New York

Canal History

At one time New York had twelve active canals. These included the Erie Canal, Champlain, Oswego, Cayuga Seneca, Genesee, Chemung, Chenango, Black River, Crooked Lake, Junction, and the Delaware and Hudson. With the exception of the last two, these were all state built and operated canals that were built between 1817 and 1850. The Erie Canal was the through-line canal connecting the Atlantic Ocean (by way of the Hudson River) to the Great Lakes. Construction on the Erie began in 1817 and was completed by 1825. It was enlarged twice and in 1903 the voters of the state voted in favor of a third enlargement, that being the Barge Canal. The Barge Canal was a total modernization of the system with larger boats, electrically operated locks, and made use of many natural waterways. Construction on the Barge Canal began in 1905 and was completed by 1918. Thus the Erie has been in operation, with boats being able to leave the Hudson and travel to Lake Erie, for nearly 200 years.

Many of the smaller lateral canals were “dead-end” canals and were abandoned in 1877. The exceptions were the Champlain, Owsego, Cayuga Seneca and the Black River. These were kept in operation as they helped to connect the Erie to various regions of the state. All these were enlarged as part of the modernization of the canals in the early 1900s, except for the Black River which was kept as a navigable water supply canal. Navigation on the Black River was abandoned in 1925 and serves only as a water supply today.

1862 map showing canals and railroads in New York

The Delaware and Hudson Canal was a privately operated canal that was primarily used to move coal from the Pennsylvania coal fields to the Hudson River at Kingston. It was in use between 1828 and 1899. The Junction Canal served to connect the Pennsylvania and New York canals by way of the North Branch and Chemung canals. It was a very short lived canal.

Today New York is one of a few states that continues to operate it’s own canal system through the New York State Canal Corporation. They maintain the four canals that together total 525 miles.

Because the canals remain active, there are numerous groups and organizations working to preserve the canal history and promote canal use.

Canal Groups and Organizations

The New York State Canal Corporation operates the 525 miles of active canals in the state, continuing a tradition that dates back to 1820.

Canal Society of New York State The CSNYS is a membership organization that is open to all who have an interest in the canals of the state. They have an extensive archives that is available to all researchers. Be sure to visit their website and Facebook page.

The Erie Canal Museum, Syracuse, NY. In addition to their museum that showcases the 1850 National Register Weighlock, the ECM also has a fine research archives.

Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor, New York. These folks now offer a map to help you find your way along the Heritage Corridor. The map is limited to those areas inside the corridor, so sites along the Black River, D&H, and the other lateral canals are not included.

Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site is located in Fort Hunter in the Mohawk Valley region. There are extensive remains from the first two towpath Erie Canals and the park borders the working Barge Canal including Lock 12 at Tribes Hill. The park has a working friends group.

The seven-mile-long Glens Falls Feeder canal was a navigable feeder reaching Glens Falls on the Hudson River. The Feeder Canal Alliance is a friends group working to protect this canal.

The Camillus Canal Society is the volunteer membership friends group that operates the Liz and Dave Beebe Erie Canal Park in Camillus, NY. The park has 400-acres along 7 miles of the old Enlarged Erie Canal. The park also offers boat rides during the summer and fall.

The Boonville Black River Canal Museum is located near the summit of the 77-mile-long Black River Canal in Boonville, NY.

The D&H (Delaware and Hudson) Canal Historical Society is located in High Falls, NY in the newly restored 1797 DePuy Tavern.

The Friends of the Genesee Valley Greenway is a volunteer membership group that helps New York’s Genesee Valley Greenway State Park. The Greenway follows the route of the old Genesee Valley Canal by using both the old canal route and the route of the railroads that replaced it.

The 750-mile-long Empire State Trail is a cross state recreational path that closely follows the Erie and Champlain canals as well as the Hudson River south to New York City.

Major Repositories and Archives

This is a listing of the larger archive holdings. Many of the small volunteer-run historical societies along the routes of the canals will likely have hidden collections and thus, they should not be over-looked.

The New York State Archives in Albany has a fine collection of materials on all of the state’s canals. Use the guide “The Mighty Chain: A Guide to Canal Records in the New York State Archives, publication FA05” to plan your search.

The Canal Society of New York State has an extensive collection and archives. As of this post (July 2022) it is located at the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse. Recently the CSNYS purchased a building in Port Byron and will be relocating their materials to it.

In addition to being a fine museum, the Erie Canal Museum has an extensive collection of canal materials. Finding Aids can help in your search.

New York Heritage Digital Collections have been working with organizations around New York to digitize and make available their collections.

Steven Talbot has been working on the Enlarged Erie Canal Digital Mapping project. https://arcg.is/e5GXu This detailed map uses the old maps to recreate the canal over the current landscape.

Canal Index Pages

The “canal index” project is an on-going project of the ACS to document canal sites. Most of the information is from the 1970-1990 time period, however new pages are being added. Feel free to contribute to this project by submitting a form.

Note: Canals in blue and underlined have index sheets which are accessible by double clicking on the hyperlink.  Canals listed in green below do not yet have index sheets.  They are listed here to make the list more complete.  It is intended to add index sheets for them in the future.

Please note that many of these are the actual pages done in the early 1970’s.  Changes have occurred since and there are some inaccuracies in the information on the pages.

Revised 5/1/2022