The Rappahannock River Basin

The Rappahannock River flows entirely through Virginia, and its entire watershed (2,715 sq. miles or 6 percent of the state) resides in Virginia. The watershed is between the Potomac-Shenandoah Watershed to the north and the James River Watershed to the south. Some say the river rises in Fauquier County on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains, near a town in adjacent Rappahannock County called Chester Gap. Others say it rises in Chester Gap. The maps seem to show the answer to be Fauquier, near Chester Gap. Virginia's Department of Conservation and Resources tries to compromise: "The Rappahannock River has its headwaters in Rappahannock and Fauquier Counties."

Overview of the Rappahannock Watershed in terms of the counties through which it flows.

When we visited Chester Gap, we asked a lady running a local deli her opinion. She echoed the compromise position, but acknowledged that the locals argue about the question quite a bit.

We are going with Fauquier County as the source, largely because Eugene Scheel, a well-known Virginia map-maker who has walked about every inch of the area, has made this call. It makes sense if you look at the maps. The Chester Gap "source" looks more like a tributary coming down the slopes from the west.

In any event, the river is fed by a substantial number of streams coming down the slopes of the Blue Ridge and flows southeastward past Fredericksburg to enter Chesapeake Bay after a course of 212 miles (some say 184 miles). Its major tributaries include the Hazel River, Thorton River, Mountain Run, Rapidan River (perhaps the most prominent), Robinson River, Cat Point Creek, and Corotoman River. It widens substantially into and estuary of Chesapeake Bay past Tappahannock. It is navigable from the Bay to Fredericksburg.

The Rappahannock crosses the Fall Zone at Fredericksburg, forming waterfalls and cascades. Experts refer to the area above this Fall Line as the Upper Basin, and call the region below it the Lower Basin. Interestingly, the Lower Basin is tidal and is navigable all the way to the Bay.

Overview of the Rappahannock Watershed in terms of the rest of the state.

If you searched documents of the 18th and early 19th centuries, you are unlikely to find references to the Rappahannock River. It was instead called Hedgeman's River.