Dan River Company celebrates 10 years

(By Keith T. Barber, The Stokes News) - It’s 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning at the headquarters of the Dan River Company, and the place is buzzing with activity. A group of a dozen employees from a Greensboro financial firm — with a number of their children in tow — are filling out paperwork at a long, rectangular table inside the spacious welcome center.

Dave Hoskins, founder of the Dan River Company, is working with customers to ensure their paperwork is in order. Dale Swanson and Ben Kelble, two of Hoskins’ employees — along with several of their colleagues — load a custom trailer with canoes and kayaks to prepare for their first sojourn of the day carrying passengers to a remote access point some six miles upstream.

Kelble explains that two vans with trailers in tow will make runs every hour on the hour. Canoers and kayakers will be in the water as early as 10:30 a.m. and allowed to remain on the river until 5:30 p.m.