Lance Martin/Herald Senior Staff Writer

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ROANOKE RAPIDS - Plans for the second phase of the Roanoke Canal Museum have been worked out and will include an elevator to the basement, where more exhibits will be located.

“They are going to be more unique than the first-floor exhibits,” city Parks and Recreation Director Chris Wicker said Wednesday.

The second phase will include a plasma television exhibit near the elevator on the upper level that will show a nine-mile view of the river. It will offer an interactive program about the river before the canal, the river during the canal period, how the river was used for power generation and now industries have moved away from locating near the river, Wicker said.

The basement exhibit will show how the locks of the canal worked through an interactive feature with water, as well as how boats called bateaux were used to bring $6 million a year in products through them.

In today's dollars, Wicker said, that would equate to $4 billion a year.

Dominion Power has given a $150,000 donation for an interactive exhibit that will show how power was generated, and there will be an exhibit devoted to the bateaux men, or roughneck men who would show their strength by how much they could pick up with their teeth.

Outdoor markers along the trail will feature facts about the trail, including beaver dams, the Weldon cotton mill and even a jet plane crash.

As construction is planned for the fall, the city has plans to have a dedication of the new bulkhead overlook between Rochelle Pond and the museum, which will also be held in the fall.