The James River Batteau And Festival History
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filled in and used as a rail yard. After the War Between the States and through the early 1900’s, batteaux were used around the country as freight carriers where railroads and highways could not reach, but they would never again see the golden years as between 1785 and 1850.

It was stated by John Fontaine, a James River Basin water transportation researcher, “The dates of the sluice form of naviagation in Virginia are from 1749 to 1850 when the canal stopped at Buchanan. That means the system was used for one hundred years. The canal was not finished to Lynchburg until 1840. The railroad was put down on the tow path and completed by 1882. Which form of transportation existed the longest? It is all right to get romantic about the canal. It did improve the transportation on the James for both passengers and freight, but it was outmoded before it was built. There has been a historical failure to give credit due by the Virginia historians to the dugout canoe and batteau forms of transportation.”

In 1983, during a difficult excavation of the CSX rail yard for what is now the James Center in Richmond, the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society stood a steady vigilance. At the excavated twenty three foot level, they were rewarded by recognizable remains of batteaux being uncovered. Excavation would be halted for two weeks as volunteers from the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society and the Archeological Society of Virginia ventured down the muddy incline to record the discovery. What they found from the depths of what would become a new high-rise office complex were sixty three sunken canal boats, most of them batteaux, which were sunk 150 years ealier in what was then the turning basin for the Kanawha Canal. Complete batteaux skeletons were taken from their watery grave and stored for futher research. Drawings and measurements of others were recorded. This was the first time, in this century, that there was enough detail to actually build a batteau.

Dr. William Trout from the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society, while planning their annual meeting in Fluvanna County, introduced the findings of the excavation at the old Turning Basin to fellow society member and past president, Joe Ayers. Joe encouraged local support in the form of donations, materials, time and labor given by the residents of the town of Columbia to build the first James River Batteau in modern times, the “Columbia”. Joe Ayers and his crew, many from the town of Columbia, took their new batteau on its maiden voyage from Lynchburg to Tuckahoe Plantation outside Richmond in 1984. Joe was stricken with “Batteau Fever” and his dream became what is now the James River Batteau Festival, recreating the batteau era on the James River which is uniquely significant to our American heritage.

The year 1985 found the new James River Batteau Festival, sponsored by the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society, a reality. The ten newly built batteaux that left Lynchburg for Tuckahoe Plantation were named “Columbia”, “Minnie Lee”, “Richmond Rockett”, “Spirit of Amherst”, “Grand Dame de le Forest”, “CeeVeeSeaSea”, “Appomattox”, “Chief Powhatan”, “Lord Chesterfield” and “Maiden’s Adventure”.

The festival has continued to flourish and the year 2001 will mark the 16th annual festival. We expect in the neighborhood of 17 boats will continue the rich tradition of tracing the route the original batteaux took in the late 1700’s.

By Dian McNaught, Captain Rose of Nelson

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