The Union Mills Canal Outlet Locks No. 1 and No. 2 are a pair of

locks Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance * Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lo ...

along the route of a canal system that improved navigation on the

Rivanna River The Rivanna River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the James River in central Virginia in the United States. The Rivanna's tributaries ori ...

Fluvanna County, Virginia Fluvanna County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 27,249. Its county seat is Palmyra, while the most populous community is the census designated place of Lake ...

. Located near Crofton, they are two large locks fashioned out of dressed granite blocks. They were built between 1850 and 1854. Until the 1850s, canal and river transportation primarily employed

batteau A bateau or batteau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a wide variety of sizes. T ...

x, but mid-century saw the construction of

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport ...

s to enable mules to pull boats. It was for this purpose that the Union Mills Canal and its outlet locks were constructed. The canal is approximately long, with a lock and dam complex at the upper end; it runs on the

right bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

of the river.Trout, W.E., III. ''The Rivanna scenic river atlas''. Lexington: Virginia Canals and Navigations Society, 1995. The outlet locks, situated at the lower end of the canal, are located just above the mouth of a small stream, Boston Creek, which nearby is dammed to form Lake Monticello. The lake is a resort community; although a footpath was built to the locks in 1984, it remains private property with limited access. One of the locks is in substantially better condition than the other: one is nearly invisible, thanks to

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel wh ...

buildup, while the other is well maintained and remains easily visible to the visitor who obtains permission to enter the property. The locks were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artist ...

in 1999.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Fluvanna County, Virginia Infrastructure completed in 1850 Locks on the National Register of Historic Places Transportation buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia {{FluvannaCountyVA-NRHP-stub