Arbuckle District, Mason County, West Virginia

The district's main streams all empty into the Kanawha River, and are named for the distance that their ends lie above the mouth of the Kanawha, or did at the time of the first settlement: Threemile, Fivemile, Lower and Upper Ninemile, Little Sixteenmile and Big Sixteenmile Creeks.[5]

Threemile Creek drains the western end of Arbuckle District, and empties into the Kanawha a little below the mouth of another, more extensive creek also named Threemile, on the north side of the Kanawha, in Lewis and Cooper Districts. Fivemile has an extensive course on the Kanawha River Bottom, where its right-hand fork branches off to the west as Little Fivemile Creek. The main branch flows out of the hills behind Couch, where it divides into Lower Fivemile Creek, to the west, and extending into Clendenin District; and Upper Fivemile Creek, to the east, running past the village of Fivemile. Similarly, Lower and Upper Ninemile Creeks converge on the river bottom below Beech Hill. In the hills Lower Ninemile meets with Middle Ninemile Creek, which runs past Pine Grove Church and the former village of Stockton, while Upper Ninemile flows out of the hills north of the former village of Flaxton, both now part of the Chief Cornstalk Wildlife Management Area.[7][6][11][12]

Little Sixteenmile flows south out of the hills around Condee, above which the main branch converges with the Shady Fork; from Condee, the creek turns eastward before reaching the river bottom at Southside. Little Sixteen then meanders northward across the floodplain, running parallel to the Kanawha for more than two miles, before discharging into the river. The upper waters of Big Sixteenmile Creek, also known as Kanawha Sixteenmile, or just Sixteen, arise in the southeastern part of Clendenin District, with the main branch and the Five Fork Branch flowing out of the hills of Crooked Ridge, Mount Union Ridge, and Dunlavy Ridge, converging before flowing eastward into Arbuckle District just above the former village of Siloam. The creek continues east past Barn Hollow, then is joined by more branches flowing south from Hambrick Ridge and north from Dunlavy, and finally leaves the hills below McCausland. Sixteenmile then meanders north for about a mile along the base of the hills, before turning eastward and flowing across the plain to the Kanawha.[6][9][12][13]

Other streams in Arbuckle District include McCausland Run, which joins the Kanawha just below the Putnam County line, opposite Robertsburg; Pond Branch, which empties into the Kanawha above Ninemile; and Twomile Creek, which runs just inside the northeastern boundary with Clendenin District. The upper waters of the Ohio Sixteenmile Creek arise in the western part of Arbuckle District; the main branch meets with Wolfpen Run, and joins with the Willow Branch, flowing southward out of Arbuckle District just above Arlee.[6][9][8][12][13]

There are no incorporated towns in Arbuckle District, but there are several unincorporated communities, including Beech Hill, Condee, Couch, Fivemile, McCausland, Southside, and the former villages of Flaxton, Siloam and Veranda.[7][6][8][9]

Nine miles from the mouth of the Kanawha, Beech Hill is the largest village in Arbuckle District.[5] The village is thought to have taken its name from the Beech Hill Methodist Episcopal Church, built there in 1860; and the church was named for the numerous beech trees that covered the hill.[14] In the latter part of the nineteenth century, Beech Hill was the site of a large lumber depot, established by Robert Alexander in 1866. Alexander was also Beech Hill's first postmaster, from 1868 to 1872. There was a steamboat landing, sheltered from ice floes by a bend in the river, and another landing across the river at Beech Hill Station, or Debby Post Office, in Cooper District. A ferry carried passengers back and forth between the two sides.[5][15][8]

The only highway in Arbuckle District is U.S. Route 35, which runs from Scott Depot in Putnam County to Henderson, in Clendenin District, before crossing the Ohio River. For most of its length in Arbuckle District, Route 35 parallels the river at the base of the hills, but for about six miles the highway moves into the hills, diverting heavy traffic from its former route, now West Virginia Route 817, known locally as Kanawha Valley Road.

There are currently no Kanawha River crossings in Arbuckle District. Until the twentieth century, ferries carried passengers across the river at Ambrosia, Beech Hill, Leon, and Grimms Landing.[7][8][9]