Crew members dressed in Colonial-era clothes will spend a week paddling down the James River in shallow boats called batteaux, ending up at Maiden’s Landing on June 23. The annual James River Batteau Festival is hosted by the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society. Photo courtesy of the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society

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Boaters piloting 15 to 20 shallow, flat-bottomed boats (called batteaux) will launch on the James River in Lynchburg in mid-June, slowly paddling 120 miles until they arrive at Maiden’s Landing west of Richmond a week later.

For the past 33 years, members of the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society have been navigating the James River on such batteaux. For the society’s yearly James River Batteau Festival, crew members don colonial-era garb and commemorate the role of the James in our region’s history.

Batteaux were first adapted from Indian dugout canoes in the 1740s. Then, around 1770, brothers Anthony and Benjamin Rucker of Amherst County created a new type of batteau designed to easily navigate shallow, swift waters.

According to legend, Thomas Jefferson attended the Ruckers’ batteau launch on the Tye River, and even helped them get a patent for their creation.

In early America, hundreds of batteaux travelled the James River to sell supplies like tobacco, iron and flour. But with the development of the canal system and then railroads, batteaux became obsolete, and their history was lost for hundreds of years.

Origins of the festival

Then, during construction in downtown Richmond in 1983, batteaux were uncovered in the bottom of the Turning Basin of the James. This area was specially constructed so that, as the name suggests, boats could turn around, because Richmond’s canals were otherwise too narrow in which to do so.

The recreation director of Fluvanna County at the time of that discovery, Joe Ayers, built his own batteau with some of his friends and traveled on it to Richmond. Two years later, he organized the first Batteau Festival.

According to Gail Timberlake, past president of the Society, the early festivals were races, with crews using oars to travel faster and even changing members midway through to stay competitive.

In its current form, the Festival is no longer a race. Rather, as Timberlake describes it, it is “an eight-day journey spent catching up with batteau family members and enjoying the river.”

The festival often is a family affair. Some crews bring their children along, and many of the younger crew members grew up participating in the event.

This helps fulfill the Society’s stated mission, which is to “celebrate the cultural heritage of the river basin in music, song, dance, and storytelling…[with] a folklife festival uniting rural communities along 120 miles of the James River.”

Writing about the river

Timberlake first got involved with the Society after her husband and father-in-law built a boat together. He asked if she and her mother would be willing to feed the crews breakfast before they started the race, and they agreed.

“My mother, Virginia King, was queen of the support crew and affectionately called Batteau Mama,” Timberlake said

Once she started feeding the crew, Timberlake got “river fever” and decided to participate as a crew member on the Lady’s Slipper, which started out as an all-female boat.

A particularly memorable journey in 2009 inspired her to become an author. That year, the Lady’s Slipper got into trouble along Seven Islands. Fortunately, a crew of young men came by and helped them maneuver out of their tough spot.

That experience impacted Timberlake so much that she decided to write a series of children’s books (The Rescue of the Lady’s Slipper and two others so far) that provide historical background and insight into the experience of traveling the James on a batteau. Throughout much of the year, Timberlake travels to local schools to share her stories.

How you can participate

This year’s Batteau Festival begins on June 16 in Lynchburg and continues on to the towns of Stapleton, Bent Creek, Wingina, Howardsville, Scottsville, Slate River and Cartersville. Boats finish up their journey when they roll into Maiden’s Landing on June 23.

Each boat has a crew of anywhere from four to a dozen people. Every evening, the crews stop at one of the historic river towns to camp out. At each stop, festival participants enjoy spending time together, playing music and sharing stories about the batteaux.

The campsites at each stop are open and accessible to the public. On June 20, when the crews arrive in the historic town of Scottsville, visitors are welcome to spend the afternoon and evening there enjoying food trucks, music, shopping and historical sites.

Visitors can also watch the festival conclude at Maiden’s Landing. Powhatan State Park will host a party that day with educational programs and demonstrations, enabling families a perfect vantage point from which to see the batteaux as they approach the end of their journey.

To learn more, see http://vacanals.org/batteau.