Journey on the James: Three Weeks through the Heart of Virginia

by Earl Swift

Overview

From its beginnings as a trickle of icy water in Virginia's northwest corner to its miles-wide mouth at Hampton Roads, the James River has witnessed more recorded history than any other feature of the American landscape — as home to the continent's first successful English settlement, highway for Native Americans and early colonists, battleground in the Revolution and the Civil War, and birthplace of America's twentieth-century navy.

In 1998, restless in his job as a reporter for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Earl Swift landed an assignment traveling the entire length of the James. He hadn't been in a canoe since his days as a Boy Scout, and he knew that the river boasts whitewater, not to mention man-made obstacles, to challenge even experienced paddlers. But reinforced by Pilot photographer Ian Martin and a lot of freeze-dried food and beer, Swift set out to immerse himself — he hoped not literally — in the river and its history.

What Swift survived to bring us is this engrossing chronicle of three weeks in a fourteen-foot plastic canoe and four hundred years in the life of Virginia. Fueled by humor and a dauntless curiosity about the land, buildings, and people on the banks, and anchored by his sidekick Martin — whose photographs accompany the text — Swift points his bow through the ghosts of a frontier past, past Confederate forts and POW camps, antebellum mills, ruined canals, vanished towns, and effluent-spewing industry. Along the banks, lonely meadowlands alternate with suburbs and power plants, marinas and the gleaming skyscrapers of Richmond's New South downtown. Enduring dunkings, wolf spiders, near-arrest, channel fever, and twenty-knot winds, Swift makes it to the Chesapeake Bay.

Readers who accompany him through his Journey on the James will come away with the accumulated pleasure, if not the bruises and mud, of four hundred miles of adventure and history in the life of one of America's great watersheds.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813921198
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	04/29/2002
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	239
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.25(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

A staff writer for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Earl Swift has been a Fulbright fellow and twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He has backpacked the entire Appalachian Trail and completed a circumnavigation of the Chesapeake Bay by sea kayak. He lives in Norfolk with his daughter, Saylor.

Table of Contents

Day 1	On which the journey's protagonists wander hypothermic and disoriented on Lantz Mountain, birthplace of the James	1
Day 2	On which the expedition follows the infant Jackson through the Alleghenies, and a gantlet of vicious pets	9
Day 3	About which the less is said, the better	19
Day 4	On which we reach navigable water, traverse Lake Moomaw, and reflect on the high cost of recreation	27
Day 5	Of whitewater and wolf spiders, and the Jackson's first brush with industry	38
Day 6	On which the expedition battles its way past all manner of obstacles to reach the James	51
Day 7	On which we paddle through a furnace, and among boomtowns gone bust	56
Day 8	Of oxbows, old stone, and the ghosts of a frontier past	64
Day 9	On which the expedition braces for big excitement and the prospect of crippling injury	74
Day 10	On which we risk soaking and arrest in the foam of Balcony Falls, then behold a river robbed	85
Day 11	Fleeing Lynchburg	95
Day 12	Thirty years after the river's worst night	105
Day 13	An old carving, an old ferry, and an old town at the horseshoe bend	121
Day 14	On which puny-brained geese outsmart us, and the fist of an angry God swings oh so close	128
Day 15	On which the expedition escapes State Farm in a hell-for-leather dash	134
Day 16	On which our faith in all things Swedish is tested	146
Day 17	Risky business in Richmond	151
Day 18	In the wake of the first European settlers--and against the tide	161
Day 19	What's that smell?	174
Day 20	On which we find Jamestown not at all like that Disney movie	188
Day 21	On which the expedition suffers one last blow	199
Day 22	At the James River's mouth	211
	Notes	221
	Acknowledgments	241

Editorial Reviews

"With humor and insight, Swift narrates his story on a day-by-day basis, telling not only the hazards and the beauty of the river itself, but also of the people he and Martin met along the way. His historical notes, reflecting a great deal of research, add depth to the chronicle. This is no if-it's-Tuesday-it-must-be-Balcony-Falls travelogue, but a lively and colorful recap of a journey savored hour-by-hour.

Richmond Times-Dispatch - Ann Lloyd Merriman

"Earl Swift has taken what could have been a disaster-prone journey down Virginia's most famous river and turned it into a delightful piece of writing. While we're chuckling about his less-than-expert attempts to float an inner tube in too-shallow water or maneuver a canoe through rapids that tax his ability, all along he steps off the water to relate the remarkable story of the James.

Richmond Times-Dispatch - Garvey Winegar

"By turns travel narrative, history book and comic adventure, Journey on the James breathes life into the affairs of one of our most beautiful and significant rivers.

Style Weekly - Katherine Jackson

"By turns travel narrative, history book and comic adventure, Journey on the James breathes life into the affairs of one of our most beautiful and significant rivers.

--Katherine Jackson "Style Weekly"

"Earl Swift has taken what could have been a disaster-prone journey down Virginia's most famous river and turned it into a delightful piece of writing. While we're chuckling about his less-than-expert attempts to float an inner tube in too-shallow water or maneuver a canoe through rapids that tax his ability, all along he steps off the water to relate the remarkable story of the James.

--Garvey Winegar "Richmond Times-Dispatch"

"With humor and insight, Swift narrates his story on a day-by-day basis, telling not only the hazards and the beauty of the river itself, but also of the people he and Martin met along the way. His historical notes, reflecting a great deal of research, add depth to the chronicle. This is no if-it's-Tuesday-it-must-be-Balcony-Falls travelogue, but a lively and colorful recap of a journey savored hour-by-hour.

--Ann Lloyd Merriman "Richmond Times-Dispatch"

From the Publisher

Swift, a staff writer for the , presents a chronicle of three weeks in a 14-foot plastic canoe and 400 years in the life of Virginia. Fueled by humor and curiosity about the land, buildings, and people on the banks, he views Confederate forts and POW camps, ante-bellum mills, ruined canals, vanished towns, and the contrast between meadowlands, suburbs and skyscrapers of Richmond's New South downtown. Enduring dunkings, spiders, near arrest, channel fever, and high winds, he makes it to Chesapeake Bay. The book contains a few b&w photographs. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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