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Welcome to
The Roanoke Canal Museum and Trail:
The Roanoke Canal Museum and Trail is a 7-1/2 mile long indoor and outdoor museum celebrating early American ingenuity and canal history. The Roanoke Canal Trail and its contributing resources tell the history of transportation on the Roanoke River from the early 1800s to today. Still remaining hare portions of the 39 foot wide channel, its 10 foot wide tow path, the original aqueduct and one of the stone culverts. In 1976, the canal, the tow path, and canal structures were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The towpath and bottom of the canal provide pedestrian access between the communities of Roanoke Rapids and Weldon, North Carolina. Visitors using the Canal Trail can experience engineering feats and explore life along the Roanoke Valley as it was in the early 1800s. The canal and the supporting structures are a living legacy to the early years of transportation, the engineering profession, and a developing way of life along the Roanoke River.
(5) Roanoke Canal Museum:
Nearby Points of Interest:
(5) The Roanoke Canal Museum (at 1.5 mile). Explore the rich history of the Canal and the Roanoke Valley. The Canal had one upper lock, four middle locks and, for a short time, six wooden locks at Weldon. Portions of the middle locks used to lower loaded batteaux can be seen at the museum site. A four-acre tract below the museum site was used as a holding basin for the batteaux.
(6) Kraft Paper Mill (at 1.6 mile). Just after the trail crosses Highway 48, there is another set of locks. A concrete flume ran from these locks likely in the early 1900s to operate a water-powered sawmill. International Paper operates a Kraft paper mill just to the north. The mill, which was the first Kraft pulp mill in the country, operated as the Roanoke Rapids Paper Manufacturing Company, started in 1909.
The Roanoke Canal Commission, Inc., was chartered in 1984 to "promote, develop and maintain the natural beauty and historic area that is part of the old Roanoke Navigation Canal in Halifax County, North Carolina." The Commission oversees the management of the Canal Trail and development of the Roanoke Canal Museum/ |