Sunday, June 15, 2008

Batteaux Festival


Before you can set sail you have to sink the batteau

Lynchburg has been a city that has re-invented itself several times over the past couple hundred years. In the late 1700’s through the mid 1800’s tobacco was king making Lynchburg was a very prosperous town. After the fields became unusable (they didn’t know about crop rotation) Lynchburg became the largest shoe manufacturer east of the Mississippi. For a period of time during the teens and 1920’s Lynchburg made/assembled automobiles. Today education and nuclear research are major industries, but going back in time to when tobacco was king there needed to be a means of transporting tobacco to the market in Richmond.

Tobacco and other cargo was transported from Lynchburg to Richmond on the James River in sleek flat bottom boats called batteaux. The boats are made of white oak, and can carry about 8,000 pounds of cargo. A long pole is used to push the batteau downstream and rudders is in the front and rear to help steer the batteau. Before the batteau is launched for this trip it must first be sunk. The water expands the wood and the expanded wood makes the boat water tight by sealing all the cracks. After being submerged for a week or so water is bailed out and the interior dried out and the journey begins. During the next seven days an armada of batteaux will make their way down the James River stopping overnight in towns along the way.

Yesterday the re-enactors took to the water in period garb in reproductions of the batteaus that once were a very important part of our history. This festival is held every year in June and is well worth the trip to downtown to send off the dozen plus batteaux, including one batteau with an all woman crew from Charlottesville. Over the next week the batteaux will retrace the journey stopping in towns along the way until they reach their final destination, in Richmond. This year's batteaux festival was the 23rd. Don't miss next years festival, book your room today at The Carriage House Inn Bed and Breakfast.