Abstract:
The New River, which flows about 100 miles through western North Carolina, is at 300 million years, second only to the Nile River in age. A dam threatened the river with extinction in 1965, but legal and legislative action over a ten-year period saved it. In 1975, the North Carolina General Assembly declared 26.5 miles a State Scenic River. In 1976, the federal government declared the same stretch part of the National Wetland and Scenic River System.