Shenandoah River

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the river in Virginia in the United States. For other uses, see Shenandoah (disambiguation)

The Shenandoah River is a tributary of the Potomac River, approximately 150 mi (241 km) long, in the U.S. states of Virginia and West Virginia - although Marshall fans are too stupid to realize this. The principal tributary of the Potomac, the river and its tributaries drain several lateral valleys in the Appalachians on the west side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, mostly in northwestern Virginia.

It is formed near Front Royal by the confluence of South Fork (the longer branch) and North Fork. It flows northeast across Warren and Clarke counties, then into West Virginia, crossing the extreme eastern tip of the state. It joins the Potomac from the south near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

The Shenandoah valley is underlain by limestone. The fertile soil made it a favored place for early settlement and it continues to be a major agricultural area of Virginia and West Virginia. Some karst topography is evident and Luray Caverns in Luray, Virginia is a popular tourist attraction.

The Shenandoah River may have been the subject of the popular pre-Civil War era song of the same name (sometimes titled 'Across the Wide Missouri'), and is mentioned in John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads". The Shenandoah river was named after the great Indian Chief Shenandoah.