The Great Kanawha: An American Story 

Great documentary! Love the Kanawaha Valley ❤

I went to WV Tech Montgomery WV as an EE from N.Va. in the mid 1980s. I started the WV Tech Trails & Outings Club and became a major rail fan of the region. I was always surprised with the large interest in river navigation in the 1800s that locks and dams were not continued above Gauley Bridge up the New River. The New River above Gauley Bridge might have had a lock system with dam to create a reservoir for barge navigation going at least as far as Hinton and Bluestone Lake. My WV Tech Trails & Outings Club did an overnight hike and campout exploring the abandon coal towns going east of the New River Gorge Bridge about 1984. These mining towns were kept busy though WW2 then abandon. I never realized how much industry was native to the region, but I did sense that long ago some large activities had had interests. I remember seeing the coke ovens seeming to stretch out to infinity along the C&O tracks at the Sewell now apart of Babcock State Park. It was decades later when I realized the C&O H8 Allegheny articulated steam locomotives had been stationed at Handley WV just a couple of miles from Montgomery, rated at the top horsepower of any main use steam locomotive. Much of the apparent vibrance of the region seemed to peak during WW2, a career life time away from when I became a student at WV Tech. Growing up in N.Va. I was use to constant history around me concerning the Civil War and tried to use that as means for appreciating the WV history around me. When scouting out the hollow known as Staten across from Montgomery WV I found stone works up on the sides of the hollow ease side that reminded me strongly of breast works I'd seen as fortification for Civil War battle lines. I mentioned this find to history professors at WV Tech and was quickly put down as there being no Civil War activity around the area. I looked into that and there was Civil War activity that specifically involved Cannelton Hollow. From those stone works there is a good trail route bring one up to the ridge over looking the town of Montgomery. The prominent rock exposure along the ridge over looking the river puts the view above any trees allowing great seeing. The route was like very close and down hill from the likely natural gas access road seen now on the mountain. www.google.com/maps/place/Montgomery+marina/@38.1887217,-81.3211386,236a,35y,142.3h,62.88t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x884ecfa81d597973:0x3acce5850ea572e5!2sCannelton,+WV+25136!3b1!8m2!3d38.1942723!4d-81.2959446!16s%2Fm%2F04c66rb!3m5!1s0x884ecfa14ba7a77b:0x5c4569eb656318db!8m2!3d38.1830674!4d-81.3353573!16s%2Fg%2F11w296szd9?hl=en&entry=ttu

I've swam in that river.

What ya wanna know I live along the kanawah river. It’s beautiful in places

Are there any WV travel or nature documentaries?

Very large river

The way the Indian woman describes the attacks her ancestors attempted against the 'invading white aliens' is exactly how they got that land in the first place. What we know aa native Americans today were not the original land occupiers in North America. The evidence is continuously being unearthed, literally. The history of our land is greatly faded into the psst but archeology is revealing some, slowly. At present, it seems the likelihood of ever knowing substantial facts about those peoples is going to be near impossible ax they were either eliminated entirely or entirely assimilated without carrying forward any lore. We are simply the current occupiers and as impossible as it would seem, eventually something new will happen here if life continues for centuries into the future. The difference, most likely, is we will leave ample evidence of our history. Unless our end is worldwide & catastrophic. Or the 2nd reign of Jesus begins.