Month: April 2022

Changes to the Website

Over the past year, I have been struggling with how to make the website useful for those who are looking for information about North America’s historic and present day canals and navigations. Certainly the site has a wealth of information if you can find it. I recently updated the stock of the American Canals newsletters with all the issues between 1972 and 2020. I updated the index so now you can simply search for a word or author and have an answer to which issue has what you need. We have been playing with the canal sites and the canal boat rides maps for a couple years and I find them very helpful, especially when I am visiting a new place and I want to know what might be nearby. And we have the canal index pages, which even with the odd name, can be very useful in their documentation of a site or canal.

The biggest hurdle is the website itself. I adopted the site from David Barber (the previous president) and have been trying to work within the confines of the sites architecture. There is so much information here and so many links that redoing it all is a daunting task that I don’t wish to take on. So each change has to work within what we have.

Then I got to thinking about a map of North America with each state/province “clickable.” When you click on the state you would be presented with a updated page that would have information about the current and abandoned canals, what state, local, or regional groups might be working to preserve the canals or canal sites, and of course the canal index pages.

So you will now see a map of North America on the home page.

When you click on a state you will open a page about the state. Hopefully this helps to stream-line things for everyone and improves the functionality of the site. As I update the state pages, they will be linked to the map and the state will turn green. If it is light-blue it has yet to be completed. States with no canals will be grey. When all the state pages have been revised, the clunky drop-down menu will go away.

Let me know what you think. And if you can, check your state’s page to see what and who should be added.

The Earl Giles Collection – The Speeceville Lock

Earl took these photos of the Speeceville lock in May of 1970. I had to look up Speeceville and I found it just south of the confluence of the Juniata and Susquehanna rivers. It’s not even marked on the map, but it is about half way between Dauphin and Clark Ferry. It is where you see the word Pennsylvania along the river. You could zoom by on Rt 22 and never realize that it was there.

Historical Topographic Map Collection
Earl had made this copy of the lock. As you can see it is dated 1954.
In May 1970 the lock was is in fair condition.

I am not certain that this was the lock or if Earl was taking a photo of the rock wall. It is labeled as Speeceville.

I tried to find this lock on Google Maps but didn’t see it. However there is a fair amount of the old canal to be seen here are Speeceville along Towpath Road.

At Clark Ferry (or is it Clark’s) the Main Line canal crossed from the east to the west side of the river and crossed over (through?) Duncan Island then headed north up the west bank from there. The Juniata Division of the canal began at this point and continued to follow the Juniata River west. We have seen Earl’s photos from Amity Hall which is just upstream from this river confluence in prior posts.

Although the canal was abandoned and shown as a dashed blue line when this map was made, it does show the routes as they divided at the head of Duncan Island.

By the time Earl was taking photos the old covered bridge at Clark Ferry had been replaced, so the best he could do was to make copies. I am certain better copies can be found now days.

The Longest Covered Bridge in the World!

Looking west at the confluence of the two rivers. The bridge on the right crosses the Susquehanna and the bridge on the left crosses the Juniata. The Pennsylvania Main Line Canal can be seen in the foreground. Up bound boats would have crossed the Susquehanna River just upstream of here on the slackwater created by the dam and then headed north or west. The bit of land between the two bridges is Duncan Island.

If anyone knows if the old lock is still intact drop us a line.