Potts Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed October 24, 2011 tributary of the Jackson River in western Virginia. Via the Jackson River, it is part of the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

watershed, flowing to

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

. The creek rises in

Monroe County, West Virginia Monroe County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,376. Its county seat is Union. Monroe County was the home of Andrew Summers Rowan of Spanish–American War fame, who is immortalized in ...

, south of Waiteville, and flows northeast through Craig County and Alleghany County in Virginia, joining the Jackson River at Covington.

Name

The waterway was originally named Carpenter's Creek, as shown on a map of the area (view it here: :File:Kitfry-1-.jpg) drawn by

Joshua Fry Colonel Joshua Fry (1699–1754) was an English-born American adventurer who became a professor, then real estate investor and local official in the colony of Virginia. Although he served several terms in the House of Burgesses, he may be best kn ...

and

Peter Jefferson Peter Jefferson (February 29, 1708 – August 17, 1757) was a planter, cartographer and politician in colonial Virginia best known for being the father of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. The "Fry-Jefferson Map", creat ...

in 1751 and printed in 1755, and so referred to in the text of

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

's "Notes on the State of Virginia" that he prepared in the 1780s. Carpenter's Creek is also shown as such on John Ballendine's map of the James River published c.1772 and Thomas Hutchins' map of the western regions of Virginia published in 1778. The creek later acquired the name Potts Creek from a settler who lived further up the valley at the headwaters of the creek on Potts Mountain. The Carpenter name persisted in occasional use through at least 1784, when in a report to George Washington it was confused with Dunlap's Creek, and a grant was identified as located on Carpenter's "River" on July 1, 1793, but the name Potts Creek was in common use by the late 1790s. Carpenter's Creek received its name from Joseph Carpenter, who on June 1, 1750, received a patent from the

British Crown The Crown is the state (polity), state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, British Overseas Territories, overseas territories, Provinces and territorie ...

for of land on the south side of the Big Bend of Jackson's River where the creek flows into the river (present-day Covington).''Magazine of Virginia Genealogy'', Vol. 30, No. 3 (August 1992), p. 204.

Notes and references

{{authority control Rivers of Virginia Rivers of West Virginia Tributaries of the James River Rivers of Monroe County, West Virginia Bodies of water of Craig County, Virginia Rivers of Alleghany County, Virginia

Name

See also

Notes and references