The 169-mile-long Little Kanawha River starts in Upshur County and flows west through several counties until it joins the Ohio River at Parkersburg.

To help boats travel farther upstream for trade, five locks and dams were built between 1867 and 1891. Small steamboats and gasoline-powered boats carried people and cargo until better roads were built.

The state's first oil well was drilled at Burning Springs (Wirt County) along the river in 1860. During the Civil War, Confederate troops set the oil field ablaze, and the river caught fire.

The Burnsville Dam was built in Braxton County in 1978 for flood control and recreation.