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Members of a batteau crew travel down the James River.
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Just as they were at their inception, batteaux are steered with long wooden poles.
More than 200 years ago, the James River looked like a highway. An estimated 500 flat-bottomed cargo boats clogged the curves and rapids between Richmond and Lynchburg, shuttling supplies and merchandise in both directions and fueling the state economy.
The batteau — invented in Amherst County in the 1700s and used regularly until industrialization outpaced it in the mid-1800s — was born not just out of need, but out of an appreciation for the James River. The boat and path it forged became a piece of Virginia heritage observed by luminaries such as Thomas Jefferson (who reportedly attended the launch of the first-ever batteau in 1775) and memorialized in paintings, sculptures and even on the city of Richmond’s flag.
While that’s where it started, the batteau and its journey have formed a new tradition, blending history with recreation and the same passion for the James.
For just over four decades, the James River Batteau Festival (set for June 20-27 this year) has brought together river lovers for an eight-day, 120-mile journey from Lynchburg to Maidens Landing between Powhatan and Goochland counties, celebrating and honoring the legacy of the batteau’s heyday. Crews ride in teams of seven or so, consisting of friends and families; these form the backbone that keeps the tradition alive.
Sailors on batteaux fight through many classes of rapids between Lynchburg and Richmond.
Will Smith, an Amherst County native, is part of that backbone. “It was always one of the focal points of the entire summer in my household. At an early age, I was on the boats. I would ride on my dad’s boat for a day or two [during the] week,” he says. Smith’s father, Ralph Smith, is the current president of the Virginia Canals and Navigations Society, the organization behind the festival, and was part of the inaugural float in May 1986.
Smith eventually aged into rides of his own, forming his own batteau crew of lifelong friends in 2006. “Once you get batteauing in your blood, it is very hard to put this down,” he says. “Among my friends, one of the things that we always talked about when we were younger is that we might not be home for Christmas this year, but we’re definitely going to be home for the James River Batteau Festival.”
While community events in major river stops like Lynchburg and Scottsville allow kayakers, canoers and those left on land to join the fun, participating in a batteau team requires building one, which some regulars consider the hardest part.
“There’s no way that any one person could build one of these boats,” says Zach Gills, a Richmonder and batteau captain for the last decade. The vessels are built based on fragmented batteau parts and materials unearthed by construction in the 1980s for what would become the James Center in downtown Richmond. Those preserved pieces from a century earlier gave modern crews information on traditional materials and boatbuilding methods.
“You have to have a group of friends who get along, who like the outdoors, who are maybe good with their hands and who have free time, and sort of this crazy idea that, ‘Hey, we can build a boat and go down the river,’” Gills says. “This is a crazy hobby, I guess you could say.”
Guiding the crafts down the river is no small feat. Each boat is some 40 feet long by 7 feet wide (line up the entire festival flotilla end to end, and you’ll reach the height of Seattle’s Space Needle) and weighs thousands of pounds. “This thing’s built out of white oak,” Smith says. “It’s got everybody’s camping gear on it, it’s got our food and supplies for the week. ... It tests the crew and certainly tests your endurance on the water.”
A member of a batteau crew takes a quick dip while wearing Colonial-era-inspired attire.
Smith turned his river experience into a career in 2021 when, with some friends and fellow festival veterans, he launched the James River Batteau Company. The business offers seasonal waterway tours from Scottsville, a little more than halfway between Lynchburg and Richmond on the James River, on an authentic batteau.
With a background in the tourism industry, Smith built the company around sharing the history of the batteau and its significance to the James and the state at large. “We just knew that there was this very unique Virginian story to be told, which was also an untold story,” he says. “Between the outdoor recreation and beauty of spending time on the river, as well as having this very unique story, we saw a great opportunity.”
The tours also help funnel interest to the festival, which in turn supports the preservation of the James for future floats. Thanks to new partnerships with the James River Association, Lynchburg Parks & Recreation, and local vendors, organizers hope the festival’s launch party on June 20 will be its biggest yet.
“If you have a good day, you know, good water levels and everything like that in Lynchburg, you could see 2,000 canoes and kayakers joining us on that first Saturday,” Smith says.
In more than 40 years, the festival has navigated as many twists and turns off the water as on, Smith notes, but the kinship between participants brings people back to conquer the journey year after year. “You might not see them — actually, in fact, you likely don’t see them any more than one week out of the entire year,” he says, “but when you’re on the river together, you’re family.”
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