Exploring the Tidal Delta of the Appomattox River

A guest article by Kenny Fletcher, shared by the National Park Service's Chesapeake Bay office; the writer's account is paraphrased here.

Short as it is, the tidal delta of the Appomattox River in Virginia has served people for at least a thousand years. In April 1607, on their first trip up Powhatan's River — which they named the James — Captains Christopher Newport and John Smith met the Queen of the Appamattuck at her "bower" on the north bank. The Appamattuck were well established on the river that bears their name, as members of Paramount Chief Powhatan's alliance.

What the delta offered

The waters and marshes supplied a rich, seasonal round of food: cattail stalk hearts and flower spikes, arrowhead tubers, wild rice, ducks, Canada geese, tundra swans, muskrats, American shad, river herring, rockfish (striped bass), white perch and Atlantic sturgeon. The uplands — including the high north bank now called Point of Rocks — gave fertile soil for farming, woods for hunting deer, turkeys and small game, and trees for dugout canoes and longhouses. Ravines carrying rainwater downhill held freshwater springs and paths to the river landings. Attuned to this setting, the Appamattuck lived fairly comfortably.

The delta today

The waters, marshes and uplands are still there. Though surrounded by the busy Tri-Cities area, they remain remarkably healthy, and in places it is easy to feel the calendar has turned back five hundred years.

• By paddle: a canoe or kayak is the best way to take in the delta, though exploring all of it under your own power would take a week or more.
• By skiff: a day in a small (14–18 foot) outboard boat at moderate speed gives a good overall sense of its layout.
• Launches the writer has used: the Hopewell City Marina and its neighbouring Riverside Harbor Kayak Launch, and White Bank Park on the tidal part of Swift Creek in Colonial Heights.

Fish and birds

For thirty years the upper tidal James and the Appomattox delta have drawn anglers to local, regional and national largemouth bass tournaments. There is a thriving recreational fishery for trophy blue catfish and a growing commercial one for younger "eater" catfish, and endangered Atlantic sturgeon have come back from the brink. Nearby Presquile National Wildlife Refuge, also home to the James River Association's Ecology School, draws many bald eagles and great blue herons, ospreys in summer and migrating waterfowl in winter.

For the writer, the delta weaves together geography, ecology and human history — and, having come a long way, it is only getting better.

Sources

• "Exploring the Delta of the Appomattox River", an abridged article by Kenny Fletcher, shared by the National Park Service's Chesapeake Bay office. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/exploring-the-delta-of-the-appomattox-river.htm
• The source's photograph, credited to the writer, is not reproduced.
• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.