
The Smith River is a
river
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
s of
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
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
. It is a tributary of the
Dan River, which it joins at
Eden, North Carolina
Eden is a city in Rockingham County, North Carolina, Rockingham County in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is part of the Piedmont Triad, Greensboro-High Point Metropolitan Statistical Area of the Piedmont Triad region. As of the United State ...
. According to the
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...
and regional histories, variant names are ''Irvin River'', ''Irvine River'', Irwin River, and ''Smith's River''.
The Smith River is a tailrace stream, fed by water from
Philpott Lake
Philpott Lake is a reservoir in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is impounded by Philpott Dam.
The lake is at an elevation of , covers an area of , and has a shoreline length of . Philpott Lake extends into Franklin County, Virginia, Franklin, Henr ...
. Water flow is regulated at
Philpott Dam according to the demands of
hydroelectric power
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is Electricity generation, electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies 15% of the world's electricity, almost 4,210 TWh in 2023, which is more than all other Renewable energ ...
generation, downstream water temperature control, and adequate water levels for recreational use. From its source at Philpott Dam, the river runs 44.5 mi through
Franklin County and
Henry County before reaching the North Carolina border. After crossing the border, the Smith River runs an additional 5.25 miles through
Rockingham County, North Carolina
Rockingham County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 91,096. Its county seat is Wentworth, North Carolina, Wentworth. The county ...
before its confluence with the Dan River.
Smith River offers year round trout habitat from Philpot through Martinsville. Headwaters come from Philpot Lake Dam.
History
Archaeological evidence from sites surrounding the Smith River indicate that the river was first visited by hunter-gatherers during the late
PaleoIndian (ca. 9,000-8,000 B.C.) and Early
Archaic (8,000-6,000 B.C.) periods.
From this early period through ca. A.D. 1200, the Smith River Valley was visited seasonally, by small bands of hunters taking advantage of the rich fauna inhabiting the river valley. The flood plains surrounding the Smith River were first permanently settled by Virginia Indians in the late prehistoric era, known archaeologically as the
Late Woodland period, and regionally as the Dan River Phase. Between A.D. 1250 and A.D. 1450, Siouan-speaking groups of the Virginia and North Carolina Piedmont founded agricultural villages along the length of the river. Archaeological evidence indicates that village sites along the Smith River were protected by wooden
palisade
A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade.
Etymo ...
s, and relied heavily on the cultivation of
maize
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...
. At least one of these villages, the Philpott site (44Hr004), was occupied by the Sara Indians through the 1650s.
Some of the earliest Europeans to visit the Smith River were members of a survey party led by
William Byrd II
William Byrd II (March 28, 1674August 26, 1744) was an American planter, lawyer, surveyor and writer. Born in the English colony of Virginia, Byrd was educated in London, where he practiced law. Upon his father's death, Byrd returned to Virginia ...
in 1728, tasked with mapping the Virginia-North Carolina border. Encountering the river on the October 18, 1728, Byrd named the body of water "the river Irvine" after Alexander Irvine, who served as a surveyor for the party while on leave from his role as professor of mathematics at the
College of William and Mary
The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest instit ...
.
An account from William Byrd's ''
The History of the Dividing Line
''The History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina'' is an account by William Byrd II of the surveying of the border between the Colony of Virginia and the Province of North Carolina
The Province of North Carolina, origina ...
'' concerning the river states,
''"... we descended some stony hills for about half a mile, and then came upon a large branch of the river, which we christened the Irvin, in honour of our learned professor. This river we forded with much difficulty and some danger, by reason of the hollow spaces betwixt the rocks, into which our horses plunged almost every step. The Irvin runs into the Dan about four miles to the southward of the line, and seemed to roll down its waters from the N. N. W. in a very full and limpid stream, and the murmur it made, in tumbling over the rocks, caused the situation to appear very romantic, and had almost made some of the company poetical, though they drank nothing but water. We encamped on a pleasant hill, overlooking the river, which seemed to be deep every where except just where we forded. In the mean time, neither that chain of rocks, nor any other that we could observe in this stream, was so uninterrupted, but that there were several breaks where a canoe, or even a moderate flat-bottomed boat, might shear clear. Nor have we reason to believe there are any other falls (except the great ones, thirty miles below Moniseep ford) that reach quite across, so as to interrupt the navigation for small craft."''
The name Irvine River, occasionally spelled Irvin or Irwin River, appears in land deeds as early as the 1730s, and is first depicted on
mapdrawn by
Edward Moseley
Edward Moseley (Wiktionary:circa, ca. 16 February 1683 - 11 July 1749), was a British colonial official who served as the first North Carolina State Treasurer, public treasurer of North Carolina from 1715 until his death in July 1749). He previ ...
in 1737. This name persisted through the late eighteenth century among colonial administrators in eastern and central Virginia, notably depicted and labeled on th
Fry-Jefferson mapof 1755.
As early as 1743, land entries were being made in reference to "Smith's River," a seemingly new name for what those in other parts of Virginia referred to as the Irvine River. Regional historians believe that this name, as well as the
Smith Mountains, have their origins with two prominent landowners of the early 1740s, Gideon and Daniel Smith.
From the mid eighteenth through the mid nineteenth century, the names "Smith's River" and "Irvine River" were used interchangeably, the former used as a regional vernacular, the latter as an administrative reference By the mid to late nineteenth century; however, the name "Smith River" become commonplace, as Irvine fell out of use.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Smith River emerged as an important source of water power for lumber and textile mills. Initially supplying railroad ties to the new Winston-Salem branch of the
Norfolk and Western
The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...
railroad, several lumber operations repurposed their Smith River mills after the completion of the railroad to manufacture wood furniture. Notable among these was
Bassett Furniture
Bassett Furniture Industries, Inc. is a furniture manufacturer and retailer, headquartered in Bassett, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1902 by John D. Bassett, Charles C. Bassett, Samuel H. Bassett, and Reed L. Stone. Bassett Furnitur ...
, established in 1902, which continues to operate today on its original mill site on the Smith River.
*
Philpott Lake
Philpott Lake is a reservoir in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is impounded by Philpott Dam.
The lake is at an elevation of , covers an area of , and has a shoreline length of . Philpott Lake extends into Franklin County, Virginia, Franklin, Henr ...
*
List of rivers of Virginia
This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of Virginia.
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin, with respective tributaries, arranged in the order of their confluence from mouth to source, indented under each larger stream's nam ...
References
{{authority control
Rivers of North Carolina
Rivers of Virginia
Rivers of Rockingham County, North Carolina
Rivers of Henry County, Virginia
Rivers of Patrick County, Virginia
Tributaries of the Roanoke River