14Nov 2016 by VCNS

Great Bridge Heritage Festival a Success

VC&NS Program & Displays, Waterways Heritage Festival
[caption id="attachment_14861" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Dr. Bill Trout at the Great Bridge Waterways Heritage Festival, 2016.[/caption] The Great Bridge Battlefield & Waterways History Foundation held their 7th annual Waterways Heritage Festival on October 15th, 2016. The festival is held at a park in Chesapeake, Virginia adjacent to where the Elizabeth River meets the Chesapeake and Albemarle Canal. It is free, includes boat rides through the Great Bridge Lock and has many vendors and attractions celebrating Chesapeake’s waterways and cultural heritage. The organizers feature the VC&NS prominently in their advertising for this event, and generously provide hotel lodging and food to the VC&NS volunteers. They very much appreciate having a batteau in attendance at the festival. This event is well attended, and this year was no exception, in spite of the fact…
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16Oct 2016 by VCNS

New London Day 2016 was very nice

New London Day, VC&NS Program & Displays
The 2016 New London day was very nice. Sponsored by The Friends of New London and Liberty University, the event was held at the historic village of New London which is just west of Lynchburg in Campbell County, VA. The VC&NS had a table with our publications on display. Photos of the event have been posted on MesserlyPhoto.com. Click here to see photo gallery.
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23Apr 2016 by VCNS

VCNS 2016 Conference – Saturday – Canal Sites tour with Dr. Bill Trout

James River & Kanawha Canal, VC&NS Annual Business Meeting, VC&NS Program & Displays
The VCNS conference continued on Saturday morning with a tour of canal sites led by Dr. Bill Trout. We started off in downtown Lynchburg at the bottom of 9th St. Bill showed a model of the area to point out the way the canal went under the archway  and the way the railroad tracks went etc. We traveled to a couple more sites on the way to the BWXT site off Mt. Athos Road just up-river from the Joshua Falls boat landing. We were met by Mr. Christopher M. Dumond,  Communications Specialist, BWX Technologies, Inc. Chris spoke to our group about the history of BWXT.  Tom Moore won the prize for the trivia question which was a nice mug. Bill Trout showed the long double set of locks that led into…
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23Apr 2016 by VCNS

VCNS 2016 Annual Conference off to great start at Batteau House!

VC&NS Program & Displays
The 2016 annual conference for the Virginia Canals & Navigations Society kicked off on Friday April 22, 2016 at "Batteau House", which is the new home for the VCNS. Dr. Bill Trout was showing off some of the many many artifacts, batteau and canal things on display all over the house. Gail Timberlake, VCNS President, made introductions before Holt Messerly presented a slideshow for the year in review. Before the main slideshow Holt showed a few shorter sections of photos as a preview. The slides of the Clifton Lee Batteau out of control were especially popular with the group! Who could resist wanting to watch Lisa B. hit a rock at 7-islands and see the look on her face! The food was great and everyone had a good time. Saturday,…
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