(Main article: History of West Virginia) West Virginia waterways find their highest sources in the highland watersheds of the Allegheny Mountains. These watersheds supply drainage to the creeks often passing through deep and narrow hollows. From the hollows, rushing highland streams collect in bottom land brooks and rivers. People have lived along and boated on the waterways of what is now the Mountain State from the time of antiquity. Paddlewheel Tow Boat Sprague, the largest river steamboat in the world, towing 50,000 tons of coal in barges.[1]