In the middle of the nineteenth century Rappahannock businessmen

In the middle of the nineteenth century Rappahannock businessmen had a dream of reaching larger ports of commerce by water. Their plan was consistent with efforts throughout the state to make rivers navigable by a system of canals.

Dr. William E. Trout of the American Canal Society has made extensive study of Virginia canals and in doing so, unearthed some information on the Hazel River Canal Company, active in this area briefly in 1849 through 1854.

The head of navigation, says Trout, was at Castle Mill, near Castle Mountain at Estes, about 21 miles from the Rappahannock River. Place names are at this time confusing, since Castle Mill was also known as Castleton or Gregory’s Mill and there was another mill less than a mile downstream known as Castle or Castleton Mill; and the headquarters of the Hazel River Navigation Company was in Thompsonville, now known as Castleton.

The work on the Hazel was begun under the belief that improvements to the Rappahannock River would render that river navigable all the way to Fredericksburg and on to the Chesapeake Bay. The Hazel River Navigation Company was incorporated by an act of the Assembly during the 18501851 session. President of the company was George Ficklin of Ficklin’s Castle Mills, described by his contemporaries as “the most progressive man in Culpeper County, whose ideas and plans were 50 years in advance of his times.”

As long as Ficklin was involved with the navigation scheme, plans proceeded rapidly. However, he began to have doubts as to the future of his project when work on the larger Rappahannock canal system seemed to bog down.

John A. Byers, who had engineered the successful Chesapeake and Ohio canal, carried out the survey of the Hazel for 20 miles from Castle Mills down to its mouth on the Rappahannock, 38 water miles above Fredericksburg. Byers’ survey has never been found,