Charleston City Map Poster

About Charleston

The Kanawha River is a tributary of the Ohio River, long, in the U.S. states of West Virginia and Kentucky. The river was important among Native Americans as early as 10,000 years ago for its abundant game and fish; it was also an important trade route between the interior villages of what are now West Virginia and eastern Tennessee by at least 1000 CE (see Paleo-Indians). In 1716 Daniel Boone followed this trail while exploring southward from his native Pennsylvania into what became known as Kentucky; he later settled near present-day Charleston along its banks in 1773–74 after first visiting lands that would become part of Fayette County on behalf of Richard Henderson's Transylvania Company.