History & Culture

The New River has been cutting through the Appalachian Plateau for tens of millions of years, creating the steep canyon that defines the park today. Long before industrial development, Indigenous peoples—including ancestors of the Shawnee and other Eastern Woodlands tribes—used the river corridor for travel, hunting, and seasonal settlement.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the gorge became a center of intense industrial activity. Rich coal seams and the arrival of railroads sparked a boom of mining towns tucked into the narrow valleys. Thousands of workers—many of them immigrants and Appalachian families—labored in dangerous conditions to power America’s growing cities and industries. When the coal industry declined, many of these towns were abandoned, leaving behind stone foundations, rusting equipment, and quiet reminders of a hard-lived era.

After decades of conservation efforts, the area was officially designated New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in 2020, making it the newest national park in the United States. The designation protects both the natural landscape and the layered human history embedded in the gorge’s cliffs and valleys.