Floatin' down the Occoquan

OCCOQUAN, Va. - Kayaking on the Occoquan River offers a chance to see ospreys in the air,  fish and blue crabs in the water and flocks of Canada geese along the shores and shoals.

Go out with Occoquan Mayor Earnie Porta and you’ll get a little history lesson to boot.

Porta, who has a book on the history of the Occoquan coming out in November, shared some of the knowledge he gained through his research for the book with a bunch of folks who set out with him Saturday morning to paddle along the river.

Some brought their own kayaks, others rented them from Occoquan Regional Park ,where Porta started his tour.

In all, 18 people came to listen to what Porta had to say during the first two 1-hour tours.

Mary Zamon, the chair of  the Occoquan Watertrail League, was on the first tour at 10 a.m.

“I wanted to see what was going on,” she said.

Porta carried a battery operated  bull horn so people could hear when he told them that the Occoquan was formed through ancient glacial activity and continental collisions millions of years ago.

While Porta talked, men passing in fishing boats and families in pleasure boats did double takes upon sighting the little kayak flotilla and the man with the bullhorn.

Those in the boats that were stopped seemed interested in what Porta was saying.

The river drops 150 feet in it’s 14-mile route from its source at the confluence of Cedar Run and Bull Run in the middle of Prince William County, Porta said.

Porta also pointed out that the river has had settlements along its banks going back about 13,000 years.

It is a little known fact that there are 250 documented pre- European settlements along the Occoquan’s length, Porta said.

“Their locations are not available to the public — you can find out for research purposes — but obviously we don’t want folks going around digging into these areas,” he said.

There are some disagreements over how the Occoquan came by its name.

For a long time it was thought that the name of the river came from the language of the Doeg Indians and meant “End of the Water,”  Porta said.

More recent linguistic analysis   shows that the name probably means “Grove of Trees,” he said.

It is believed that a major Doeg settlement was on an island now submerged beneath Belmont Bay and that would seem to make the grove of trees name fit, Porta said.

John Smith was the first European known to have visited the Occoquan in 1608 during an exploring expedition of the Chesapeake Bay, said Porta, a member of the Occoquan Historical Society.

A little more than 100 years later there was a European settlement along the river.

“It really wasn’t until around 1734 that we had good evidence that there was a more substantial settlement here in the Occoquan area,” Porta said.

The Virginia General Assembly ordered that tobacco warehouses be built on the Occoquan in 1736 and the town was truly  established.

Steve Auburn, of Occoquan, said he enjoyed the tour that took about an hour.

“It was great. Earnie is very knowledgeable about the history of the Occoquan,”said Auburn, who was particularly impressed with the way the river was formed.

“I always thought it was done strictly by glaciers, but apparently there was continental upheavals and all kinds of things that formed it,” he said.

Marge Shaffer and Barbara Zader also took the tour and said they enjoyed the outing.

“The weather was perfect,” shaffer said.

“We want to join a kayaking club,” Zader said.