page_title: Kanawha River
section_title: List of cities and towns along the Kanawha River
hierarchical_section_title: Kanawha River / List of cities and towns along the Kanawha River
caption_attribution_description: English: The confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers. The Kanawha River flows in from the left of the picture and joins the Ohio, meandering off in the distance. The town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia is in the foreground on the right. Henderson, West Virginia is on the left. The Ohio River forms the boundary between West Virginia and Ohio. The town of Gallipolis, Ohio lies in the far distance across the Ohio River. The view is to the west-southwest down the river.
context_page_description: The Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its valley has been a significant industrial region of the state since early in the 19th century.
  It is formed at the town of Gauley Bridge in northwestern Fayette County, approximately 35 mi SE of Charleston, by the confluence of the New and Gauley rivers. It flows generally northwest, in a winding course on the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau, through Fayette, Kanawha, Putnam, and Mason counties, past the cities of Charleston and St. Albans, and numerous smaller communities. It joins the Ohio at Point Pleasant.
  Paleo-Indians, the earliest indigenous peoples, lived in the valley and the heights by 10,000 BC as evidenced by archaeological artifacts such as Clovis points. A succession of prehistoric cultures developed, with the Adena culture beginning the construction of numerous skilled earthwork mounds and enclosures more than 2000 years ago. Some of the villages of the Fort Ancient culture survived into the times of European contact.
  The area was a place of competition among historical American Indian nations.
context_section_description: Bancroft
  Belle
  Buffalo
  Cedar Grove
  Charleston
  Chesapeake
  Dunbar
  East Bank
  Eleanor
  Gauley Bridge
  Glasgow
  Handley
  Henderson
  Jefferson
  Leon
  Marmet
  Montgomery
  Nitro
  Poca
  Point Pleasant
  Pratt
  Rand
  St. Albans
  Smithers
  South Charleston
  Winfield
caption: The confluence of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers at Point Pleasant, West Virginia
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