Cheat Canyon

Cheat Canyon — also called Cheat River Canyon or Cheat River Gorge — is a 10-mile long, forested canyon of the Cheat River at the western edge of the Allegheny Mountains in northeastern West Virginia, USA. A popular whitewater venue, for many years the Canyon has been the object of controversy as environmental activists have contended with timber and development interests over its preservation status.

The remote Cheat Canyon was carved by the Cheat River and extends for about 10.5 miles between the towns of Albright in Preston County and Cheat Lake in Monongalia County, West Virginia. The steep forested slopes rise as much as 1,200 feet from the river bed to the Canyon rim.

The Canyon rim with its steep tributaries is composed of hard, white, grainy Pottsville sandstone. This forms the outcrops and cliffs along the rim which often break off to form talus fields that gradually slide down the forest slopes and pile up at the river bottom. Numerous caves have been formed by water in the Greenbrier Limestone of the lower strata of the Canyon walls.

A timber company planning to log sensitive parts of Cheat Canyon agreed to protect the habitat of two federally imperiled species, the threatened flat-spired three-toothed snail (Triodopsis platysayoides) and the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis). In addition, according to the Association for Biodiversity Information, there are eight other globally uncommon plant and animal species in the canyon: Virginia bladetooth snail, delicate vertigo snail, eastern small-footed bat, green salamander, Allegheny woodrat, Barbara's buttons, an unnamed amphipod, and an unnamed isopod.

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