Stonecoal Creek

Geobox|River
name = Stonecoal Creek

---

image_size =
image_caption = The Right Fork of Stonecoal Creek, downstream of Stonecoal Lake in 2006
image_first =
country = United States
country_

state = West Virginia
state_

region_type = Counties
region = Lewis
region1 = Upshur
length =
length_imperial =
length_note =
watershed =
watershed_imperial = 41
watershed_note =cite web |url= http://www.dep.state.wv.us/watershed/ |pages = [http://web.archive.org/web/20060523112232/www.dep.state.wv.us/watershed/w5020002.html West Fork River] | title= Watershed Atlas Project. | author= West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection | accessdate=2007-02-26 |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20050404165853/www.dep.state.wv.us/watershed/ |archivedate=2006-05-07]
discharge_location =
discharge_average =
discharge_average_imperial =
discharge_max =
discharge_max_imperial =
discharge_min =
discharge_min_imperial =
discharge1_location =
discharge1_average =
discharge1_average_imperial =
source_name =
source_location = northwestern Upshur County
source_location_note =
source_lat_d = 39
source_lat_m = 00
source_lat_s = 47
source_lat_NS = N
source_long_d = 80
source_long_m = 18
source_long_s = 47
source_long_EW = W
source_coordinates_note =cite web |url=Gnis3|1547471 |title=Geographic Names Information System entry for Stonecoal Creek (Feature ID #1547471) |author=Geographic Names Information System |authorlink=Geographic Names Information System|accessdate=2007-02-19]
source_elevation =
source_elevation_imperial = 1453
source_elevation_note = [Google Earth elevation for GNIS source coordinates. Retrieved on 2007-02-19.]
source_length =
source_length_imperial =
source_name =
source_location = Upshur County, WV
source_location_note =
source_lat_d = 39
source_lat_m = 00
source_lat_s = 47
source_lat_NS = N
source_long_d = 80
source_long_m = 18
source_long_s = 47
source_long_EW = W
source_coordinates_note =cite web |url=Gnis3|1547471 |title=Geographic Names Information System entry for Stonecoal Creek (Feature ID #1547471) |author=Geographic Names Information System |authorlink=Geographic Names Information System|accessdate=2007-02-19]
source_elevation =
source_elevation_imperial = 1453
source_elevation_note = [Google Earth elevation for GNIS source coordinates. Retrieved on 2007-02-19.]
mouth_name = West Fork River
mouth_location = Weston, WV
mouth_location_note =
mouth_elevation =
mouth_elevation_imperial = 1010
mouth_elevation_note =
mouth_lat_d = 39
mouth_lat_m = 02
mouth_lat_s = 36
mouth_lat_NS = N
mouth_long_d = 80
mouth_long_m = 27
mouth_long_s = 43
mouth_long_EW = W
mouth_coordinates_note =
tributary_left = Right Fork Stonecoal Creek
tributary_left1 =
tributary_right =
tributary_right1 =


map_size =
map_caption =
map_first =

Stonecoal Creek is a tributary of the West Fork River 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 41 square miles (106 km²) 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. [cite book| author=Kenny, Hamill |title= West Virginia Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning, Including the Nomenclature of the Streams and Mountains |year=1945 |publisher=The Place Name Press |location=Piedmont, West Virginia |pages= p.604]

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. [DeLorme (1997). "West Virginia Atlas & Gazetteer". Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme. p.36. ISBN 0-89933-246-3.] Its principal tributary, the Right Fork Stonecoal Creek, [cite web |url=Gnis3|1545711 |title=Geographic Names Information System entry for Right Fork Stonecoal Creek (Feature ID #1545711) |author=Geographic Names Information System |authorlink=Geographic Names Information System|accessdate=2007-02-19] 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 550-acre (220 ha) lake is privately owned, but is managed by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, as is a Wildlife Management Area surrounding the lake. [cite book| last= Winters |first= Kelly |editor= Ken Sullivan (ed.) | title= The West Virginia Encyclopedia |year= 2006 |publisher= West Virginia Humanities Council |location=Charleston, W.Va. |isbn= 0-9778498-0-5 |pages= p. 684 |chapter=Stonecoal Lake]

According to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, approximately 77% of Stonecoal Creek's watershed is forested, mostly deciduous. Approximately 19% is used for pasture and agriculture, and approximately 2% is urban.

Variant spellings

According to the Geographic Names Information System, Stonecoal Creek has also been known historically as:
*Stone Coal Creek
*Stone Cole Creek
*Stone Cole Run

ee also

*List of West Virginia rivers

References