The Bluestone River begins at an elevation of about 3,500 feet above sea level on East River Mountain in Tazewell County, Virginia, and after flowing about 77 miles empties into the New River at an elevation of about 1,400 feet above sea level. Upstream from Pipestem State Park, it passes through a nearly half-mile-wide valley with several farms along its banks, then about ten miles upstream from the park the flood plain narrows to nearly nothing as the river enters a canyon that ranges in depth from about 300 feet to nearly 1,200 feet in the park, while about ten miles downstream from the park the river bottom is inundated by Bluestone Lake. Human activities along the river may date back as far as 10,000 B.C., Native Americans called it Bigstone River because of the large boulders in the stream bed, Europeans began exploring the region along the Bluestone in the mid 1700's, subsistence farming long provided sustenance along the river, and extensive logging took place in the early 1900's, with signs of early inhabitants including log cabins, remains of grist mills, and old railroad ties. A variety of animals live in and around the river because of the availability of water, differences in temperature and elevation, and the composition of the rocks and soil; most warmwater gamefish found in West Virginia occur there, including sunfish, bass, and catfish, while northern watersnakes, snapping turtles, bullfrogs, wood frogs, spring peepers, chorus frogs, dusky and seal salamanders, fence lizards, northern copperheads, hognose snakes, eastern box turtles, American toads, about two dozen mammal species, and over 100 bird species have been identified in the canyon, including groundhogs, raccoons, white-tailed deer, beaver, black bear, bobcats, Louisiana waterthrushes, belted kingfishers, wood warblers, and even golden eagles. Millions of years ago the area was part of a shallow sea, as shown by the sedimentary rocks that form the canyon and by marine fossils; when the mountains were uplifted and the water receded, erosion wore away softer rocks until the stream reached more resistant rock, causing it to meander and cut through layers to another soft section, creating a level bench halfway down the canyon and helping explain the steep hillsides and cliffs. The canyon's geology includes the Bluestone Formation of red shale with some gray shale and a few limestone layers, the resistant Glady Fork Sandstone that is responsible for the area's wide, rolling ridge tops, the Princeton Conglomerate of resistant sandstone with quartz pebbles that makes up the bench area, and the Hinton Formation of red and gray-green shales with some marine limestone that forms the lower two-thirds of the canyon.