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Birch River Monthly Spotlight March 2001 - Birch River's Rocks "River on the Rocks" was a natural choice for the title of Skip Johnson's upcoming book on Birch River, due for publication in fall of 2001. An eight-mile stretch of the river in Nicholas and Braxton Counties is strewn with rocks, many of them of impressive size. During preparation of the book, the author asked a geologist friend to "weigh" some of the largest rocks. The largest rock is located at the Fast Hollow along the river and it weighs in at an impressive 2025 tons. The Big Eddy Rock is next in size and it has a mass of over 1700 tons. The third largest rock is the Falls Rock and it weighs a little over 1000 tons. Bill Gillespie, the geologist, said the hardest part of weighing the rocks was getting them on the scales. Well, of course that wasn't actually the way it went. Bill drew sketches as the rocks were measured, broke these sketches into rough geometric shapes, figured the volume in cubic feet for each section and then added the weight of those sections together. The weight of a cubic foot of sandstone is a known quantity; hence the geometric equations that followed produced the weights. Although the largest rocks of Birch are geological marvels, the sum of all the parts is mind-boggling. There is one particular section of the river which the author describes as "a maelstrom of swift water and rocks," an appellation that could be applied to more than one stretch of the river.The rocks begin at a place known locally as the Frank Given Hole, named for a farmer who settled on the river in 1896 at the mouth of Big Run in Nicholas County. This is about one mile below the Cora Brown House and Bridge, which are landmarks on upper Birch and the starting point for the seventeen-mile stretch of river that is included in the State Natural Streams Preservation Act. From there to upstream of the Raven Eddy in Braxton County, the river is so rocky that wading, fishing and boating are challenges and the latter is only practical at higher flows. But the rocks make the river very photogenic as you can see from other parts of this website. The rocks in Birch were not put there by glaciers; the region through which Birch flows was never covered by glaciers. The rocks either fell from the cliffs that line the river in many places, or they were already there and the river simply cut down to where they lay. Over the years, floodwaters have moved the smaller rocks here and there like pieces on a chessboard. Birch is a small stream and very benign at normal flows but during times of high water it can be a raging torrent. The rock that is noted as the third largest rock along the river is really the signature rock of Birch because of its size, shape and picturesque setting. Quite possibly, it rolled and somersaulted down from a nearby cliff, perhaps as long as one thousand years ago. It sits alone in the river channel about one mile below Herold and has been photographed countless times, the most noteworthy time for an article published in Wonderful West Virginia magazine. According to local legend, this rock was moved slightly by a huge flood in 1936. Some of the large rocks of Birch, including the one mentioned above, have vegetation growing on them. Hemlock and squaw huckleberry are the most abundant species found on the rocks, which is a tribute to nature's ways. Nature asserts herself in many ways and in the case of Birch River and its rocks; it contributed to the title of our upcoming book. |
March 2001 Spotlight - Birch
River's Rocks
April 2001 Spotlight - Mouth
of Birch Eddy
May 2001 Spotlight - Boggs
Falls and Mill
June 2001 Spotlight -
Boggs Shootout
July 2001 Spotlight - The
Blue Hole
August 2001 Spotlight -
The Floods of Birch
