Tearcoat Creek (officially Tear Coat Creek, per 1931 federal Board on Geographic Names decision[1]) is an 18.3-mile-long (29.5 km)[2] free-flowing tributary stream of the North River, itself a tributary of the Cacapon River, making it a part of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay watersheds. The creek is located in central Hampshire County, West Virginia. Its name is believed to have been derived from the tearing of the coats of British soldiers by low-hanging branches as they forded the stream during either the French and Indian or the American Revolutionary Wars.
Tearcoat Creek is popular with whitewater rafters who frequent the 3.9-mile (6.3 km) stretch of stream between the Northwestern Turnpike (U.S. Route 50) at Pleasant Dale and its mouth on the North River. The creek's Class II-III rapids are mostly on blind turns in the forested gorge near its mouth. Tearcoat Creek can be accessed by rafters from Tear Coat Road (CR 50/17), which is parallel to the stream from US 50.