Join the September 3 First Saturday Outing of the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) on a scenic and historic section of the Dan River in central Rockingham County, N.C.
Beginning at a private put-in at Jacob’s Creek, the group will float 5.5 miles to a private take-out at Eagle Falls. DRBA thanks the landowners at both ends of the float for graciously granting permission to use their private property to access the river. Will Truslow, member of DRBA’s Outings Task Force and an avid kayaker, will coordinate the trip.
Participants are asked to meet at 10 a.m. at 571 Planters Road, Madison, N.C. (GPS 36.390606,-79.884024) to unload boats and gear and set the shuttle. Boat rentals and shuttle will be provided by Three Rivers Outfitters of Eden, N.C. (Contact information: 336-627-6215, www.3-R-O.com.)
The float, which is rated Class 1 in difficulty, begins at the mouth of Jacob’s Creek, which enters the Dan River from the south. According to Truslow, “This section of the river is a great way to spend a hot Saturday with your family playing in the water and getting wet. There are very few rapids. The scenery is lovely and feels very remote.”
The bluff overlooking the Dan near the put-in is the site of the eighteenth century plantation of Governor Alexander Martin, who served six terms in the early days of the Republic. Rockingham County recently purchased nearly four acres of the property and plans to construct a park and public river access there. A low rock structure just upstream is Jacob’s Creek Landing, where bateaux could berth for loading and unloading goods over a century ago.
Rockingham County boasts over two dozen navigation structures built in the river bed to enable bateau traffic to travel the river throughout the nineteenth century. These long, narrow wooden boats, from 40 to 60 feet long and eight feet wide, plied the Dan for a hundred years, carrying bulk cargo and commodities to and from local farms and towns.
North Carolina historian Dr. Lindley Butler describes them as “the eighteen-wheelers of their day.” Through the port of Norfolk, the bateaux connected the hinterland to world-wide commerce.
The first navigation structure in this section is Henderson’s Fish Trap Sluice just downstream of the put-in. The vee-shaped rock wall was built as a fish weir to collect fish returning to the ocean from their great spawning runs. Native Americans built dozens of these traps in shallow water, where a basket collected the fish at a narrow opening in the point of the vee. Engineers widened this opening to enable bateaux to slip through where the concentrated water deepened the channel.
At Mulberry Island Shoal, about two miles into the trip, the dynamic forces of the river left their mark. The 42-acre Mulberry Island mentioned in an 1806 document was gone by the early 1900s. Despite such changes, people who used the river 200 years ago would recognize it now, as lush tree cover along the banks, abundant wildlife, birds, and fish continue to characterize the Dan River in this area.
Two miles further downstream is Settles Bridge, which carries traffic, including three of Rockingham County’s bicycle routes, across the river in the middle of the county.
Just past the bridge on river right is the Settles Bridge Access, reached by a set of steps to the top of the high bluff. Rock debris in the river came from supports for the 1870 covered bridge named for Thomas Settle, North Carolina Supreme Court justice and U.S. minister to Peru. The bridge was torn down and its piers blown up by the state transportation department in 1951 when the modern bridge was built.
At Dead Timber Ford just below the bridge, two sluices on river left enable passage through low ledges.
According to DRBA’s “Insider’s Guide to the Dan River,” which is available at www.danriver.org, paddlers entering the river at Settles Bridge “will see no roads, bridges or buildings for about ten miles.” Although within an easy drive of a million people, the river gives a true feeling of wilderness.
About a mile and a half further downstream is Eagle Falls, site of a mill and “rude lock” built in 1816 and operated for over 60 years. Once considered the head of navigation, Eagle Falls was the location of the ill-fated town of Jackson, surveyed in 1818 but doomed by the United States’ first economic depression, the Panic of 1819. A song promoting Jackson included the lines, “Boats go up to Eagle Falls, But can’t go any higher.”
Later in the century private navigation companies and the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers improved the river, bypassing Eagle Falls with a sluice to deepen the channel on the left side of the island. Today many boaters prefer paddling across the ledges to the right of the island, just upstream of the outing’s take-out on private property.
Although railroads put the bateau system out of business at the dawn of the twentieth century, the navigation structures still operate as intended. Even in times of severe drought, recreational boaters can float the Dan in Rockingham County, following the channels created by these stone and log-crib structures.
More information about the bateau navigation system, as well as the full-size bateau replica Dan River, can be found at the Museum and Archives of Rockingham County (MARC), located in the historic courthouse in Wentworth, N.C.
Participants in the outing are asked to provide boat and paddles, life jacket for each boater, lunch and water, to dress in layers of artificial (quick-drying) fabric or wool, and to sign a waiver.
To reach the put-in from U.S. 220 at Madison, turn east on N.C. 704 toward Wentworth. Drive about 2.4 miles, and turn left onto Planters Road just past the crest of a long hill. A state historical marker to Alexander Martin is near the intersection. Drive to the end of the road, through the gate onto private property. Follow the gravel drive. It will turn right and open out onto a large field where boaters will unload their gear.
From the Town of Wentworth, travel west on N.C. 704 for about 6 miles. Turn right onto Planters Road just before the crest of a long hill and follow the above directions.
Outings and meetings of the Dan River Basin Association are open to the public without charge.
For trip information, contact trip coordinator Will Truslow at (336) 547-1903 or willtruslow@hotmail.com.
For information about the Dan River Basin Association, visit www.danriver.org.
