IT’S STILL STANDING

It’s still standing.  And, it recently got a haircut, just in time for its birthday.

I wonder if Hamilton Fulton expected it to last 200 years.  No doubt he hoped so.

Before 1820, when the Weldon sisters sold off initial lots on First Street in Weldon to lay a foundation for a town, the North Carolina general assembly was bickering about how to improve waterways in North Carolina to promote commerce and be able to compete with ports in Virginia and South Carolia.  Unlike Virginia and South Carolina, North Carolina had a coastline of barrier reefs and sandbars that thwarted easy and efficient transport of cargo inland along its major rivers. And, even its rivers, like the mighty Roanoke, presented its own barriers to trade along the River in Virginia.  Rocks, boulders, falls and a 100- foot drop from eight miles upstream to Weldon dampened trade along the river into Virginia.  Supplies and products had to be off-loaded in Weldon, transported by land over eight miles and reloaded on boats to go upriver into the Virginia mountains.

Enter David Brown, member of the NC Assembly, who decided in 1819 to stop talking and to act.  He went to Scotland looking for an engineer who could scope out a plan for NC waterways to be made navigable and accessible.  He hit pay dirt when he found two experts, Hamilton Fulton and his assistant Robert H. B. Brazier.  They came to Raleigh. Fulton did his homework, producing a land use plan that laid out strategies for various internal improvements which formed the basis of North Carolina’s internal improvements program for many years.  But the NC Assembly didn’t do its homework.  Members continued promoting their pet projects, leaving plans for improving the waterways, including the Roanoke River, dormant.

Fulton tendered his resignation, which brought legislators to their senses.  Plans for a canal from Weldon eight miles north, could be implemented.  Not so fast. There was another impediment.  A meandering but swift creek, Chockoyotte Creek, was in the way, just west of Weldon.  They would have to build an aqueduct.

So they did.  And it is still standing, recently cleaned up by a group of Weldon In Action, Canal Commission, and Weldon Town Council members so that we can celebrate its 200th birthday in 2024.  Thanks go to JW Shearin, Jennifer Cox, Nancy Sandoval, Greg Brown, Ceasar Neville, and Mike Adams.

Plan to visit in the spring. When you do, stop, take a breath, be present in the moment. Look around you: A high arched bridge-like block-stone structure nestled in a wooded area, surrounded by tall trees with sparkling leaves reflecting rays of the day’s sun; Chockoyotte Creek spilling its gurgling waters over jagged rocks and sand below; footprints along the brook under the archway, a path and platform lookout for visitors above it all. Quiet, except for the water’s flow; calm except for the rustling of leaves or a trill of a sparrow.  Timeless.  A piece of Heaven a mile or so away from the cacophony of the interstate.