The Little Coal River is formed by Pond Fork and Spruce Laurel at Madison, WV, then flows north past Danville, WV, and Julian, WV, loops around to McCorkle, WY, and joins the Big Coal River at Alum Creek, WV to form the Coal River. Originally named "Walhondecepe" by the Delaware Indians, the three rivers of the Coal River Watershed served as a vital transportation link to the Kanawha River and were favored by Indians for hunting and fishing. Since the first settlers arrived, these rivers have functioned as river trails and as sources of fishing, recreation, drinking water, social life, and baptisms. Large seams of cannel coal in the region, used to produce a desirable coal oil that eventually replaced whale oil for lighting in urban areas of the US, created the region's first coal-based economic boom. In the mid 1850's, the Big Coal River, Little Coal River, and Coal River river trail was improved by construction of a 34 mile lock and dam system, for which the Coal River Navigation Company of Virginia originally invested $208,000, and at its height more than 800,000 bushels of coal were shipped annually. Beginning around 1800, flax mills and gristmills operated along the three Coal Rivers, producing textiles as well as flour and cornmeal. After the upper locks and dams washed away, lumber was harvested throughout the watershed, and moving it from the upper reaches by high water and large log rafts to regional sawmills was dangerous and difficult; during this period, finished lumber mills, flour processors, and broom and barrel manufacturers proliferated in the St. Albans area. Coal mining throughout the watershed began in the early 1800's and continues today, defining the region's growth and development. After rail lines were built, river transportation of coal changed dramatically, and the rivers' role shifted to supplying water for processing and cleaning and serving community needs for drinking water, fishing, recreation, and sanitation. From the earliest settlement onward, the Coal Rivers have also anchored recreation and community social life, sustained by abundant fish, mussels, fresh water clams, crayfish, otter, beaver, muskrat, blue heron, duck, geese, and other wildlife as food sources, by baptisms conducted by local ministers, and by hundreds of sandy beaches along the winding mountain channels that became and remain centers of social events and swimming; the region's youth recreation on the rivers gave rise to the fondly embraced local term "river rats."