I found this info from the FONR (Friends of the New River) website and thought it very interesting.
Despite its name, there is nothing new about the New River. In fact, the river is the oldest in the United States and second-oldest in the world. “I’ve heard dates of anything from 10 million to 360 million years," says FONR board member Lynn Sharp of the Virginia Tech Museum of Natural History. "I usually just say it’s ancient.” The New River has its origins in northwestern North Carolina, near the towns of Boone and Blowing Rock. By the time it merges with the Gauley River in West Virginia near Charleston to form the Kanawha, it has flowed north through parts of North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. In 1998 the New River was designated as one of fourteen American Heritage Rivers.