The upper Dan River drainage is one of two major headwaters of the Roanoke River. Unlike the Haw, Eno, and Flat rivers, the upper Dan is a major river with extensive terrace development and expansive bottoms. Its principal tributaries, the Smith and Mayo rivers, and Town Fork Creek, also are major streams with broad floodplains. Ethnohistoric records indicate that this area was occupied primarily by the Sara tribe throughout most of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.