The
Roanoke River is a river in southern
Virginia and northeastern
North Carolina in the
United States, 410 mi (660 km) long. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the
coastal plain from the eastern edge of the
Appalachian Mountains southeast across the
Piedmont to
Albemarle Sound. An important river throughout the history of the United States, it was the site of early settlement in the
Virginia Colony and the
Carolina Colony. An 81 mile section of its lower course in Virginia between the Leesville Lake and
Kerr Lake is known as the
Staunton River, pronounced STAN-ten, as is the Shenandoah Valley city of
that name. It is impounded along much of its middle course to form a chain of reservoirs.