Carvin’s Cove
Today’s 250th Anniversary Facts concerns the second largest aquifer in the United States, Carvin’s Cove.
It was named after the Carvin family and specifically, William Carvin, who had a plantation in the area. He is listed numerous times for being a leading citizen in Stoner’s book, “The Seed-Bed of the Republic: Early Botetourt.”
We are talking back in the days when Botetourt and, yes, even the Hollins area, were the Wild West of a budding United States of America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Fighting the native populations was part of survival back then.
The cove supplies water as a reservoir for the Roanoke Valley but is jointly in Roanoke and Botetourt Counties.
It is a place of recreation as well. You can hike, fish, paddle board and boat and even picnic there. It costs $3 per person to get in and another $3 to fish.
You cannot swim there!
Tinker Creek tunnel under Tinker Mountain was opened in 1966 and diverts water from Tinker Creek in Botetourt into the Carvin’s Cove reservoir.
You can find many more facts about Carvin’s Cove with a quick Google of the Western Virginia Water Authority or visit Outdoors Roanoke or Carvin’s Cove on FB.
-Cathy Benson, The Botetourt Bee
Sources: “Seed-Bed of the Republic,” by Robert Douhat Stoner, Western Virginia Water Authority, Outdoors Roanoke
