Stonecoal Creek

Stonecoal Creek is a tributary of the West Fork River, 12.8mi long, in north-central West Virginia in the United States. Via the West Fork, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 41sqmi on the unglaciated portion of the Allegheny Plateau. The stream is believed to have been named in the late 1760s by a group of explorers and settlers (including Jesse Hughes), who found coal in nearby hills and mixed with pebbles in the stream.Stonecoal Creek rises approximately five miles (8 km) west-northwest of Buckhannon in northwestern Upshur County and flows westwardly into northern Lewis County, where it joins the West Fork River from the east in the city of Weston. Its principal tributary, the 9.7mi Right Fork Stonecoal Creek, was dammed in Lewis County to form Stonecoal Lake in 1972 by Allegheny Energy for the purpose of providing water to a power plant in Harrison County. The 550acre lake is privately owned, but is managed by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, as is a Wildlife Management Area surrounding the lake.