The New River, flowing across the Appalachian Plateau, is one of the oldest rivers in the world and the oldest in North America. It is one of the few rivers in the world that flows north, beginning near Blowing Rock, North Carolina, then running 324 miles through southwestern Virginia before joining the Gauley River in West Virginia and soon becoming part of the Kanawha River. From there, its waters continue through the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and eventually reach the Gulf of Mexico 110 days later. The river has also been called Wood's River, and various Native American tribes supposedly named it the River of Death. Its present name is documented as coming from an expedition sent by Colonel Abraham Wood, a fur trader, to explore the outreaches of Virginia; when his men came upon a river they had never seen before, they wrote "new river" on their map, and the name remained.