Batteaux on the New

Batteaux on the New. . Before the coming of the railroad and the whitewater rafting industry, commerce along the New River was carried by long, flat-bottomed boats called batteaux. The New River has always been an important travel corridor through the rugged Appalachian Mountains. The New River watershed helped bridge the Eastern Continental Divide and the Mississippi River, joining the James River’s Atlantic watershed with the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers. From the earliest days of our nation, George Washington had envisioned a cross-country canal route along this pathway. , Beginning in the mid-1800s, the Army Corps of Engineers blasted sluice channels through the ledges and rapids of the New and Greenbrier Rivers for the use of commercial batteau traffic. The batteaux were propelled along the shallow river by crews pushing long poles along the side of the boats, and steering with long sweeping rudders at each end. The boats carried lumber, agricultural produce, and mercantile products. , Washington’s dream of the southern Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was dashed by the Lower New River Gorge’s whitewater rapids, which were too wild for batteau navigation. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, built with the help of supplies carried by batteaux, finally connected the watersheds in 1872. , (sidebar) , The name batteau derives from the French word bateau, meaning boat. The plural form is Batteaux. , Many of the captains and crews of the New River batteaux were African Americans. , Thirty feet long and constructed of white oak, the “Minner” is a historic reproduction built in 2005. This boat was used in historic reenactments and for recreational trips on the New River at Hinton.