It consolidates its main channel about five miles west of Summerville, widening into a tidal estuary just south of Fort Dorchester.

[1][2] The river was named for Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury and chief Lord Proprietor of the Carolina Colony by explorer Robert Sandford.

[3] In 1675 Cooper was granted 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) of land along the river after a permanent settlement was made at Albemarle Point in 1670.

[4] The Ashley River area contains 26 separate sites listed in the National Register of Historic Places with 22 mi (35 km) being designated a State Scenic River, extending from Sland's Bridge (US Highway 17-A) near Summerville to the Mark Clark expressway (I-526) bridge in Charleston.

[5] Within this segment, a visitor can experience a blackwater swamp, the tides of the Atlantic, and much of the history of South Carolina.