Dan and smith river facts
Click To Download:
Rockingham County River Guide
The Dan River:
- The Dan River is about 200 miles long and 200 million years old.
- The Dan River springs forth from the earth at Meadows of Dan in Patrick County, Virginia.
- The Dan River belongs to two states; it flows in and out of North Carolina and Virginia at least six times.
- The Dan River joins the Staunton River in Halifax County, Virginia, where it becomes the Roanoke River, which flows to the Albemarle Sound in North Carolina.
- The Dan River once flowed into the Roanoke at Clarksville, Virginia, before the Staunton and Dan rivers were dammed to form Kerr Reservoir.
- The Dan River is part of the Roanoke River basin.
- The land that drains into the Dan River is called the Dan River basin, or watershed. It is about 3, 300 square miles in size.
- The major rivers that empty into the Dan River are the Mayo, the Smith, the Banister, the Sandy and the Hyco.
- The Dan River has one of the best preserved, nationally significant historic batteau navigation systems.
- Batteau navigation began on the Dan River in 1792. Eden is the site of the Leaksville Landing, a batteau port that can still be seen in the river today.
- 23 historic batteau navigation structures are found within the 30 miles of the Dan River in Rockingham County.