Cartersville: Untouched by Time

BY KATHERINE CALOS - Staff Writer
Published: September 5, 2008

If you’re coming down the James River during the annual Batteau Festival, Cartersville is where the end begins. It’s the last overnight before the boats leave the river at Maidens.

That gives the town a bittersweet feeling for Buddy High.

“It’s kind of a letdown,” he said. “You put all the gusto in you can, because you know tomorrow it’s all over.”  A Challenge, Not a Race

High backed up those words this year with a challenge for daughter Emily’s fiance on the family bateau, Brunswick Belle. As they came down the James River into Cumberland County, ahead of them was the Spirit of the James, with Ellen Blankinship at the helm.

High knew he wouldn’t be the first bateau to finish that stage of the race, but he thought he could close the two-mile gap that was keeping him from being second.

“He wants to marry my daughter,” High said, looking at 22-year-old John Hogge after they’d pulled in below Cartersville, “and I told him, ‘If you don’t pass Ellen, you don’t get to marry my daughter.’

“Two of those boys just poled all they were worth for five miles. We wanted to be the second one in.” And they were, not that there’s a prize for coming in early.

“It’s not a race,” he said, “just a challenge.” 

Nearly-forgotten Boat

Bateaux were flat-bottomed boats used during the late 1700s to transport tobacco and other products from central Virginia to Richmond. They’re generally from 6 to 8 feet wide and 40 to 50 feet long. The mid-June Batteau Festival, now in its 23rd year, began after an example of the nearly-forgotten boat was discovered in an archaeological excavation in Richmond.

Boatmen begin at Lynchburg and push the boats with poles to get them downriver to Maidens Landing in Powhatan. Community organizations at seven stops along the way offer food and entertainment. At Cartersville, it was barbecue dinners and bluegrass music from The Country Cut Ups. Low water this year meant more work than usual.

“The boats weigh about 4,000 pounds. In the water, it’s like a stick, unless you’re stuck on the rocks,” said Sidney Dodson of Richmond, one of the all-female mates of the Lady Slipper. She’d been on the boat earlier, but at Cartersville, she was waiting with the ground crew.

“In a good year, we might get out once or twice a year [to get the boat unstuck]. This year, we walked the James,” she said. 

Historic Cartersville

Few had the energy to walk up the hill to Cartersville itself. If you come for next year’s festival, you’ll want to make sure see the town too.

With only three named streets to explore, the town can be covered in a flash if you like or take a few hours if you decide to walk around.

Cartersville Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. Its white frame buildings include a tavern building, a church and several houses.

Tucker Harrison, who lives about five miles away, described it as a “quaint little village, one of the few that has grown virtually none. Maybe two houses have been built in the last 100 years. It’s a nice community to be from. You’ve got the one general store, the garage and the post office. It’s like the way it’s supposed to be.”

Separate historic listings also went to the Cartersville Bridge for its timber and cast iron construction and the remains of stone piers constructed in 1822; to Morven, a two-story brick house built in 1820 by Randolph Harrison just south of Cartersville; to Muddy Creek Mill, a five-story stone and brick mill in the even tinier hamlet of Tamworth two miles east of Cartersville; and to Ampthill, a brick plantation house circa 1735 with an addition designed by Thomas Jefferson. 

Bread & Breakfast

Ampthill was bought and restored about 10 years ago by Carol Eltzroth and George Costen, who operate it as a bed-and-breakfast. It’s the only lodging in the county.

“Our guests come from Europe and all around the world,” Costen said. Some of them combine a stay in a Jefferson-designed room with a visit to Jefferson’s home, Monticello, only 45 minutes away in Charlottesville.Interior designers from Florida have been known to bring clients to shop for Oriental rugs at Greenfront in Farmville.

The 60-acre site gains significance from the many out-buildings that remain. The 54-foot-wide ice house was the largest in the United States, Costen said. The original weaver’s shop, candlemakers shop, smokehouse and cookhouse also remain. The barn, relatively new because it’s only 100 years old, can handle weddings with 350 guests. “Most things here are 300 or 400 years old,” he said.

Furnishings in the eight guest rooms at Ampthill include antiques from around the world. Three marble mantelpieces in the house came from the White House.

“We have things here that they’re not going to see anyplace else. We enjoy sharing with everybody. Someone will ask, ‘Can you touch that?’ If you can’t sit on it, pick it up, I don’t want it. “It beats the heck out of any other place,” Costen said. “When you look in the sky at night, you see the stars, not lights from Richmond.”

IF YOU’RE GOING TO CUMBERLAND COUNTY
Getting there: Cartersville is on the south bank of the James River. To get there from downtown Richmond, go west on Interstate 64 to the Oilville exit. Go west on U.S. 250 and turn left on Fairground Road. When it dead ends, jog left on Route 522 and turn right on River Road, which is Route 6. Go 10 miles and turn left on Cartersville Road. When you cross the river, you’re there.
Details: James River Batteau Festival: The yearly event happens in mid-June. Get details at http://www.batteau.net; Ampthill Plantation: Accommodations, including breakfast, cost $120 to $175 per night; (804) 375-3539 or http://www.ampthillplantation.com