The Smith River is a river in the U.S. states of Virginia and North Carolina. It is a tributary of the Dan River, which it joins at Eden, North Carolina. According to the United States Geological Survey and regional histories, variant names are Irvin River, Irvine River, Irwin River, and Smith's River. The Smith River is a tailrace stream, fed by water from Philpott Lake. Water flow is regulated at Philpott Dam according to the demands of hydroelectric power generation, downstream water temperature control, and adequate water levels for recreational use. From its source at Philpott Dam, the river runs 44.5 mi through Franklin County and Henry County before reaching the North Carolina border. After crossing the border, the Smith River runs an additional 5.25 miles through Rockingham County, North Carolina before its confluence with the Dan River. History Archaeological evidence from sites surrounding the Smith River indicate that the river was first visited by hunter-gatherers during the late PaleoIndian (ca. 9,000-8,000 B.C.) and Early Archaic (8,000-6,000 B.C.) periods. From this early period through ca. A.D. 1200, the Smith River Valley was visited seasonally, by small bands of hunters taking advantage of the rich fauna inhabiting the river valley. The flood plains surrounding the Smith River were first permanently settled by Virginia Indians in the late prehistoric era, known archaeologically as the Late Woodland period, and regionally as the Dan River Phase. Between A.D. 1250 and A.D. 1450, Siouan-speaking groups of the Virginia and North Carolina Piedmont founded agricultural villages along the length of the river. Archaeological evidence indicates that village sites along the Smith River were protected by wooden palisades, and relied heavily on the cultivation of maize. At least one of these villages, the Philpott site (44Hr004), was occupied by the Sara Indians through the 1650s. Some of the earliest Europeans to visit the Smith River were members of a survey party led by William Byrd II in 1728, tasked with mapping the Virginia-North Carolina border. Encountering the river on the October 18, 1728, Byrd named the body of water "the river Irvine" after Alexander Irvine, who served as a surveyor for the party while on leave from his role as professor of mathematics at the College of William and Mary. An account from William Byrd's The History of the Dividing Line concerning the river states,"... we descended some stony hills for about half a mile, and then