Deep Water, also known historically as Deepwater, is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

on the

Kanawha River The Kanawha River ( ) is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi (156 km) long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its watershed has been a significant industrial region of th ...

in Fayette County,

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 183 (down from 280 at the 2010 census). It is best known as the starting point of the

Deepwater Railway The Deepwater Railway was an intrastate short line railroad located in West Virginia in the United States which operated from 1898 to 1907. William N. Page, a civil engineer and entrepreneur, had begun a small logging railroad in Fayette County, W ...

founded in 1898 by William N. Page, which was merged to create the

Virginian Railway The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads. History ...

in 1907. Located near the

head of navigation The head of navigation is the farthest point above the mouth of a river that can be navigated by ships. Determining the head of navigation can be subjective on many streams, as the point may vary greatly with the size or the draft of the ship b ...

of the Kanawha River just a short distance downstream from Kanawha Falls, it may have been named for that reason. However, according to local legend, as recounted by H. Reid in ''The Virginian Railway'' (Kalmbach, 1961), it was named by Squire James Galsepy Kincaid and other locals on a rainy day in 1871 as a commentary on the standing groundwater outside the new

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

along Loup Creek.

References

Census-designated places in West Virginia Census-designated places in Fayette County, West Virginia Populated places on the Kanawha River {{FayetteCountyWV-geo-stub