The Shenandoah River is the principal

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

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

, long with two forks approximately long each,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed August 15, 2011 in the U.S. states of

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

and

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 ...

. 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 The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. The mountain range is located in the Eastern United States, and extends 550 miles southwest from southern Pennsylvania through Maryland, West Virg ...

, in northwestern Virginia and the

Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia The Eastern Panhandle is the eastern of the two panhandles in the U.S. state of West Virginia; the other is the Northern Panhandle. It is a small stretch of territory in the northeast of the state, bordering Maryland and Virginia. Some sourc ...

. There is a hydroelectric plant along the Shenandoah river constructed in 2014 by

Dominion The term ''Dominion'' is used to refer to one of several self-governing nations of the British Empire. "Dominion status" was first accorded to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, South Africa, and the Irish Free State at the 1926 ...

Course

The Shenandoah River is formed northeast of

Front Royal Front Royal is the only incorporated town in Warren County, Virginia, United States. The population was 15,011 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Warren County. History The entire Shenandoah Valley including the area to become ...

near Riverton, by the confluence of the South Fork and the North Fork. It flows northeast across Warren County, passing underneath

Interstate 66 Interstate 66 (I-66) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It runs from an interchange with I-81 near Middletown, Virginia, on its western end to an interchange with U.S. Route 29 (US 29) in Washing ...

from its formation. Beyond the I-66 bridge the river flows through a set of bends before turning to the northeast again, crossing into Clarke County 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. below the Route 50 bridge, the river passes underneath State Route 7 and then continues northeast another where it crosses into Jefferson County in West Virginia. Once in West Virginia the river completes six large bends before joining with the Potomac from the southwest near Harpers Ferry. The confluence is on the West Virginia-Maryland border and from the Virginia-West Virginia border.

Geology

The Shenandoah Valley is underlaid by

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

. The fertile soil made it a favored place for early settlement. It continues to be a major agricultural area of Virginia and West Virginia. Some

karst topography Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant ro ...

is evident, and the limestone is honeycombed with caves. Several have been developed as commercial tourist attractions, including Luray Caverns,

Shenandoah Caverns Shenandoah Caverns is a commercial show cave located near Mount Jackson, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley and it is the only cavern in Virginia that has elevator access. The Shenandoah Caverns has a mile-long guided tour and its temperature na ...

, 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.

Environmental issues

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 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 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.

Etymology

Various accounts tell the origin of the name. According to one, General

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

named the valley (and river) in honor of

Skenandoa John Skenandoa (; c. 1706 – March 11, 1816), also called Shenandoah () among other forms, was an elected chief (a so-called "pine tree chief") of the Oneida. He was born into the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannocks, but was adopted into the ...

(or Shenandoah), an

Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * 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, the name was in use when Washington was a child, as evidenced in land grants and correspondence.http://image.lva.virginia.gov/LONN/LO-1/018/018_0109.tif 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.

Recreation

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 the spring run-off), and several commercial outfitters offer a variety of guided trips and rentals.

South Fork Shenandoah River

The South Fork is formed at Port Republic in southern Rockingham County, by the confluence of the North River and South River. It flows northeast in a tight

meander A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex ban ...

ing course, past Elkton and Shenandoah, through Page Valley, with the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Massanutten Mountain range to the west.

South Fork tributaries

* North River ** Middle River * South River ** Back Creek * Overall Run * Gooney Creek

Bridges over the South Fork

North Fork Shenandoah River

The North Fork is 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 German River is the principal tributary of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River, flowing for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed August 15, 2011 in the U.S. state of ...

. The North Fork flows initially southeast, down from the mountains, then northeast through a valley across

Shenandoah County Shenandoah County (formerly Dunmore County) is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 44,186. Its county seat is Woodstock. It is part of the Shenandoah Valley region of Virgin ...

, 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.

North Fork tributaries

Bridges over the North Fork

Shenandoah tributaries

West Virginia

*Hog Run *

Long Marsh Run Long Marsh Run is a small stream located in the Shenandoah Valley along the border of Virginia and West Virginia. A tributary of the Shenandoah River, Long Marsh Run's headwaters is about three miles northeast of Berryville, Virginia, where it flo ...

* Bullskin Run *Evitts Run *Forge Run *Cattail Run *Flowing Springs Run *Stikeys Run *Double Run

Virginia

*Happy Creek *Manassas Run *Venus Branch *Long Branch *Spout Run *Morgan Mill Stream *Chapel Run *Lewis Run *Craig Run *Dog Run *Spout Run *Wheat Spring Run *Passage Creek

In culture

The American folk song and sea chantey titled " Oh Shenandoah" has been adapted to explicitly reference the river or river valley, although earlier versions referred to 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

in 2014 as its fourth official

state song Forty-eight of the fifty U.S. states have one or more state songs, a type of regional anthem, which are selected by each state legislature as a symbol (or emblem) of that particular U.S. state. Some U.S. states have more than one official state ...

. An episode of

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (abbreviated as ''DS9'') is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller. The fourth series in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise, it originally aired in syndication from ...

, continuing the tradition of naming their shuttles after rivers, has a shuttle named Shenandoah.

References

External links

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries - South Fork

Friends of the North Fork Shenandoah River

Shenandoah Riverkeeper
{{authority control Rivers of Virginia Rivers of West Virginia Rivers of Page County, Virginia Rivers of Rockingham County, Virginia Rivers of Warren County, Virginia Rivers of Shenandoah County, Virginia Rivers of Jefferson County, West Virginia Rivers of Clarke County, Virginia Tributaries of the Potomac River