Oddly, the New River is actually on of the world's oldest rivers, thought to be predated only by the Nile. The New was born as part of an ancient river system known today as the "Teays." Five hundred million years ago, in what geologists call the Paleozoic Era, Africa and North America collided. The force of the collision caused the eruption, over a few million years, of the Appalachian mountains. Their height originally exceeded that of the Rocky Mountains, which were formed much later.
The Teays River, with headwaters near present-day Blowing Rock, North Carolina, drained the northern and western slopes of these new mountains. The ancient Teays meandered northwestward into what became Ohio and then turned westerly through Indiana and Illinois. Finally, it turned south and entered a large bay. This bay covered what eventually became the Mississippi River valley. Even today, sections of the New and Mississippi rivers still flow along the ancient Teays riverbed.
The river's action, along with wind and rain, eroded the mountains (over millions of years) down to a flat plain. The Teays, at that time, was a wide, slowly meandering river...totally unsuitable for rafting.
About 60 million years ago, during the Mesozoic Era, new geologic forces caused the land to be elevated once again. The rate of the downward cutting erosion of the Teays exceeded the upward eruption of the surrounding mountains...and created the spectacular gorge that we see today. That the river predates the surrounding mountains is evidenced by the fact that it flows diagonally across the mountains and through them...rather than around them. This cutting action continues today and is responsible for the New's 1,500-foot canyon. The New has cut through many layers of sediment, including the coal seams laid down during the Carboniferous period over 200 million years ago.
The route of the Teays followed the present-day course of the New from North Carolina to West Virginia. It then proceeded northwestward through Ohio and then westward through Indiana, about 100 miles north of Indianapolis. It continued its westward flow until it turned south and emptied into the Gulf of Mexico (which extended up to Illinois in those days).
Then, about 100 million years ago, in what is known as the Pleistocene Era, the Ice Age began. Repeatedly, huge glaciers advanced and retreated from the north. Eventually, the "bulldozer" action of the glaciation dammed up the Teays in the vicinity of Chillicothe, Ohio, creating a huge lake. When the last glacier retreated about 10,000 years ago, the lake burst through it's "dam" and drained to form the present-day Kanawha and Ohio rivers...taking a shortcut to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Thus we have one of the world's oldest rivers, the New (or Teays) draining into one of the world's newest, the Ohio.
As we raft down the New River, we see the earth's geologic history unfolding before our eyes. The section of the gorge between Thurmond and Fayette Station consists of sedimentary layers of shale, coal and sandstone, the latter being a solidified remnant of the times when this entire part of North America lay at the bottom of a shallow inland sea. Over the ages, the softer layers have eroded and large chunks of sandstone have fallen into the riverbed...these are the huge rocks which form many of the New's legendary rapids.
