State

River of Ruin and Promise The Roanoke is a capricious stream which has brought wealth-making silt and deadly floods to the northern coastal plains. Of all North Carolina’s highly indi¬ vidualistic river, the Roanoke is the most contradictory, volatile, and su¬ perlative. It is by far the longest . reaching deep into Virginia Moun¬ tains, and sliding vigorously into the head of Albemarle Sound 400 hun¬ dred miles away. And for much of its length it is a real river, too. Even in its upper stretches it is a precocious stream — steamboats once operated on it at Clarksville. Called Monatoc or Morotuck, the river from the first was remarked for the violence of its current, for it reaches the Sound with a strength suf¬ ficient to overcome wind and water tides. Its great volume of water is col¬ lected in scores of creeks and hundreds of branches in two states, though it starts midly enough in the Alleghan- ics west of Roanoke. Its principal tributary, the dam has a 200-mile life of its own before emptying into the Roanoke at Clarksville. From Clarks¬ ville upstream for 110 miles, the Roanoke is known as the Staunton, but then reverts to its "real" name. The Roanoke has changed its By LOUISE M \\M\G character — somewhat for the worse — since white men first entered it. Heavy timbering on the watershed in¬ creased the violence of flash floods. Down stream, particularly below Ro¬ anoke Rapids, large plantations were established in the lowlands. To protect the rich crops produced in the loamy soil, planters built dykes, which con¬ fined the river, and multiplied its pow¬ er of destruction. The dykes failed to hold against the larger floods. In years of drought, the river at some points can be crossed on foot. In flood, it sometimes spreads over the land so that the further shore cannot be seen. In 1932, there was a minimum flow of 467 cubic feet per second above Roanoke Rapids. In the great flood of August, 1940, there was a maximum flow of 270,000 cubic feet per second. The average flow is 7,850 cubic feet. The Roanoke was used for naviga¬ tion by the earliest settlers. There were many private plantation landings all the way up to Weldon, and then above the Great falls which occur in that vicinity. Halifax and Scotland Neck were thriving terminals, and the feder¬ al government occasionally cleared out snags and other obstructions to navi¬ gation. Canals circumventing the Great Falls were completed early in the 19th century, and shallow-draft ba¬ teaux went all the way from the Blue Ridges to the ocean. A disastrous flood damaged the locks of the canal, how¬ ever, and for a long time river freight was portaged around the Falls by drays. Railroads wiped out virtually all navigation on the river above Wil- liamston. Now only pleasure craft and fishing boats are seen. The floods seemed to increase in frequency and violence, and agitation for their curbing grew. Since 1899, the river has been in flood 200 times. It was the flood of 1940, however, when the river rose 58 feet at Weldon, and caused wide destruction throughout a large part of the valley, that consoli¬ dated sentiment for flood control. Two organizations — the Roanoke River Control Committee and the Ro¬ anoke River Basin Association — ever since have pushed development pro¬ grams. The building of Buggs Island Dam in Virginia — now called the Kerr Reservoir — grew out of the 1940 flood. It is believed that it will hold the crest of the river at Weldon to 37 feet. Low flood level is 31 feet, and it is at this height that the river leaves the banks. However, it is said that a flood of 37 feet would do relatively little damage. It is at this point true, meantime, a controversy developed over whether the Virginia Electric and Power Com¬ pany should be permitted to build a hydro-clcctric plant at Roanoke Rap¬ ids. The Interior Department has op¬ posed this dam, claiming that the Congress intended to reserve power sites for development by government agencies. Interior has appealed a re¬ cent court decision favoring VEPCO's contentions. The Roanoke is at its most dra- the STATE. February 3 3. 19*2