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Journey on the James: Three Weeks through the Heart of Virginia
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.
- GenresNonfictionTravel
239 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
8 people are currently reading
157 people want to read
About the author
Earl Swift
14 books175 followersLongtime journalist Earl Swift is the author of the forthcoming ACROSS THE AIRLESS WILDS: THE LUNAR ROVER AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE FINAL MOON LANDINGS, due from HarperCollins in July 2021.
He is also the author of seven other books, among them the New York Times best seller CHESAPEAKE REQUIEM (HarperCollins, 2018), the story of an island town threatened with extinction by the very water that has sustained it for 240 years; AUTO BIOGRAPHY (HarperCollins, 2014), a narrative journey through postwar America told through a single old car and the fourteen people who've owned it; THE BIG ROADS (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), an armchair history of the U.S. highway system and its effects, physical and cultural, on the nation it binds; JOURNEY ON THE JAMES (University of Virginia Press, 2001), about a great American river and the largely untold history that has unfolded in and around it; WHERE THEY LAY (Houghton Mifflin, 2003), for which he accompanied an Army archaeological team into the jungles of Laos in search of a helicopter crew shot down thirty years before; and a 2007 collection of his stories, THE TANGIERMAN'S LAMENT (UVa Press). He also co-authored, with Macon Brock, ONE BUCK AT A TIME (Beachnut/John F. Blair, 2017), an insider's account of Dollar Tree's rise from loopy idea to retail juggernaut.
Since 2012 he's been a fellow of Virginia Humanities at the University of Virginia. He lives in the Blue Ridge mountains west of Charlottesville.
He is also the author of seven other books, among them the New York Times best seller CHESAPEAKE REQUIEM (HarperCollins, 2018), the story of an island town threatened with extinction by the very water that has sustained it for 240 years; AUTO BIOGRAPHY (HarperCollins, 2014), a narrative journey through postwar America told through a single old car and the fourteen people who've owned it; THE BIG ROADS (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), an armchair history of the U.S. highway system and its effects, physical and cultural, on the nation it binds; JOURNEY ON THE JAMES (University of Virginia Press, 2001), about a great American river and the largely untold history that has unfolded in and around it; WHERE THEY LAY (Houghton Mifflin, 2003), for which he accompanied an Army archaeological team into the jungles of Laos in search of a helicopter crew shot down thirty years before; and a 2007 collection of his stories, THE TANGIERMAN'S LAMENT (UVa Press). He also co-authored, with Macon Brock, ONE BUCK AT A TIME (Beachnut/John F. Blair, 2017), an insider's account of Dollar Tree's rise from loopy idea to retail juggernaut.
Since 2012 he's been a fellow of Virginia Humanities at the University of Virginia. He lives in the Blue Ridge mountains west of Charlottesville.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 2, 2020
A journey by canoe down Virginia’s James River, from its source in the Appalachian Mountains to its outlet at Chesapeake Bay, sounds like a bucolic adventure. And to judge from the testimony of journalist Earl Swift, who made the voyage and chronicled it in his 2001 book Journey on the James, such a trip is definitely an adventure. Bucolic? Well, that depends on which part of the James you are on at any given moment.
Swift writes for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, the newspaper that serves southeastern Virginia’s Hampton Roads region; and in the introduction to Journey on the James, he explains how he came to make a canoe voyage of Three Weeks Through the Heart of Virginia (the book’s subtitle). As Swift explains it, he found himself “awash in ennui”, “trapped in a routine of regular stories cranked out on regularly spaced deadlines”, when his managing editor suggested that Swift write “A series on canoeing the whole length of the James River….Wouldn’t that be great?” (pp. 4-5).
And with that, quicker than you could say “headwaters,” Swift and Virginian-Pilot photographer Ian Martin were off to where the Jackson River, the James’s main tributary, trickles out of the ground on a farm in mountainous Highland County. The plan was that they would arrange for Swift to make his way, each day, down a pre-planned stretch of river; Martin meanwhile would drive to a scheduled rendezvous point and wait for Swift. The two would then, from campground or hotel, file their stories and photographs online, for publication in a feature series in the Virginian-Pilot.
An experienced kayaker, Swift also gets to do a great deal of whitewater canoeing, and whitewater enthusiasts may be among the most avid readers of Journey on the James. Swift captures well the drama of whitewater rafting in passages like this one, concerning a passage on the Jackson River between Covington and Clifton Forge:
Diving over one falls, I miscalculate the water’s force and wind up slamming into a car-sized boulder so hard that I’m thrown off my knees and against the rock. Somehow I manage to stay balanced enough to keep from flipping the boat. In another chute I get hung up on a submerged snag, spin 180 degrees and, shrieking at the top of my lungs, plummet backwards over a two-foot drop into a froth of whitewater, looking over my shoulder as if backing out a drive. I again avoid getting wet. It seems a miracle. (p. 52)
Yet not all passages from Journey on the James can focus on the beauty of the river, or on the purity of a whitewater experience. As Swift documents in a number of well-researched historical passages, the power of the James River has been harnessed for industrial purposes ever since the beginnings of European settlement in the early 17th century; and in modern times, the paper mills in James River towns like Covington and Lynchburg make those portions of the river noxious and foul-smelling places. Lynchburg in particular makes a negative impression upon Swift and Martin, as a river town that has long since turned its back on the river:
I…take in the bleak urban desert around me, the warehouses lined forlorn at the foot of the hill that rises to downtown’s modern heart. The river was good to the place for a long time, but eventually the city’s economic lifeblood abandoned the James, and the people running the place…abandoned one source of sustenance for another, and refigured the town to reflect the shift. (p. 99)
One senses the discouragement with which Swift writes about “this channel of the James” as “an inches-deep swamp, littered with garbage, rusted metal piping, more tires, and the wreckage of a truck trailer” (p. 101).
A highlight of Journey on the James occurs when Swift and Martin make their way into the city of Richmond. Located at the fall line, where rocks and rapids closed the James to further navigation by ocean-going vessels, Richmond is also the one major city located along the James’s banks. Enlisting the help of an experienced river guide, Swift makes his way through some exceptionally tough rapids – “I’m aware that the canoe is doing everything that I ask of it, and I detect a foreign sensation spreading through me: relaxation. I’m suddenly at ease” (p. 153).
And the Richmond portion of the James River abounds in Civil War landmarks. At Belle Isle, Union prisoners of war endured horrific conditions. And on a bluff above the river, one can see Hollywood Cemetery, where 18,000 Confederate dead rest in the company of well-known rebel leaders like generals J.E.B. Stuart and George Pickett and Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Swift reflects on Richmond’s status as a place suffused with “a quiet mourning, a palpable sense of tragedy” (p. 157). It was interesting to be reading Swift’s words at a time when four of the five Confederate monuments along Richmond’s Monument Avenue have been taken down, and when new monuments to the city’s African-American heritage and history are going up.
The James widens considerably below Richmond, and dealing with the river’s powerful tides itself becomes a challenge for Swift. The author experiences the grotesque smells that emanate from the industrial city of Hopewell – the place from which a 1975 spill of the chemical compound Kepone forced Virginia authorities to ban fishing and crabbing on the lower part of the James for thirteen years – and meditates on the dramatic differences between the brutal realities of the river-side Jamestown Colony of 1607 on the one hand, and what one sees in Walt Disney’s 1995 animated film Pocahontas on the other.
And Swift’s sighting of another prominent river-side sight – “Virginia Power’s Surry Nuclear Power Station, the two squat concrete domes of its containment buildings, the pale blue-green metal shell around its turbines” (p. 200) – prompts him to discuss the James’s historic importance as a source for the generation of power, and also on the sometimes difficult history of the Surry nuclear plant: problems that cost the plant $800,000 in fines and forced a ten-month shutdown of the plant, and accidents that killed nine plant workers, including a 1986 burst-pipe incident that remains, Three Mile Island notwithstanding, “the deadliest nuclear-plant accident in American history” (p. 201). Swift reflects grimly that, if the intake pipes that carry James River water into the Surry nuclear plant were to burst, and if uncontrolled James River waters were to “gush into the plant’s controls…well, nobody would talk much about Kepone any more” (p. 202).
Swift’s journey down the James seems to have been a delight at some times, an ordeal at others; but the book is always an informative and evocative recounting of a real-life James River adventure. The James is one of America’s most historic rivers, and unlike other major rivers of Virginia – the Potomac, the Shenandoah – it is contained entirely within Virginia’s boundaries. Accordingly, Journey on the James, published at Charlottesville by the University Press of Virginia, provides a strongly regionally-based look at American history. One also finishes Journey on the James with a heightened appreciation of the beauty of the American environment – and an increased awareness of the challenges facing that environment.
Swift writes for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, the newspaper that serves southeastern Virginia’s Hampton Roads region; and in the introduction to Journey on the James, he explains how he came to make a canoe voyage of Three Weeks Through the Heart of Virginia (the book’s subtitle). As Swift explains it, he found himself “awash in ennui”, “trapped in a routine of regular stories cranked out on regularly spaced deadlines”, when his managing editor suggested that Swift write “A series on canoeing the whole length of the James River….Wouldn’t that be great?” (pp. 4-5).
And with that, quicker than you could say “headwaters,” Swift and Virginian-Pilot photographer Ian Martin were off to where the Jackson River, the James’s main tributary, trickles out of the ground on a farm in mountainous Highland County. The plan was that they would arrange for Swift to make his way, each day, down a pre-planned stretch of river; Martin meanwhile would drive to a scheduled rendezvous point and wait for Swift. The two would then, from campground or hotel, file their stories and photographs online, for publication in a feature series in the Virginian-Pilot.
An experienced kayaker, Swift also gets to do a great deal of whitewater canoeing, and whitewater enthusiasts may be among the most avid readers of Journey on the James. Swift captures well the drama of whitewater rafting in passages like this one, concerning a passage on the Jackson River between Covington and Clifton Forge:
Diving over one falls, I miscalculate the water’s force and wind up slamming into a car-sized boulder so hard that I’m thrown off my knees and against the rock. Somehow I manage to stay balanced enough to keep from flipping the boat. In another chute I get hung up on a submerged snag, spin 180 degrees and, shrieking at the top of my lungs, plummet backwards over a two-foot drop into a froth of whitewater, looking over my shoulder as if backing out a drive. I again avoid getting wet. It seems a miracle. (p. 52)
Yet not all passages from Journey on the James can focus on the beauty of the river, or on the purity of a whitewater experience. As Swift documents in a number of well-researched historical passages, the power of the James River has been harnessed for industrial purposes ever since the beginnings of European settlement in the early 17th century; and in modern times, the paper mills in James River towns like Covington and Lynchburg make those portions of the river noxious and foul-smelling places. Lynchburg in particular makes a negative impression upon Swift and Martin, as a river town that has long since turned its back on the river:
I…take in the bleak urban desert around me, the warehouses lined forlorn at the foot of the hill that rises to downtown’s modern heart. The river was good to the place for a long time, but eventually the city’s economic lifeblood abandoned the James, and the people running the place…abandoned one source of sustenance for another, and refigured the town to reflect the shift. (p. 99)
One senses the discouragement with which Swift writes about “this channel of the James” as “an inches-deep swamp, littered with garbage, rusted metal piping, more tires, and the wreckage of a truck trailer” (p. 101).
A highlight of Journey on the James occurs when Swift and Martin make their way into the city of Richmond. Located at the fall line, where rocks and rapids closed the James to further navigation by ocean-going vessels, Richmond is also the one major city located along the James’s banks. Enlisting the help of an experienced river guide, Swift makes his way through some exceptionally tough rapids – “I’m aware that the canoe is doing everything that I ask of it, and I detect a foreign sensation spreading through me: relaxation. I’m suddenly at ease” (p. 153).
And the Richmond portion of the James River abounds in Civil War landmarks. At Belle Isle, Union prisoners of war endured horrific conditions. And on a bluff above the river, one can see Hollywood Cemetery, where 18,000 Confederate dead rest in the company of well-known rebel leaders like generals J.E.B. Stuart and George Pickett and Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Swift reflects on Richmond’s status as a place suffused with “a quiet mourning, a palpable sense of tragedy” (p. 157). It was interesting to be reading Swift’s words at a time when four of the five Confederate monuments along Richmond’s Monument Avenue have been taken down, and when new monuments to the city’s African-American heritage and history are going up.
The James widens considerably below Richmond, and dealing with the river’s powerful tides itself becomes a challenge for Swift. The author experiences the grotesque smells that emanate from the industrial city of Hopewell – the place from which a 1975 spill of the chemical compound Kepone forced Virginia authorities to ban fishing and crabbing on the lower part of the James for thirteen years – and meditates on the dramatic differences between the brutal realities of the river-side Jamestown Colony of 1607 on the one hand, and what one sees in Walt Disney’s 1995 animated film Pocahontas on the other.
And Swift’s sighting of another prominent river-side sight – “Virginia Power’s Surry Nuclear Power Station, the two squat concrete domes of its containment buildings, the pale blue-green metal shell around its turbines” (p. 200) – prompts him to discuss the James’s historic importance as a source for the generation of power, and also on the sometimes difficult history of the Surry nuclear plant: problems that cost the plant $800,000 in fines and forced a ten-month shutdown of the plant, and accidents that killed nine plant workers, including a 1986 burst-pipe incident that remains, Three Mile Island notwithstanding, “the deadliest nuclear-plant accident in American history” (p. 201). Swift reflects grimly that, if the intake pipes that carry James River water into the Surry nuclear plant were to burst, and if uncontrolled James River waters were to “gush into the plant’s controls…well, nobody would talk much about Kepone any more” (p. 202).
Swift’s journey down the James seems to have been a delight at some times, an ordeal at others; but the book is always an informative and evocative recounting of a real-life James River adventure. The James is one of America’s most historic rivers, and unlike other major rivers of Virginia – the Potomac, the Shenandoah – it is contained entirely within Virginia’s boundaries. Accordingly, Journey on the James, published at Charlottesville by the University Press of Virginia, provides a strongly regionally-based look at American history. One also finishes Journey on the James with a heightened appreciation of the beauty of the American environment – and an increased awareness of the challenges facing that environment.
November 5, 2020
I read this book a little at a time every morning at the start of COVID-19 quarantine, and it mentally made me feel like I was going for a nature walk alongside a rushing river at the start of each day. Swift's ability to paint a picture of wilderness is impeccable. While I had nothing but wonderful things to say about his book "Chesapeake Requiem," this one is a series of chapters written with equal skill, but it's missing an overall narrative. That's a forgivable omission, however, as Swift describes the scenes along the river, the people he and his photographer meet, and the blood-soaked history on its edges. You read a lot about him drinking Gatorade and eating fast food and probably won't find a satisfying payoff, but this book leaves you feeling like you've managed to take a peaceful walk in a chaotic world; something less and less common every day.
October 6, 2018
Any Virginian will enjoy this account of exploring one of our greatest natural treasures. It is beautifully written and peppered with relevant and fascinating historical details of the James. As one whose spent many days myself paddling the upper reaches of this river, it only wets the appetite further to get out and do it some more. An absolute joy to read.
January 11, 2023
A very neat book, and a must read for any Virginian interested in the history, geography, and hydrology of the Commonwealth. Swift, along with his travel partner, begins his journey on foot, deep in the mountains of Highland County, VA in search of the source of the Jackson River, the longer of the James' two source rivers. From there, the reader follows along on a fun, interesting, and at times humorous journey as Swift hikes, tubes, and finally paddles towards the faraway mouth of the James.
Along the way, the reader is treated to historical anecdotes relative to the areas Swift passes through, along with (usually) friendly interactions with locals, and vivid descriptions of the river's characteristics and surrounding scenery. I followed along (using Google Earth) with Swift's journey downriver for the entirety of the book.
As a lifelong Virginian, I rather enjoyed learning a lot of new information about my home state. Of course, I've heard of the devastating floods in the Blue Ridge foothills from Hurricane Camille in 1969, but the accounts in this book paint a picture that is positively apocalyptic, well beyond what I'd ever imagined. Completely new to me was the planning and partial construction of the James River & Kanawha Canal, remnants of which can still be seen, if you know where to look - some are even in use in various manners. These are just a couple of examples; I'll leave the rest for the next reader to discover and say to themselves "huh, that's neat" as I did.
I was a bit disappointed that the 1977 tanker accident at the Benjamin Harrison Bridge was not mentioned, but this book is chock-full of history, from the 20th century back to the nation's beginnings at Jamestown, and I'd enthusiastically recommend it to any Virginian, along with Swift's book on Tangier Island, "Chesapeake Requiem."
Along the way, the reader is treated to historical anecdotes relative to the areas Swift passes through, along with (usually) friendly interactions with locals, and vivid descriptions of the river's characteristics and surrounding scenery. I followed along (using Google Earth) with Swift's journey downriver for the entirety of the book.
As a lifelong Virginian, I rather enjoyed learning a lot of new information about my home state. Of course, I've heard of the devastating floods in the Blue Ridge foothills from Hurricane Camille in 1969, but the accounts in this book paint a picture that is positively apocalyptic, well beyond what I'd ever imagined. Completely new to me was the planning and partial construction of the James River & Kanawha Canal, remnants of which can still be seen, if you know where to look - some are even in use in various manners. These are just a couple of examples; I'll leave the rest for the next reader to discover and say to themselves "huh, that's neat" as I did.
I was a bit disappointed that the 1977 tanker accident at the Benjamin Harrison Bridge was not mentioned, but this book is chock-full of history, from the 20th century back to the nation's beginnings at Jamestown, and I'd enthusiastically recommend it to any Virginian, along with Swift's book on Tangier Island, "Chesapeake Requiem."
March 24, 2021
A trip down the James River (why start on the Jackson?) from beginning to end. So many dams! So many cows in the river! So much pollution! And, thanks to Earl Swift, so much history. Really interesting to me, given my age and experience, were the sections on hurricane Camille and Balcony Falls (that one because my former husband was so proud of running those falls!). Questions: are those dams still all there? Is all that municipal effluent still going into the river? Why did you start on the Jackson? Why aren't there more pictures? Is there any part of the historical part you would update?
September 29, 2018
The James River
I got this book from overdrive because I had read Earl Swifts book of short stories (which I also got from overdrive) and really enjoyed his writing. This book details his and his friends journey on the James River from the Jackson to Hampton Roads. It was a fascinating, entertaining and informative read. Ian Martin's pictures are fabulous. Highly recommend this book.
I got this book from overdrive because I had read Earl Swifts book of short stories (which I also got from overdrive) and really enjoyed his writing. This book details his and his friends journey on the James River from the Jackson to Hampton Roads. It was a fascinating, entertaining and informative read. Ian Martin's pictures are fabulous. Highly recommend this book.
March 27, 2021
Engaging account of the author’s journey on the James River from beginning (on foot) to the end. Swift’s conversational style, mix of historical information, and observations, mixed with my own experiences canoeing and living in the mountains during the summer of Camille, all combined to make this a very enjoyable read!
June 3, 2019
What an interesting way to view a geographic element so vital to America’s settlement and growth. This book is a good story chock full of history told with style and wry self deprecation. I wish there had been more photos.
April 7, 2020
Like Earl and Ian, I did not want the journey to end. What a great travelogue, Virginia history lesson and comical adventure. Earl Swift is a great writer!
July 30, 2020
Enjoyable. Part travelogue. Part history of Virgnia. Part story of two buddies on a trip together. Really enjoyed it up until the end which left me wanting more.
April 22, 2025
I loved the mix of canoeing from the source of the James to Hampton Roads and the background stories and history of places along the way.
December 19, 2018
I really enjoyed this book. In my younger days, I took a canoe trip the entire length of the Delaware River from NY to Trenton NJ. This book helped me relive some good times. I really enjoyed the history lesson presented in the book along the way. I have lived in Virginia, and it was thrilling to hear about the history of the different places. I will be reading more of Earl Swift's books. I recommend this one.
February 23, 2016
Earl Swift, a reporter for a Norfolk, Virginia newspaper and Ian, a photographer for the same paper, set out in the fall of 1998 to explore the length of the James River from its beginning in a spring bubbling up on a farm deep in the Virginia Mountains until it empties out into the Chesapeake Bay 430 miles later. At first, Swift hikes along the stream bed. Once there is enough water, he crawls into a canoe stuffed with extra flotation and with a double-bladed paddle begins to make his way down river. At the end, when the river is wide and he’s fighting the tide and wind, he switches to a sea kayak. As Swift sticks to the water, Ian follows along in his old Volvo, scouting out places to stop, buying up all the Gatorade he can find and supposedly taking a few photographs. In telling his story on the water, Swift also explores the history of the region.
I must admit I had high hopes for this book and almost decided not to finish reading it. Supposedly, according to the back cover, the author had hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail and paddled a kayak around the Chesapeake Bay. I was expecting someone more turned into nature and the rhythm of the journey. I never came to care much for the author or his side-kick. At times, it seemed Earl was making light of their tenderfoot ways, but he never quite pulls it off in the way Bill Bryson does in A Walk in the Woods. Of course, part of this may be that Swift was originally writing for a newspaper. Bryson’s humor involves stretching the truth (or in some cases throwing it out the window), a talent that newspaper editors may not appreciated. The lighthearted comments on their ineptness fell flat. He’s not Don Quixote and Ian isn’t the squire Sancho Panza. Also playing into my dislike of the characters is the lack of awe that Swift shows as he makes his way across the state. Part of this may be due to the fact that he is never far from civilization and just about every bend in the river, Ian is there to hand him a Gatorade and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. At the end of the day, when they don’t want Mac and Cheese, Ian runs out for fast food and some beers. This is no wilderness trip.
However, I do appreciate Swift’s insight into the history of this region. From the first English settlement in the New World, through the battles between Native Americans and Settlers, to the Revolutionary, Civil and the World Wars, the James has a story to tell. With a journalistic eye, Swift does a commendable job with the history. He reminds his readers of the fights between civilizations (and makes the point that the native population in this part of the New World had develop quite an empire). In a way, the story of the battle between the natives and immigrants is told backwards as he starts in the west where the last battles occurred late in the 18th century and then travels east where the first battles occurred early in the 17th Century. I also gained appreciation for the hard work and ingenuity of early Americans (and their slaves) as they struggled to build a canal that ran up the river and help develop the western part of the state. However, as soon as the canals were complete, the railroad came onto the scene, making the canals obsolete and eventually using their aqueducts to lay rails over creeks. Swift also covers the Civil War battles as he paddles through Richmond and even mentions the role Newport News had in later wars as it churned out and continues to churn out warships for the American navy.
I don’t recommend this book for anyone interested in canoeing as there are a number of other canoe trip books that I’ve reviewed that I’d recommend first. However, if you’re looking for a quick read on the history of Central Virginia, this book has a lot to offer.
I must admit I had high hopes for this book and almost decided not to finish reading it. Supposedly, according to the back cover, the author had hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail and paddled a kayak around the Chesapeake Bay. I was expecting someone more turned into nature and the rhythm of the journey. I never came to care much for the author or his side-kick. At times, it seemed Earl was making light of their tenderfoot ways, but he never quite pulls it off in the way Bill Bryson does in A Walk in the Woods. Of course, part of this may be that Swift was originally writing for a newspaper. Bryson’s humor involves stretching the truth (or in some cases throwing it out the window), a talent that newspaper editors may not appreciated. The lighthearted comments on their ineptness fell flat. He’s not Don Quixote and Ian isn’t the squire Sancho Panza. Also playing into my dislike of the characters is the lack of awe that Swift shows as he makes his way across the state. Part of this may be due to the fact that he is never far from civilization and just about every bend in the river, Ian is there to hand him a Gatorade and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. At the end of the day, when they don’t want Mac and Cheese, Ian runs out for fast food and some beers. This is no wilderness trip.
However, I do appreciate Swift’s insight into the history of this region. From the first English settlement in the New World, through the battles between Native Americans and Settlers, to the Revolutionary, Civil and the World Wars, the James has a story to tell. With a journalistic eye, Swift does a commendable job with the history. He reminds his readers of the fights between civilizations (and makes the point that the native population in this part of the New World had develop quite an empire). In a way, the story of the battle between the natives and immigrants is told backwards as he starts in the west where the last battles occurred late in the 18th century and then travels east where the first battles occurred early in the 17th Century. I also gained appreciation for the hard work and ingenuity of early Americans (and their slaves) as they struggled to build a canal that ran up the river and help develop the western part of the state. However, as soon as the canals were complete, the railroad came onto the scene, making the canals obsolete and eventually using their aqueducts to lay rails over creeks. Swift also covers the Civil War battles as he paddles through Richmond and even mentions the role Newport News had in later wars as it churned out and continues to churn out warships for the American navy.
I don’t recommend this book for anyone interested in canoeing as there are a number of other canoe trip books that I’ve reviewed that I’d recommend first. However, if you’re looking for a quick read on the history of Central Virginia, this book has a lot to offer.
June 1, 2022
400+ miles of adventure and history. Nicely done.
March 16, 2015
This was an excellent book. It's part history and part travelogue, and very well paced. I wanted to keep reading, and learning, and I was definitely bitten by the wanderlust bug. I recommend this book to anyone who 1) Loves Virginia, 2) Loves the Outdoors, 3) Loves History, or 4) Loves a well written book. Do yourself a favor and read this book.
June 28, 2017
Having visited many of the places that Mr. Swift canoed by, this book was vivid in my mind like no other. For those places that I have yet to visit, Swift kindled a strong desire to go exploring. It is the perfect mixture of travel and history that draws anyone into the fascinating 3 week long trek. A must read for any Virginia enthusiast
September 20, 2015
It's hard to say which was better . . . the author's narrative of his canoe trip on the James River or his detailed writing on the extensive history of the James River and surroundings. All in all, though, it was a highly enjoyable read.
March 26, 2008
I enjoyed the history, following Earl and Ian paddle the length of the James River. But this book needed maps (!) and pictures.
August 20, 2009
I love this book. I've been following Earl Swift in the VA Pilot for years. He's a great journalist.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews