FREDERICKSBURG has a rich canal history, but don't expect to see boats taking tourists on rides anytime soon.

For now, the Canal Park Trail will have to do, though there are plans to extend the 1.8-mile bike-pedestrian pathway to a 3.5-mile loop to include more canal scenery.

Many cities across the country have revived their canal pasts. For example, the James River Batteau Festival begins its weeklong run June 14. Replicas of 18th-century canal boats make a series of stops along the river from Lynchburg to Richmond.

On the Rappahannock River navigation system, Fredericksburg was the last stop downstream of a series of locks, dams and canals built in the mid-1800s that helped upstream merchants, farmers and even gold miners get their goods to market.

In later years, the canal funneled water to mills along the riverfront and, up until the early 1960s, supplied water for electric generators at the Embrey Power Plant. It also served as a backup water supply.

Re-creating the canal's history presents a challenge.

"One of the limitations is that there are no [working] locks" remaining here, which would give tourists a limited look at how canals operated, said Erik Nelson, Fredericksburg's senior planner. Because of that, "I don't think that the potential is that strong" to make a tourism link with the canal. "I think its greatest value is as an attractive pathway."

William E. Trout III, a canal historian who lives in Richmond, disagrees.

Fredericksburg could replicate bateaux--flat-bottomed wooden boats--which hauled cargo during the canal era. "If you had tourist excursions up and down the canal in Fredericksburg, it would be something everybody knows about," he said.

Back in 1973, in a talk before a historical group here, Trout suggested that the remaining locks and canals could become part of a riverside park system.

He's not alone: In 1999, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, as part of a feasibility study for a state park on the upper Rappahannock, recommended a Historic Rappahannock River Conservation Corridor be created to protect the historic locks and canals, American Indian sites, a Colonial-era blast furnace and Civil War battlefields. The General Assembly has taken no action on the proposal.

And the canal system has been immortalized in song by Fredericksburg folk singer Bob Gramann in "Rappahannock Running Free," on his "See Farther in the Darkness" CD.

Canal Park Trail, winding from Princess Anne Street to Fall Hill Avenue, opened in 1986. Nelson said the trail could be lengthened after the Embrey Dam, off Fall Hill Avenue, is removed. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing a project to remove the 1910-era dam by 2006.

"When the dam comes down, we'd be able to extend the canal trail upstream into the Celebrate Virginia area," Nelson said.

For years, the city has wanted to complete a trail from the Embrey Power Plant to Caroline Street and Old Mill Park, then around to Riverside Drive to pick up the canal above the dam.

Nelson said that could happen if funds become available. The city has produced a series of signs for installation along the Canal Park Trail.

"We're covering everything from the industrial history and early founding to natural resources," Nelson said.

Karen Hedelt, Fredericksburg's tourism development manager, said that limited access along the canal has interfered with visitors' canal experiences. "We do have a special-interest tour of mill sites and the city's water-power history. It does reference the canals and down-river shipping."

Many city residents are acquainted with the canal because it's in their back yards. Sometimes, it's anything but scenic when the waterway is drained, as it was recently for inspection and repairs.

The city plans to use the canal to receive stormwater runoff from flood-prone Kenmore Avenue. Normally, water in the canal is channeled in at the Embrey Dam. But when the dam is removed, the city plans to pump water into the canal from the tidal portion of the river, using aerators to keep the water from stagnating.

The canal has been in the news over the years. In 1960, a 10-year-old boy drowned in it, prompting calls for a fence or barrier. In 1972, the bodies of a young Fredericksburg couple--who went to the movies and then disappeared--were found in their submerged car. And in 1992, a 27-year-old woman was stabbed on the canal path.

Over the years, the city canal--which is off-limits to paddlers--has been a depository for all kinds of junk, from tires and wine bottles to shopping carts.

Bill Micks, 56, who grew up on the river, has been helping to preserve what's left of the Rappahannock Canal.

As a Boy Scout, Micks took canoe trips on the river in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A fellow Scout's father, Dr. George Brumble, would point out the canal ruins upriver.

"I fell in love with the river. My first camping was on the river. It's in my blood," said Micks, who splits his time between Drew Middle School in Stafford County, where he teaches, and the Virginia Outdoor Center on Fall Hill Avenue, where he runs a boat-rental business.

"You see these locks and canals and know they need help," he said, explaining how he's directed several Scouts to take them on as a service project to earn the Eagle rank.

"It's a cool project for a kid. There are no roads. They have to haul everything in by canoe or raft. And it's such a worthwhile project, taking care of some of the historical resources along the river," Micks said.

With Micks' guidance, Scouts have cut trees and brush around locks and canal sections upstream, and helped to shore up others.

Micks gladly talks to paddlers if they ask him about the canal ruins along the river. One of the most visible spots is the dam and Lock 9 at the confluence of the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers. They were added to the Virginia Register of Historic Landmarks in 1973.

The Friends of the Rappahannock, a local preservation group, want people to appreciate the canal's history. FOR offers a canoe tour of the locks and canal system; this year it's scheduled for June 8. Trout will be the guest speaker.

Jack Edlund, a local archaeologist and historian, says what's left should be preserved.

"People should know about it. If not, nobody will pay attention to it and it will be bulldozed away. These are nonrenewable American resources. This is how America got started."