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Stony River
West Virginia Tributary
Stony River is a tributary of the North Branch Potomac River in in West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle. Stony River joins with the North Branch at the Mineral County border. Its source lies north of Dolly Sods Wilderness on the Tucker County border in the Allegheny Front. The river has a history shaped by rugged geography, early industrial use, and later ecological recovery. Rising near the Dolly Sods Wilderness, it once fed the Stony River Reservoir, created by a pulp?and?paper company dam that catastrophically failed in 1914, sending floodwaters downstream and leaving the valley permanently altered. Through the late 1800s and early 1900s, intensive logging and associated fires stripped the surrounding high?elevation spruce forests, leaving behind stark, rocky landscapes that early botanists described as almost lunar in their devastation. Railroads and coal mining soon followed, further impacting water quality, and by the mid?20th century the river suffered from mine?related pollution. Today, conservation efforts are gradually restoring the watershed, and remnants of the once?vast spruce ecosystem persist in sheltered ravines, offering a glimpse of the region's former ecological richness.
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Contact Information
Tucker County Government
213 First Street
Parsons WV 26287
304-478-2866
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