The Bluestone River is a

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 ...

of the New River, 77 mi (124 km) long, in southwestern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

and

southern West Virginia Southern West Virginia is a culturally and geographically distinct region in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Southern West Virginia has coal mining heritage and Southern affinity, including being part of the Bible Belt. The region is also close ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

.Columbia Gazetteer of North America entry
Via the New, Kanawha and

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

rivers, it is part of the watershed of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

. An 11 mi (18 km) portion of its lower course in West Virginia is designated as the Bluestone National Scenic River.

Course

The Bluestone rises on East River Mountain in Tazewell County, Virginia and flows generally northeastwardly through Mercer and Summers counties in West Virginia, passing the towns of Bluefield in Virginia and Bramwell and Montcalm in West Virginia.

DeLorme DeLorme Publishing Company is a producer of personal satellite tracking, messaging, and navigation technology. The company's main product, ''inReach'', integrates GPS and satellite technologies. ''inReach'' provides the ability to send and rec ...

(1997). ''West Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer''. Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme. It joins the New River about 4 mi (6.4 km) south of Hinton as part of

Bluestone Lake Bluestone Lake is a flood control reservoir located on the New River (Kanawha River), New River near Hinton, West Virginia, Hinton, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. At its normal pool level, Bluestone Dam impounds a stretch of the New and i ...

, which is formed by a

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

on the New. The Bluestone's National Scenic River segment is located mostly in Summers County, as is Pipestem Resort State Park, which lies along a

gorge A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tend ...

formed by the river.

Pollution

The Bluestone has been compromised by PCB contamination, largely left over from former

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

activities. As a result of this contamination, Virginia does not recommend eating any

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

in the upstream vicinity of

Bluefield, Virginia Bluefield is a town in Tazewell County, Virginia, Tazewell County, Virginia, United States, located along the Bluestone River. The population was 5,096 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is part of the Bluefield, West Virginia, Bl ...

. West Virginia recommends eating no more than one meal of carp per month. In Virginia, the state Department of Environmental Quality does not recommend any contact recreation (such as swimming or wading) in the Bluestone due to high levels of fecal coliform bacteria.

Little Bluestone River

The Little Bluestone River is a minor tributary of the Bluestone in Summers County, fewer than 10 mi (15 km) in length from its formation by the

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

of two streams, White Oak Branch and Jumping Branch.

Variant names

According to the

Geographic Names Information System The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features, encompassing the United States and its territories; the Compact of Free Association, asso ...

, the Bluestone River has also been known as: *Big Bluestone River *Blue Stone Creek *Blue Stone River *Bluestone Creek Native American names have included the following: *Mec-ce-ne-ke-ke-ce-pe-we *Mec-cen-ne-ke-ke *Mo-mom-ga-sen-eka-ce-pe

References

External links