The Cranberry River is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or 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 drain the surrounding drai ...

of the

Gauley River The Gauley River is a river in West Virginia. It merges with the New River to form the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio River. The river features numerous recreational whitewater areas, including those in Gauley River National Recreation Ar ...

located in southeastern

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. DeLorme (1997). ''West Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer''. Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme. . It is a part of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

watershed, by way of the Gauley, Kanawha, and

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

Rivers, draining an area of .Grafton, Emily. 2006. "Cranberry River." ''The West Virginia Encyclopedia''. Ken Sullivan, editor. Charleston, WV: West Virginia Humanities Council. . The river has also been known historically as Cranberry Creek. The river was named for cranberry bogs along its course.

Geography

The Cranberry River is formed in southwestern Pocahontas County by the confluence of its North and South forks. The South Fork, the longer of the two at a length of , rises on Cranberry Mountain just west of the Highland Scenic Highway before flowing through the Cranberry Glades Botanical Area. The North Fork rises about north on Black Mountain. Below the confluence of its forks, the Cranberry flows for generally westward towards its mouth at the

near Craigsville. The Cranberry River has several pay campgrounds, free campsites, and picnic areas along its banks.

Fishing

Fish biomass production was reduced three fold and fish diversity was cut almost in half between 1957 and 1987 in the Cranberry River watershed. Although causality was never established, this was attributed to acidification from atmospheric deposition of nitric and sulfuric acid. Flow-driven liming stations were established on the Dogway Fork in 1988 and in 1993 on the North Fork just above its confluence with the South Fork of the Cranberry River. A fishable brook trout population and 13 macroinvertebrate species have been restored to the Dogway Fork since liming has begun. Smallmouth bass and rock bass have been reestablished in the treated part of the river and numbers have increased in the lower reaches. The Cranberry River and its small tributaries are regarded as some of the finest

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

streams in the eastern United States. Until recently, however, trout

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

on the south fork was limited to the lower half of the river due to acid rain. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has worked to counter this problem by installing a liming station on the north fork of the river.Gasper, Donald C. New Native Brook Trout Streams, A New Wilderness (pdf)
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Flow rate

At its mouth, the river's estimated mean annual flow rate is . A

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...

stream gauge on the creek near Richwood recorded a mean annual discharge of during

water year A water year (also called ''hydrological year'', ''discharge year'' or ''flow year'') is a term commonly used in hydrology to describe a time period of 12 months for which precipitation totals are measured. Its beginning differs from the calendar ...

s 1945-2019. The highest annual mean discharge during the period was in water year 1979, and the lowest was in water year 1999. The highest daily mean discharge during that period was on March 21, 1984, and the lowest was on August 21, 1987.

External links

Monongahela National Forest map of the Richwood area, including the course of the Cranberry River and recreational amenities along its banksReal-time water data for the Cranberry River

References

{{Authority control Rivers of West Virginia Monongahela National Forest Rivers of Nicholas County, West Virginia Rivers of Pocahontas County, West Virginia Rivers of Webster County, West Virginia

Geography

Fishing

Flow rate

See also

External links

References