Experience history, wildlife, and conservation efforts with guided river tours

By: Jeremy Angione  |  Photos By: Ashlee Glen

Lynchburg residents have a unique opportunity this summer to learn about the unique history and wildlife flowing through the James River. 

Steeped in the history of Native Americans and early American colonists, the James River served as an instrumental source of hunting, commerce, and drinking water. For Virginia’s modern denizens, the James River is more often associated with fun and relaxation. Considering the James runs through several major Virginia cities, including Lynchburg, Richmond, and Williamsburg, the river acts as a boon for local ecology and everyday life.

For the James River Association—a nonprofit organization that advocates for the entirety of the James from Botetourt County to the Chesapeake Bay—the goal is to cultivate a lasting appreciation for the river and all that it does and represents. The Lynchburg branch of the association is James River Adventures. Just as their name suggests, the best way to help Virginians appreciate the river is by showing them the adventures to be had on and around it.

“Once you have something that you love, it’s something that you want to protect. That’s truly our organization’s goal—to protect the James, now and into the future,” James River Association’s Upper James Regional Manager Robert Campbell said.

Campbell has become JRA’s self-proclaimed “Jack of all trades” since he began his work there in 2013. One of Campbell’s major duties is tour guide of James River Adventures’ seasonal Paddle Downtown Experience, which runs from June to September.

More than just aimless paddling in the river, the JRA tours have different themes depending on the date that should appeal to a wide variety of novice and experienced outdoor enthusiasts. The tour themes include local history, birding, fishing, and “threats to the river.”

Depending on the experience level or size of the groups, paddlers can float on the tour using a canoe, a kayak, or even one of JRA’s historically fashioned batteaux.

“We’re very much geared at people who don’t have experience. In general, we like to have folks who have zero experience. We want to cultivate a love for the James in everybody,” Campbell said.

Campbell’s passion for protecting the James started with the love that his father helped cultivate. Growing up in northern Amherst County, Campbell routinely went on the river to fish with his dad. But, according to Campbell, seeing the James River Batteau Festival hooked him on river life. Campbell believes he can replicate that experience with paddlers who learn to love the river.

“The ones who are the most rewarding are the students and people who have grown up right next to the river, but never had any experience with the water,” he said.

Although to many paddlers the river tours are just a unique day of fun on the water, to Campbell and JRA, the hope is that their values of advocacy, education, and restoration are imparted to paddlers.

Though much of the advocacy work is done at the Richmond branch, Campbell says that the JRA is “constantly working with lawmakers to get good legislation for the James River.”

“Anything related to water; we’re there to advocate not only for the James, but for the community surrounding the James,” he said.

Campbell and the JRA provide a unique, hands-on education for paddlers with their near-encyclopedic knowledge of the river and its history.

Last year, Campbell said that the James River Association was able to get about 18,000 students out on the river for trips, with about 3,500 students coming through the Lynchburg branch.

“Our restoration work is one of our largest growing programs. Over the last five years, we have put in close to 100,000 trees on the side of the James River,” Campbell said.

After a short tour of the James River with Campbell acting as batteau captain, it is clear to see why a float on the James River is a worthwhile venture. Campbell managed to recite dozens of facts about the James all while pressing roughly against the riverbed with a poplar sapling that had been fashioned into a pole-type oar to guide the batteau around the river’s currents.

The light breeze, gentle sun rays, and local wildlife make for a remarkable trip that many Lynchburg residents unfortunately forget is just in their backyards.

The batteau, which is essentially a large canoe, was previously used to deliver thousands of pounds of goods (such as tobacco) across the James River. Charlie Coleman, husband of Sarah Coleman, another member of the JRA team, built the historically accurate watercraft for JRA.

“It took me about 6 months to build. The JRA batteau is built and patterned off an original canal-era batteau that was unearthed in the 1980s,” Coleman said.

As a Lynchburg native, Coleman cites the James River as a personal landmark in his life that hosted countless adventures for him, including his proposal to his wife Sarah, and his young daughter catching her first fish. Coleman’s love for the river underpins his support of it and JRA, just as it does with Campbell.

“I love that they bring people to the river who may not know what it has to offer. If you are open to it, you can find adventure and beauty in so many different spots on the James,” Coleman said.

According to Campbell, Batteau trips are also available with private bookings for up to six people, and guests can even bring along food and drinks.

While the guided tour season runs through September, Campbell says that JRA may extend its season into Autumn for guided tours to observe the changing of the leaves.  

Anyone interested in booking a guided tour can find details on JRA’s website jamesriveradventures.org, where you can find price information and the various dates of and themes of each tour. 

The Transportive Power of the James River Batteau Festival

By Emily Mook | Photos Courtesy of Holt Messerly & Faye Smith

There are no right or wrong answers to the question, “What makes Lynchburg Lynchburg?” but the annual James River Batteau Festival (JRBF) is undoubtedly a compelling and comprehensive candidate. It is integral to Lynchburg’s history and culture, it bridges Lynchburg’s past and present in both tangible and intangible ways, and it inspires enthusiastic participation in many and an impressive level of dedication in some. Since the inaugural JRBF in 1986, this annual living history reenactment has evolved to allow for advancements and increased community involvement while also staying true to its roots. This effort to strike a balance between tradition and innovation is much like a batteau’s journey down the James River: a delicate dance that requires collaboration, patience, diligence, fortitude, passion, and adaptability. This year’s Festival, which will run from June 15 through June 22, promises to be another dynamic celebration of Lynchburg’s history and of the river that runs through it.

The James River was the site of the first permanent English colony at Jamestown in 1607 and is recognized by Congress as the founding river of the United States. Incidentally, the James is also the founding river of Lynchburg.

“Lynchburg started as a depot for storing goods to be shipped on the batteaux and later the canal down to the markets in Richmond,” explains Robert Campbell, Upper James Senior Manager of the James River Association and longtime JRBF participant. “Over the years a settlement grew up on the hillside above the James where John Lynch ran his ferry across to the north bank on the Amherst County side. This little spot would eventually become Lynchburg, and it all had to do with geography and its position by the river.”

JRBF’s 120-mile, eight-day journey from Lynchburg to Richmond is full of visible reminders of the James River’s rich history.

“There are aqueducts spread down the River which are beautiful examples of stonework from the early 1800s and which carried the canals over the creeks and rivers entering the James,” notes Ralph Smith, Owner of High Peak Sportswear and former Festival Chairman (a position he held for 15 years). “There are also multiple sluices, which are places where the batteaumen—many of whom were slaves—cleared the rocks in particularly shallow places in the River. Many of these sluices are still functional today and are the only way to get a batteau around a ledge or shallow.”

It is important to recognize that many African American men—both enslaved and free—operated the batteaux that made Lynchburg the large city that it is today.

“In January 1854, Frank Padget, a slave and head boatman, lost his life in the process of saving others after the canal boat Clinton’s tow rope broke in the flooded James River at Balcony Falls,”
says Diane Easley, Archivist for the VA Canals and Navigations Society. “Lynchburg resident Sydnor Royall was on the Clinton and successfully swam to shore. Sam Evans, another African American boatman, rescued the rescue party the day after Frank Padget drowned. We need to appreciate the work these men did and learn more about their lives.”

Batteaux are 45 to 50 feet long, six to eight feet wide, flat-bottomed boats made of white oak. They are stored in lakes and ponds and kept submerged underwater to preserve the wood. Campbell, Smith, and Easley have all led or been part of batteau building crews. 

Building and operating batteaux are no simple feats, but dedicated crews happily take on these arduous tasks for JRBF year after year.

“Maneuvering a boat that large and heavy using the same methods that would have been used in the 1700s is truly a unique skill in this world that only a few have mastered,” Campbell remarks. “Wooden poles are used to give the boat momentum and on the other side of that to help slow the boat down. Large sweeps at each end of the boat are used to maneuver the vessel as it shoots through rapids. Batteaux cannot take too many big hits on rocks, so the whole idea is to navigate through a rapid—however long, narrow, curvy or shallow it may be—without having the batteau strike a rock. It is extremely challenging, but for those of us who like a challenge, it is a truly amazing thing to take part of.”

Luckily, when hiccups inevitably occur during the Festival, many hands are on deck to assist.

“More times than I can count, batteaux have gotten hung up on the rocks of this rapid [Goosby Falls] and required sometimes 40 people to be in the water to free the boat,” Smith says. “It’s a great sense of community and nobody needs to be asked to help.”

Although traveling by batteau makes for the most authentic Festival experience, “a trip down the James is great no matter what boat you’re in,” as Campbell says. Those looking for a more laid-back experience may choose to travel by canoe or kayak and to join for a day or two rather than the full eight days. After launching near Percival’s Island, the batteaux and accompanying boats travel to a new camp each day, located respectively in Stapleton, Bent Creek, Wingina, Howardsville, Scottsville, Slate River, Cartersville, and Maidens Landing.

JRBF’s singular sense of community is further bolstered by shared meals and stories and impromptu concerts at the camps and on the River.

“One of the hidden gems of the festival is the fantastic, authentic music that usually comes out while a couple batteaux are hiding in a creek on the side of the James River underneath a 250-year-old aqueduct that has better acoustics than a lot of famous music halls,” notes Campbell. “Those are some of the magical moments that happen while we’re on the River that can never be planned, but end up being as perfect and unique as they are elusive and irreplaceable.”

Of course, in order to provide a framework for these serendipitous moments, the Festival itself must be meticulously planned. Longtime leaders and innovators are looking to the next generation to take the helm. Easley works closely with Dr. William E. Trout III, the Founder of the VA Canals and Navigations Society and one of the founders of the Festival, and she observes that “as we are coming up on the 40th anniversary of the JRBF, we need to recruit younger people for it to continue another 40 years.”

Fortunately, this necessary passing of the torch is already well underway. Smith’s two sons are both longtime participants in the Festival, and his eldest son is the co-founder of the James River Batteau Company.

“My son Will, along with his close friend Will Cash, started the James River Batteau Company in 2022,” Smith remarks. “They give tours out of Scottsville on batteaux.  The business is doing very well, and they were booked for most of last summer. I always dreamed of finding a way to make a living being a batteauman but thought it was impossible. But now my son and his friend are actually making it happen, which is tremendously exciting and gratifying for me.”

JRBF’s success is a direct reflection of the people who plan, run, and participate in it with care—perhaps confirming that what ultimately makes Lynchburg Lynchburg is the people.

“The people who gather to run the river every year are some of the most amazing people that you’ll ever meet,” Campbell says. “There are people from all walks of life. We all put our lives aside for a week to run these big boats down the River with our friends and family and experience living history. We are all in it together while we’re out there. We look out for each other, help each other off of rocks, and help repair each other’s boats, and we laugh and have a good time while we’re doing it!”