The James River and Kanawha Canal: Botetourt 250 Anniversary Celebration Facts

The James River and Kanawha Canal is a notable part of the history of Botetourt County. It is one of the three great impactful transportation systems to come through Botetourt over the past 250 years.

The first, the Great Valley Road, brought thousands of settlers through the area heading south and westward. The second is the James River and Kanawha Canal. The third is Interstate 81. (Yes, rail fans I would say the N&W and C&O railroads and their predecessors would rank in a different category. )

Proposed by George Washington as a route to the Ohio River, the canal construction was passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1785. The James River Company formed with Washington as the honorary head.

Th canal was built over many years. It was 196 miles long and considered and engineering feat. It stretched from Richmond to Buchanan and beyond. The last lock on the canal is in Eagle Rock.

In 1851, it opened to great fanfare carrying trade to and from Richmond to Lynchburg and Buchanan. The James River and Kanawha Canal cost well over 8 million dollars to build and over 40 years to complete.

Packett Boats and Bateaux were the mode of transportation carrying goods and agricultural products. Buchanan became a bustling town with warehouses. Among them the Wilson Warehouse on Lowe Street which is in use by the community on a frequent basis as a gathering place today.

Botetourt County was a haven of not only farming but rich in iron ore. There are multiple blast furnaces throughout the county and many of the mountain ranges contain abandoned mines. Those mines were all over the county, from west of Fincastle, Troutville to Buchanan and Oriskany and Eagle Rock environs. The canal provided the Botetourt iron ore business access to the famed Tredegar Ironworks in Richmond.

Why did it end? The coming of the iron horse was cheaper, could go through mountains to the Ohio Valley and the ravages of the Civil War. All significant in the doomed Kanawha Canal.

The side bar to this history. A real-life experience to note In the early 1990s a Bateaux festival was held in Eagle Rock at the last lock. It brought joy and fear to me, my father and children. As we began our journey across the river on the Bateau, a long flat-bottomed boat that is poled by a river man, the boat soon began to take on water. Luckily our river man was strong, quick thinking and able. All we had as a result were wet feet, instead of having to attempt to swim to shore with two small children.  

–Source, T Gibson Hobbs whom I knew early in my career in Lynchburg. His book “The Canal on the James,  an Illustrated Guide to the James River and Kanawha Canal,” is likely the definitive work on the canal. Town of Buchanan marker at the Town Park and The Town of Buchanan website

–Cathy Benson, The Botetourt Bee.