HomeProgress-Index, 07/16/2006
Deep in history
The Appomattox River hits all parts of the Tri-Cities; it has served as the area’s lifeline for thousands of years
By T. DeVon Robinson, Staff Writer
For at least 10,000 years, humans have been drawn to the shallow, rocky riverbed of the Appomattox River. The spot seemed to have the best of both worlds — fresh water for drinking and hunting game, and estuary water for fishing marine animals native to the area or heading up the river to spawn.
The Appomattox tribe, who were under the rule of Powhatan, established their home where the James and Appomattox rivers converge. It was a good spot to see anything, such as a tall-masted English ship, approach on what Capt. John Smith called “That pleasant river of the Appomatucks.”
Legend has it that Matoaca, better known as Pocahontas, grew up in what would become the Tri-Cities. Matoax and Matoaca are named for her, as well as Pocahontas Island.
A base for exploration
The colonists, pushing past the swampy grounds of Jamestown, saw the need to set up a base at the falls of the Appomattox to be a point of origin for any further expansion and exploration, which could not be done by boat, and later to serve as the place where any raw materials from the rest of Virginia could be loaded into an ocean-going vessel.
Except for Colonial Heights, whose old town — Appomattox — gave way to agricultural communities, the proto-towns of Hopewell and Petersburg grew out of those shipping needs. All the crowded out Appomattox natives left behind were a few descendants, including Petersburg’s prominent Bolling family and the name of the river.
The legacy of tobacco
Another legacy the natives left behind was tobacco. The shipment of tobacco led to numerous warehouses springing up along the Appomattox River as farmers in interior regions sent their crops there, as it was the nearest port.
The expansion of tobacco farming and cotton contributed to the establishment of the slave trade. Slave ships were known to land at the confluence of the Appomattox and the James.
Along with serving as the outlet of goods, the rapids of the Appomattox above Petersburg were suitable for mills in and around the village of Ettrick. Numerous dams and commercial buildings cropped up along the waterfront, ranging from grist mills to iron works. Before long, the region became a center of export for tobacco, cotton, flour and iron.
A bustling harbor
The Petersburg Harbor, firmly established by the time the city received its charter in 1748, constantly was filled with sailing vessels, sloops, schooners, flats and lighters. Sediment and flooding constantly were a problem.
At several points during the 1800s, Petersburg residents considered abandoning the harbor altogether due to the increasing use of trains to transfer goods and the creation of larger ships that could not fit in the Appomattox.
The first instance of preserving the navigation channel was through an act of Congress in 1871 after the river was blockaded during the Civil War with sunken boats and other debris to prevent the approach of Union gunboats.
After being proposed for years, the Army Corps of Engineers built a second channel in the Appomattox, the Diversion Channel, in 1921 to curb flooding and protect Petersburg’s Harbor.
The channel, which went through swampy land that connected Pocahontas Island to Colonial Heights, made the small African-American community an island and included a levee to keep floodwaters from entering the harbor and Old Towne Petersburg. Unfortunately, it did not solve the siltation problem in the river.
An end to boat traffic
The harbor was dredged again in 1949 but it is noted in 1953 that commercial boat traffic had nearly ended. Around the same time, mills and factories in Petersburg began to close. Hopewell, which had formed due to the construction of a DuPont plant and later absorbed City Point, retained its industrial character.
Although the Appomattox lost its importance as a port for the city, the Petersburg harbor was partially dredged in 1971. Continued silt accumulation led to the harbor being impassable to boat traffic by the 1980s.
Today, the mills near Ettrick are closed but some buildings and pieces of dams remain. The canals used for commercial transport have dried up over time or been inundated by the Lake Chesdin Reservoir. Some may still be seen on walks in the parks along the river’s edge.
Back to nature
The abandoning of the majority of the riverfront for commerce has allowed for the flourishing of plant and animal life, which has curbed excessive erosion and has restored some of the pristine beauty the first settlers saw when they sailed upstream.
City Point’s harbor was destroyed beyond repair during the Civil War but Hopewell remains home to marinas for pleasure craft. In Petersburg, which always had a problem with siltation, years of neglect and an aborted dredging project in 1993 have left the once-busy harbor virtually useless, although some still consider it a worthy fishing hole.
A revised dredging project will again return Petersburg to the head of navigation on the river but only for recreational and light commercial traffic.
It is the Appomattox that binds us all — the river touches every city and county around the Tri-Cities. It was the lifeblood of the region for thousands of years for being a source of food, drinking water and trade and still is a source of relaxation and drinking water. Without the river, most of the settlement in the region — native or English — would not have existed.
In its nearly 400 years of service to settlers, it has been a conduit, a workhorse, a shallow and silty nuisance, a thing of beauty. Through it all, “that pleasant river of the Appomatucks” was and still is just that.
• T. DeVon Robinson may be reached at 722-5160.
