Paddling with me lately has been a history lesson. I babble on and on about the Patowmack Canal and how it created the river upon which we paddle. Then, Larry asks if I’m ready to write an article. It will take many chapters.
The Patowmack Canal, founded by George Washington, principally was an attempt to tame the Potomac River to the capitalist demands of the colonial trade system. If you get your goods to a deepwater port, then they can be shipped to England. The opportunities to do this were very limited in the Eighteenth Century. There were no roads, and no bridges. There was only a long river, consisting of pile after pile of rocks, islands, fish weirs, and many rapids.
At this point all I can do is entice you: Ultimately, every rapid we paddle, from Georgetown to Cumberland was either recreated and improved in the early Nineteenth Century as a sluice or bypassed by a lock system so that loaded barges called “sharpers” could get their goods downriver. The evidence is right before our eyes every time we paddle the GW Canal.
Our familiar run through the GW Canal is a complex story full of mysteries. Why is the right channel there? The sluice to the Patowmack Canal began nearer the center of the river on the other side of the island. The sluice continued through the two islands now used by the Calleva Camp, crossed the channel we paddle, and then followed a dredged channel for over a mile until the boats were returned to the main river across from Elm Island for their push down to Great Falls. Two dramatic man-made rock walls mark the entrance the lower Patowmack Canal.
Was the right channel dammed by a mill? Was it part of an “old channel” circling Lowes Island? Was it created by a violent flood in more modern times? Why did Dam #2, built for the C&O Canal, end at the island and not continue to Virginia? I am still digging into these questions.
Currently, the remnants of Dam #2 back up the river nine miles, forming the shallow Seneca Lake. In Washington’s day, Seneca Falls was a falls, a real rapid. It had the same gradient as now. There are two descriptions of paddling through the falls. The first is a story in itself and is best told as a quotation:
In 1712, Baron Christoph von Graffenreid was shopping for land. He stayed with the Piscataways on Heaters Island opposite Point of Rocks and recounted being paddled by them down to Seneca Falls and then on to Great Falls. The Baron wrote vivid descriptions of the rapids at both Seneca and Great Falls.
"After we had come down again from this mountain [Sugarloaf] to a place at the foot where there was a very fine spring and good soil, we went to Martin Charetier's where we were lodged and treated after the Indian fashion. The day after, we departed in order to return home. We went down the river. For the purpose of the descent the Indians with marvelous skill made us in less than a half day a small boat of the bark of trees. We got into it, five of us, besides two savages, who managed the boat. We even put in our baggage. It was charming going down the river to see the beautiful country on the sides and the pretty islands, but when we came close to a great rock in the middle of the river, not far from the falls, as is to be seen on the map (number 6), we found the passage dangerous, for about this rock which is almost a little mountain with a pretty plain up on top where an Indian lived, there are still a number of small rocks and great stones, which make the passages swift, narrow, and bad. I did not want to go down it, and we all got out except Mr. Rosier, who, knowing the skill of the Indians, risked it. When we saw from a distance the turns they had to make, what inexpressible skill it needed to steer this canoe or boat, we almost thought there was some magic in the act, and we were very glad to be out of it, especially when we heard the Indians singing as they passed at great speed, almost striking against a great stone or rock. But this made my good Mr. Rosier pray, bold as he might be. At a quarter of a league beyond this bad passage they stopped and we got into the boat again. Good Rosier, still very pale with fear, assured us that he would never be so rash again. We went down the river very nicely and easily from there to the falls. At a quarter of a league from them we got out, the valets having brought our horses to that place. Nevertheless before mounting our horses we saw how the Indians carried the boat upon their shoulders into the forest to repair it, they taking good care not to tell us that the end was damaged by striking against a rock. It was necessary to shorten the boat by cutting off the end. After having it well repaired, the Indians brought it back to the river and were rash enough to go down the rapids or great falls of the Potomac. They passed down very nicely, according to their story, but yet they caused us considerable anxiety [because] they delayed very much before they joined us at Mr. Rosier's where we lodged." (Vincent H. Todd, "Christoph Von Graffenried’s Account of the Founding of New Bern," Raleigh, 1920, pp. 384-85.)
I think we should take this account at face value. Obviously the Baron was not a paddler. The Native Americans lived on the river, had the knowledge to build a serviceable canoe in hours and obviously enjoyed running rapids. We are used to Seneca Falls as a rubble dam, not as a natural obstacle. And there are no other first-hand accounts. Likewise, Great Falls had no Aqueduct Dam across the top and no fish ladder. Along the river right (Virginia) side, they could get close enough to the main drops to scout. The Piscataways using the knowledge of whitewater paddlers could have portaged the final drop or they could have run it as they related to their guests. By their account all were safe in 1712.
Next chapter: George Washington’s accounts of paddling the river.
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