New River State Park

New River State Park protects three thousand three hundred twenty-three acres of the New River watershed in northwestern North Carolina near Jefferson. The river is widely regarded as one of the oldest in the United States and is notable for flowing generally south to north, a course that has helped support the idea that it predates much of the surrounding Appalachian terrain. People used the valley for thousands of years before permanent European settlement began in the seventeen seventies. In the nineteen sixties, opposition to a proposed hydroelectric dam led to the park’s creation in nineteen seventy-five and to state and federal protections that preserved this stretch of river in a natural state.

North Carolina · United States