Saturday, Belhaven will right a wrong 85 years in the making. The city will celebrate the Anniversary of the  completion of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway for the first time since it was completed in Belhaven.
“We’ve let 85 anniversaries go by unnoticed,” said Guinn Leverett, Belhaven’s town manager. “We won’t miss another one.”
The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway is 1090 miles of waterway that passes through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida. It is an aquatic interstate made possible by a series of canals that connect bodies of water in each state.
Leverett discovered the last part of that interstate was completed in 1928 in Belhaven.
“It’s official. We are the birthplace of the ICW I had it confirmed by the Intracoastal Waterway Association,” Leverett said.
He enlisted the help of the Belhaven Chamber of Commerce to make the celebration a success.
“When I talked to them they ran with it,” Leverett said.
The celebration will kick off with a dedication at 11 a.m. at the River Forest Manor.
Pamlico Street will be closed for the day and local businesses will set up vending booths.
One of Leverett’s favorite parts of the plans is the blessing of the fleet, which starts at 1 p.m. He said a pastor from First Presbyterian will “bless the fleet” of docked antique boats at Wynn’s Gut, many of which will be open for people to tour throughout the day.
Clergy will then board a vessel and bless boats as they pass by in procession.
From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., the 1920 Sprit Sail Skiff boat-building project will be open to the public at the town hall.
Music will be a big part of the day. Live performances are scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. Headlining a long list of acts is Molasses Creek. The band will perform from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Leverett said the day would be a great family outing. He hopes the event will eventually attract numbers that compete with the original celebration.
“They say 20,000 people showed up for that one,” Leverett said.