Clendenin Magisterial District is one of ten magisterial districts in Mason County, West Virginia, United States. The district was originally established as a civil township in 1863, and converted into a magisterial district in 1872. In 2020, Clendenin District was home to 3,435 people.
Geography
Clendenin District is located along the Ohio River in the southern part of Mason County. To the north, it is bounded by the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers, and by Lewis District; to the northeast, by Arbuckle District; to the southeast by Buffalo-Union District in Putnam County, formerly Buffalo District; to the south by Hannan District, in Mason County; and to the west by the Ohio River. Across the river are Gallipolis and Clay Townships, in Gallia County, Ohio, and the village of Gallipolis.
Clendenin District includes submerged land in the Ohio River to the low water mark on the Ohio shore, originally reserved by the state of Virginia, when it ceded its claim to the Northwest Territory in 1784. As a result, the district includes Gallipolis Island, a quarter-mile long island barely two hundred feet from the Gallipolis shore. The district also includes the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam, on the Ohio River just above Apple Grove. Excluded from Clendenin District is Raccoon Island, a former island, now a shoal in the Ohio River opposite the mouth of Crab Creek; at low water, Raccoon Island was connected to the mainland, so it belongs to Clay Township in Gallia County.
With an area greater than eighty-three square miles, Clendenin is the largest of Mason County's ten magisterial districts. It is one of three districts south of the Kanawha River, together with Arbuckle and Hannan; these are three of the four largest and most rural districts in Mason County. The soil in the Ohio River bottoms of the western part of the district feature a productive mixture of sand and clay. The soil in the hills making up the majority of the district contains red and white clay, mixed with black loam.
Streams
The main streams of Clendenin District are Salt Creek, Twomile Creek, Crab Creek, Flatfoot Creek, Sixteenmile Creek, and Eighteenmile Creek, all of which empty into the Ohio River, and Arbuckle Creek, which flows into the Kanawha above Henderson. Of these, Twomile and Sixteenmile are sometimes referred to as the Ohio Twomile and Sixteenmile, to distinguish them from the Kanawha Twomile and Sixteenmile Creeks, which flow into the Kanawha River from Arbuckle District. There was once a Kanawha Eighteenmile in Mason County, but since 1848 it has been part of Putnam County; its mouth forms part of the boundary between Putnam County and Union District in Mason County.
Crab Creek is the largest stream lying entirely in Clendenin District. Its middle fork begins in the hills three miles east of Gallipolis Ferry, near the northwest corner of Arbuckle District. It flows south and west for about three miles, until it meets its Right-hand Fork, which flows westward from the hills east of Fay, taking in Horse Lick coming from the north below Mohrtown. Crab Creek then flows westward out of the hills, meeting the Sand Fork at the base of the hills. The Sand Fork of Crab Creek flows south and west out of the hills a mile east of Gallipolis Ferry, reaching the river bottom at Beale, then meandering through the floodplain south and east for a mile and a half before joining the main branch. Crab Creek then flows along the base of the hills for a mile and a half before abruptly turning northwest, and meeting Mud Run, flowing out of the hills behind Ben Lomond, a mile to the south. The combined stream then meanders through the bottomland before discharging into the Ohio, just above the mouth of Raccoon Creek on the opposite shore.
Flatfoot Creek flows southeast out of the hills behind Hogsett, reaching the floodplain above Apple Grove, then running along the base of the hills north to Hogsett. Here the creek historically turned southward, and gradually meandered toward the Ohio, which it joined at the boundary of Clendenin and Hannan Districts. In the 1990s, part of the western portion of the floodplain along the Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam was removed and flooded to build two auxiliary locks, and Flatfoot Creek diverted to empty into the Ohio at Hogsett. The original lower course of the creek was used to create a series of ponds below the locks.