Poca, WV

Poca sits in Putnam County where the Pocatalico River meets the Kanawha, west of Charleston and within the Huntington–Ashland regional orbit. The town took its name from the Pocatalico, a long, winding river whose watershed runs through Roane, Kanawha, and Putnam counties. That water junction gives Poca a distinctive geography: one river carries the town’s name, the other carries the larger valley traffic and industry.

Town government, Poca High School, the Kanawha River waterfront, and the roads through Raymond City and Winfield make up the everyday map. The Pocatalico was historically associated with coal and timber, while the Kanawha corridor connects the town to the chemical, industrial, and commuter life of the Charleston area. West Virginia artist Ben Mahmoud also used Poca in a series of art stamps and fictional local-history stories, giving the town an unusual place in the state’s visual culture. Poca’s local scoop is the confluence: its name comes from the smaller river, but its setting is defined by the meeting of two.