State

Ghost Town Under The Roanoke Hock Landing was I In* ideal Mopping place* for river and eanal traffic* and promoters foresaw a real estate bonanza. By /Lit IH WY Rock Landing, once a riverside commercial center, mushroomed from the wooded hills along the Roanoke River in Halifax County, flourished for three decades, then died, leaving its skeletal remains to mark the hillsides for the next century. Roanoke Ropidi Loke todoy. Picture mode Irom о point near where Ihe old Rock Londing-Halifoa Rood wound down the hill toword the conol town, which lived ond died о le- hundred yotd* oH the point ot right — between thot oreo ond the rocky outcrop¬ ping leen ocross the loke. Woter m thot oreo i» now obout mty feet deep. Modern dwelling built neor where the Rock lond- ing-Holiloi Rood ran down to the town Rear ol the house overlooks the submerged town site. Shown on the John Mac Rae map in 1833. the town was located nine miles up-river from Weldon, fourteen miles from Littleton, and six miles down¬ stream from Hamlin's Shoals. It lay across the river from Mount Gallant, the plantation of Allen Jones, a Revo¬ lutionary War hero and a brother to Willie Jones, of Halifax fame. Other places the map listed in the broader community were Oak Grove Church. Moody’s Crossroads, and Bull Run Creek in Northampton County; Hyde Park Post Office. Quanky Creek Church, and Great Creek (Deep Creek today) in Halifax County. The tow n, which took its name from Buzzard Rock (a large outcropping Stone near the mouth of "Swift-Run¬ ning Branch”), grew out of the small land boom created by the grant of a charter to the Roanoke Navigation Company in 1812 for the construction of a canal. The charter permitted the company to secure a right-of-way. dig. construct, and operate for profit (by toll) a canal that would carry the river traffic around the rapids of the Roanoke River where it crosses the "fall line” between the geographically different sections of the state — the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain. With wagon roads sometimes impassable and railroads still in the unforeseen future, a strong demand had arisen for a continuous water route from the rich Piedmont tobacco farms, the upland forests, and the foothill iron mines to the markets along the seacoast. espe¬ cially Norfolk, and beyond. Canal Site By 1817. at least three men — Cad- wallader Jones (he was later to join Col. Andrew Joyner in a steamboat shipping project on the lower Roanoke). Daniel Mason, and Henry Some one with о ienie o( hutory hoi erected this sign by the Old Rock Lending Rood west o( Loke View Smith — had come to believe the time propitious for purchasing land for re¬ sale along the Roanoke River, par¬ ticularly on the south bank in the vi¬ cinity of Buzzard Rock, w hich marked the upper end of the navigation com¬ pany’s first survey where the company planned to build a freight depot and a dock for use during the canal’s con¬ struction — a matter of five years or more. It was there that the first leg of the canal would end. and the regular canal barges would take to the open water of the river for the next four miles up-stream to the last section of the canal, around Eaton’s Falls. It was a place where travelers up and down the river would pause and refresh themselves. Furthermore, it was amply watered and well-drained. An ideal location for commercial enter¬ prises. as well as for homes of those who would operate the canal and serve the community as traders and craftsmen. The promoters surely foresaw a real estate bonanza. Mason and Smith, acting jointly, initiated the Rock Landing saga by- purchasing a 150-acre tract from Hampton Powell on April 12. 1817. for the purpose of "laying out” a town, which they proposed to name "Gancs- borough." The tract cornered at the mouth of the branch near Buzzard Rock, a mark in Cadwallader Jones' line, and lay west of the branch. Land Promoters But while Mason and Smith pro¬ crastinated. Cadwallader Jones, who had bought the property beyond the branch from Hampton Powell on Feb. 1 1. 1817. got the jump on his compet¬ itors by having a survey completed by August 1 1. 1817. of a plot in his land adjacent to Buzzard Rock for a tow n to be called "Rock Landing.” Jones immediately began selling lots. He sold #6 and #26 on December 25. 1817. to Benj. T. Kissam for Sl(K) THE STATE, FEBRUARY 198*