributaries. The opposite to a tributary is a distributary , a river or stream that branches off from and flows away from the main stream. Distributaries are most often found in river deltas . Right tributary , or right-bank tributary , and left tributary , or left-bank tributary , describe the orientation of the tributary relative to the flow of the main stem river. These terms are defined from

640-581: The mountain's name in the years 1941 and 1967. In 1941, the board decided upon the name Big North Mountain and in 1967, it chose Great North Mountain . Both of these name changes were made in order to differentiate the mountain from North Mountain to the north. In the colonial era, Great North Mountain was referred to by some on the frontier as "The Devil's Backbone," an alias noted in the Fry-Jefferson map published in London in 1755. Part of Great North Mountain

672-572: The name was in use when Washington was a child, as evidenced in land grants and correspondence. It is also said to be named after the Senedo people , a little-documented tribe said to have lived on the north fork of the river and destroyed by the Catawba , some time between 1650 and 1700. The Shenandoah River is a very popular river for canoeing , river tubing , and white-water recreation such as rafting and kayaking (class I-III in season, II-III+ during

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704-462: The opposite bank before approaching the confluence. An early tributary is a tributary that joins the main stem river closer to its source than its mouth, that is, before the river's midpoint ; a late tributary joins the main stem further downstream, closer to its mouth than to its source, that is, after the midpoint. In the United States, where tributaries sometimes have the same name as

736-621: The origin of the name. According to one, General George Washington named the valley (and river) in honor of Skenandoa (or Shenandoah), an Oneida "pine tree chief" based in New York, who led hundreds of Oneida and Tuscarora warriors in support of the American rebels on the frontier during the Revolutionary War. He also sent much needed corn to Washington and his troops during their hard winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in 1777–1778. However,

768-476: The perspective of looking downstream, that is, facing the direction the water current of the main stem is going. In a navigational context, if one were floating on a raft or other vessel in the main stream, this would be the side the tributary enters from as one floats past; alternately, if one were floating down the tributary, the main stream meets it on the opposite bank of the tributary. This information may be used to avoid turbulent water by moving towards

800-623: The river completes six large bends before joining the Potomac from the southwest near Harpers Ferry . The confluence is on the West Virginia-Maryland border, and 0.4 miles (0.64 km) from the Virginia-West Virginia border. The Shenandoah Valley is underlaid by limestone . The fertile soil made it a favored place for early settlement. It remains a major agricultural area of Virginia and West Virginia. Some karst topography

832-686: The river flows through a set of bends before turning to the northeast again, crossing into Clarke County 11 miles (18 km) below I-66. Five miles (8 km) downriver from the Clarke County border, the Shenandoah passes under U.S. Route 50 and then passes through a triple bend. 14.5 miles (23.3 km) below the Route 50 bridge, the river passes underneath State Route 7 and then continues northeast another 8 miles (13 km) where it crosses into Jefferson County in West Virginia. Once in West Virginia,

864-643: The river into which they feed, they are called forks . These are typically designated by compass direction. For example, the American River in California receives flow from its North, Middle, and South forks. The Chicago River 's North Branch has the East, West, and Middle Fork; the South Branch has its South Fork, and used to have a West Fork as well (now filled in). Forks are sometimes designated as right or left. Here,

896-418: The smaller stream designated the little fork, the larger either retaining its name unmodified, or receives the designation big . Tributaries are sometimes listed starting with those nearest to the source of the river and ending with those nearest to the mouth of the river . The Strahler stream order examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of first, second, third and higher orders, with

928-519: The spring run-off), and several commercial outfitters offer a variety of guided trips and rentals. The South Fork is formed at Port Republic in southern Rockingham County , by the confluence of the North River and South River . It flows 98.5 miles (158.5 km) northeast in a tight meandering course, past Elkton and Shenandoah , through Page Valley, with the Blue Ridge Mountains to

960-432: The streams are seen to diverge by the cardinal direction (north, south, east, or west) in which they proceed upstream, sometimes a third stream entering between two others is designated the middle fork; or the streams are distinguished by the relative height of one to the other, as one stream descending over a cataract into another becomes the upper fork, and the one it descends into, the lower ; or by relative volume:

992-463: The water out into an ocean. The Irtysh is a chief tributary of the Ob river and is also the longest tributary river in the world with a length of 4,248 km (2,640 mi). The Madeira River is the largest tributary river by volume in the world with an average discharge of 31,200 m /s (1.1 million cu ft/s). A confluence , where two or more bodies of water meet, usually refers to

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1024-460: Was contaminated with mercury which was released by a DuPont rayon manufacturing facility located in Waynesboro, Virginia from 1929 to 1950. This mercury is still present in the fish population of the river today; data collected over the last several decades shows that mercury levels remain stable. The fish in many sections of the Shenandoah River are not safe for human consumption. For example,

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