Barnett Canal
Eden, Rockingham County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Barnett Canal. Built near here by James Barnett in 1813. Later powered largest continuously operating textile complex in the northern piedmont.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
James Barnett dug this canal near the Dan River in 1813 to harness the current's power. Over the following century that waterpower drove a growing cluster of textile mills—eventually the largest continuously operating textile complex in the northern Piedmont. The canal helped turn this stretch of riverbank into an engine of Southern industry.
Why it matters
Water-powered canals like Barnett's launched the Southern textile industry that would dominate the region's economy for generations.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · James Barnett
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
North Carolina Railroad Company Shops
Burlington, NC
In 1857 the North Carolina Railroad built its maintenance and repair shops here, and the town that grew up around them took the name Company Shops — later renamed Burlington. The shops operated through the Civil War before closing in 1866.
Rorer Hall
Roanoke, VA
In 1878, merchant and developer Ferdinand Rorer raised a two-story wooden building on this corner that locals dubbed "The Opera House." For a decade it served as the beating heart of community life, hosting civic gatherings and entertainment while also sheltering the municipal offices of the brand-new City of Roanoke. The hall's working life ran until 1888, just as the railroad boomtown was rapidly transforming from a small junction into a bustling Virginia city.
Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad Depot
Roanoke, VA
In 1874, a small Virginia tobacco town called Big Lick chartered itself in a tidy half-mile square radiating out from a single point near the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad Depot. The railroad was the town's lifeline, and its arrival soon set the stage for explosive growth. Within a decade Big Lick had reinvented itself as Roanoke, a booming rail junction nicknamed the "Magic City" for the speed of its rise.
Plank Road
Asheboro, NC
This stretch of street once carried the Fayetteville-to-Salem plank road, a 129-mile timber-surfaced toll highway built between 1849 and 1854. Passing through Randolph County, it linked the Cape Fear trade to the Moravian settlements of the north-central Piedmont, letting loaded wagons roll over sawn boards instead of miring in clay.