WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



279 



creek watershed to the crest of Canaan mountain, the county 

 attains its greatest elevation, 4,300 feet. The lowest ground is 

 found where the Cheat river leaves the county at an elevation 

 of 1,469 f^et. Between these two altitudes the downward slope 

 of the land surface, toward the northwest from the Alleghanies 

 and toward the northeast from the less elevated crest of Laurel 

 ridge, is interrupted by numerous mountains and plateaus and 

 by the deep channels of streams. The principal mountains with- 

 in, or partly within, the county are the Alleghany, the Canaan, 

 and the Brown mountains in the eastern part; Shavers moun- 

 tain which extends into the county just west of Glady Fork; 

 Green mountain, partly enclosed by Otter creek, a tributary of 

 Dry Fork ; McGowans mountains, between Otter creek and Elk- 

 lick run; Fork mountain, east of the lower part of Shavers 

 Fork; Pheasant mountain and Laurel ridge on the west; Lime- 

 stone mountain on the right of Cheat river where it leaves the 

 county and Backbone mountain in the center. Some of the 

 mountains named conform to the general trend of the Appa- 

 lachian System and others break away at all angles and extend 

 irregularly between numerous tributaries of the Cheat. 



''Some miles beyond the Backbone, on the head branches of 

 Cheat river, there is an elevated region of about one hundred 

 thousand acres of land from time immemorial called the Land 

 of Canaan."* The region here referred to is the southern end 

 of an elevated plateau which lies in a broad belt westward from 

 the crest of the AUeghanies through the counties of Tucker and 

 Grant. This area, with an average elevation of about 3,000 feet, 

 forms in the county the principal plateau region and is one of 

 its most striking physical features. 



The county is drained entirely by the waters of the Cheat 

 river, the main stream of which flows through the west-central 

 portion of the county in a north-easterly direction. Its princi- 

 pal tributaries are Clover run and Minear run, which empty 

 into the river from opposite sides near the town of St. George; 

 Horseshoe run, which empties into the river a short distance 

 above the ' ' Island ' ' ; Shavers Fork which, with Big Blackwater, 

 forms the main stream at Parsons, the present county seat; 

 Elklick run which empties into the river at Hambleton; Dry 



* Maxwell's Hist, of Tucker Co. 1884, p. 168. 



