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The ACS Canal Boat Index of 1993

In the files of the American Canal Society archives I came across this Canal Boat Construction Index from 1993. At that time, the society was actively promoting the building of “authentic” canal boats in places where parks had decided to add a boat ride to their historic canal.

It is a bit of a wonky document, basically a finders guide to places where canal boat details might be gleaned, where models resided, and who (at that time) was operating or building boats. If you happen to be looking for archive materials about boats, this might be of help. It even includes the lock sizes.

It is an 11-page pdf file.

The Chignecto Ship Railway – 1973

This is something that has been kicking around the desk for a bit and I decided just to post it as I have it. In 1973, Donald Ramsey made a visit to Nova Scotia and was informed of this historic site, which he then documented and then asked for more information.

So here are the letters and photos. Unfortunately, the photos were taped to sheets of paper with some descriptions, but mostly, “engine foundation, brick wall…” etc. And, back in those days, one just snapped a couple photos and taped them together for a wide-angle view. The tape has long since dried out and the photos were all in a jumble. So I stitched together what looked right.

Book Review – Hennepin Canal Parkway: History Through the Miles

Hennepin Canal Parkway: History Through the Miles, by Barton Jennings, 2020, 404 pages.

One day I was searching though the American Canal Society archives looking for book or two about the history of the Illinois and Mississippi Canal, otherwise known as the Hennepin, and, to my surprise, I found very little. So I went looking for a book that would fill that need.

The 75-mile-long Hennepin was an extension of the older Illinois and Michigan, offering a route between the western end of the I&M and the Mississippi River at Rock Island. Although the canal had been proposed for decades, construction didn’t begin until 1892 and it wasn’t completed until 1907. By the time the route was ready, the larger Illinois Waterway and Chicago Sanitary Canals had been built, making the smaller Hennepin redundant. However, it remained in operation until 1951. With this late closing date, the canal remains very intact and it is now part of the Hennepin Parkway State Park.

The Hennepin was a canal of firsts. It was the first canal in America to be built completely with Portland Cement instead of cut stone locks. It was a test bed for heavy machinery that was just coming into its own such as the steam shovel and cable way. However, the locks were hand operated, and a towing path was built and maintained, but never used to tow a boat. This made the canal a unique mix of the old and new. And we can see how the materials, tools, techniques and machines first used in the construction of the Hennepin would be used on larger projects in the near future. Although Mr. Jennings doesn’t mention it, the Chicago Sanitary, the New York State Barge Canal, and the Soulanges Canal in Quebec, all have tie ins with the work done on this canal. Mr. Jennings does mention the Panama Canal, which greatly benefited from all these projects.

Barton Jennings offers a very readable history and field guide to the canal and the parkway, which includes the main canal and the 29-mile-long feeder. His book offers a mile-by-mile description of what you will see and encounter along the trail, but in a very enjoyable format. The author bios states that Mr. Jennings is a professor of supply chain management and also taught transportation operations. His experience as a teacher certainly shows in his style of writing where he covers the basics for the casual park user, but he also gives those of us who want them the added details that historians love to see.

The book begins with a 50-page history of the canal, beginning in 1834 and working up through the construction in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Then he begins his tour narrative at mile 0.00 at the eastern end. It is nice to see that the history lesson continues through each mile, and this makes for very informative reading. In each mile he explains in some detail what you are seeing, what was once there (if a structure has been replaced or modified), and why it is there. For instance, a bridge is described as a “Warren pony truss span with two 21-foot I-beam approach spans,” instead of simply saying a bridge, which makes the bridge geek in me very happy. To be sure, for those who don’t give a hoot about the history or infrastructure, this additional information will be passed over, while those who want to know are not left with unanswered questions.

I became interested in the Hennepin as I was researching the NYS Barge Canal construction machinery series, as the Hennepin and the Chicago Sanitary were both test beds of innovation for a lot of the machinery that was used on the New York Barge Canal. So I was delighted to see Mr. Jennings include sections such as, “The Battle of Cecil’s Slough,” where the canal had to be cut through the soft ground at mile 19. In order to deal with the muck, Lidgerwood cableways were constructed with two towers, one on each bank and a cable suspended between them. From this cable, a bucket would be used to remove the mucky soil, going where other machines could not. Mr. Jennings gives these machines their due to the point of including a short history of the company and showing a drawing of the rig. The book is full of little historical tidbits like this which makes it fun to read, even from a thousand miles away.

The book contains many photographs, drawings and maps. There is no index of the illustrations, but as almost every page has one, I would say that there are well over 200, if not many more. The format is 8.5 by 5.5 inches, and all the illustrations are in black and white. In addition, each photo, map and drawing includes a full citation, and Mr. Jennings offers additional reading sources for those who really want to dig deep into the history of the Hennepin Canal.

Mr. Jennings is to be congratulated for his engaging and very informative book.

Terry K. Woods’ Canal Comments – A 2010 Return to the Sugar Creek Crossing Site

I am going to detail a hike I took in January of 2010 to the Sugar Creek Crossing below Dover. I believe this is sort of timely. Members of the Canal Society of Ohio (CSO) and Stark Parks are sitting down to discuss the identity, location and status of the canal artifacts in Stark County that need to be preserved, restored or signed.

One artifact that I believe needs to be preserved (before it falls down) is the Big Sluice to the north of the Stark Parks Craig-Pittman Trailhead just south of Navarre. There are only three of those big sluices that I am aware of on the northern division of the Ohio Canal. Today’s column mentions the second one and it’s fate. I’d like to see something done with the one in Navarre to see that it doesn’t suffer the same.

THE SUGAR CREEK CROSSING (in 2010)^ⁱ

The Ohio and Erie Canal crossed Sugar Creek in slack-water above a dam just south of (now) Dover Ohio. It was a fascinating place and sported a long wooden crib dam, stone dam abutments and a large basin. A guard lock was constructed about a half mile below the crossing and a short sidecut, outlet lock and a refurbished mill dam allowed boats to exit the Ohio Canal, cross the Tuscarawas River and enter the New Philadelphia Lateral Canal through a guard lock.

This is a slide of a postcard showing the crossing at Sugar Creek.

I was shown all this in the early 1970s by my long-time class mate and canal buddy, Richard Williams. He is the same fellow who took me canal hunting in his Piper Apache in the early ‘70s.

The early 1900s attempted rebuild of this division of the Ohio Canal, reduced the size of the basin a bit, replaced the upper stone dam abutment with a concrete big sluice, removed the guard lock, and rebuilt the dam.

This is another slide copy of a postcard.

And by the time I first saw this area, the dam was gone, but any number of very interesting artifacts remained. I went into this area many times and the CSO toured the area in the mid-’80s. Then, the plastics company that owned the area sold to a larger concern and access to this fascinating area was denied.

I had sent a letter to Arizona Chemical in mid December of 2009 asking for permission to get onto their water treatment facility property and check out the remains of the crossing. I received a phone call from a Paul XXXXXXX, the head of Human Resources, and he had me get in contact with a Randy XXXXXXX, who would escort me around the property. I called Randy after the holidays and we agreed to wait until there was a lull in the snowfall. I called him back on January 20th. We set an appointment up for the next day, the 21st. for 10:00am.

I got to the water treatment plant off of State Route 39 about 9:30 and Randy rolled up in his truck about 10:10. He invited me into the truck, so I got my 35mm camera and two throw-away cameras and got in. We drove down an old roadway that was in the canal bed. After about 250 yards, the “roadway” stopped and we got out to continue on foot. There was no longer a real trail, but I knew the artifacts were on the track of a power line so we kept going in a general direction toward Sugar Creek. Finally, after turning to my right a bit, I walked across a slight ridge of maybe 10” to 12” with small stone strewn along it and knew that we had crossed the line of the dam. Old photos of the dam show it to have been some 4 to 5 feet high, stepped, and maybe 200 yards long. ^ⁱⁱ It had evidently been a wooden crib dam. The wood had apparently long ago rotted away and most of the stone in the cribbing had been washed away. Now there is only this slight ridge going in sort of a straight line.

The concrete sluice as seen in 2010. Terry Woods collection.

I figured we had passed the lower dam abutment, so turned to my right and soon came upon it. From this side it is a rather unimpressive stone structure. It is only a dam abutment, however, so doesn’t have a great deal of substance. I was much more impressed with stumbling across it back in the ‘70s from the other direction. I took a couple of photos and slides then we turned to go in the other direction for a look at the other abutment.

I saw sort of a shallow channel with some stone lining along each edge, not too wide, maybe six feet, that may have been the main run-off channel over the dam. Randy spied the other abutment. This abutment was a large concrete sluice that had been part of the early 1900s rebuild. When I was last in here in the early to mid-’80s I had noticed that one corner of this sluice was in a flood channel that had exposed maybe 18” of the wooden pilings. I thought then that this entire structure was in danger of falling over. One section has. It has fallen in toward the main structure. The rest of the rather nice large sluice is still intact, however. The flood channel was running deep and swift making it impossible to get onto the towpath or examine the canal at the creek’s edge. There were the remains of an old wasteway teetering on the edge of the creek when I was last in here and some sort of concrete-filled pipe sticking out of the creek bed. We couldn’t get into that area this trip to check it out.

Although a poor copy, you can see the concrete sluice at the end of the bridge.

I took a number of photos and slides from various angles then turned and took a couple of the dam ridge with the stone structure in the background. There had been a culvert on either side of the slack-water basin to carry runoff back to the river. I looked around a bit for the one on the lower side of the basin, but couldn’t find anything. Back in the ‘80s it was crushed in with the hulk of a 55 Plymouth on top. I didn’t see any Plymouth this time.

Another angle of the sluice as it was in 2010. Terry Woods collection.

We walked a bit toward the river and returned to the truck along a waste-treatment line that had been cleared. It made the trip back to the truck fairly easy. I asked Randy if we could get permission to bring 20 to 25 people in on the April 26 hike. I thought it might make a fun outing for serious folk, but probably isn’t enough to see for the current crowd of CSO tour people. Randy said he would check, but he didn’t sound that confident.^ⁱⁱⁱ

I thanked Randy and gave him a signed copy of my latest book. He had been very friendly and cooperative and asked many intelligent questions about the operation of the artifacts here at the crossing.

I got back in the car and continued on route 39 until it crossed the river, then turned into the old Delphia Motor Inn/Days Inn/Hartford Inn. I drove to its rear and parked along the fence-lined river. The fence began just a short distance to my left so I went around it and walked up along the left bank of the river. I had one throwaway camera and the 35mm camera. I spied the old dam abutment on the right bank of the river about 50 to 75 yards above where the fence started. The abutment was originally to the Baker’s Mill and later for the New Philadelphia Lateral Canal. The dam abutment is easy to see as it is just at the point where the river has broken into the Route 77 “borrow pits”. This would be an easy walk some evening of the tour to let people see an artifact that is readily visible, but one not many people know about. I took a couple of photos and slides, then got back into the car. When I was last in here (1997) there was some stonework also on the left bank. I didn’t scramble down to the river to look (getting way too old for that) and the river was so high, that much of it was probably under water. What was visible on the right bank was a right angle stone support to the old dam.

I then headed for home. I got off at the Strasburg exit and stopped at the Magic Hobby Shop, but didn’t see anything I wanted. I then turned right on 212 and stopped at the Stark Parks Trail Head. Their mailings state they are working on the trail near here. There is a quantity of gravel and fines at the trail head and a parked Green-Frog Dump Truck, but I didn’t see any evidence of a new trail branching off from this trail head.^{^iv}

I got back home shortly before Noon. A pretty worthwhile hike from a personal standpoint, but no public access was obtained. I hope we can do something in the future to make sure that the fate of the Big Sluice below Navarre does not follow that of the one down below Dover.

i From notes made of a hike taken on January 21, 2010.

ii That’s what my notes say, but I think it was closer to 75 or 100 yards long.

iii We didn’t receive permission.

iv The new trail branches off some distance to the north and follows the berm bank of the canal to the

aqueduct site.

Terry K. Woods’ Canal Comments – The Sugar Creek Crossing

Terry begins with;

Hi Guys:

One of the perks of wring this column, with no editors and no publishers, is that I get to write what I want the way I want it. That is also one of the downsides. I have no one to make sure I write a good one.

This column was supposed to be a straight historical description of the Sugar Creek Crossing just below Canal Dover. Instead, it reads more like, “How a spent several summer vacations”. Anyway, here it is. Hope you like it.

THE SUGAR CREEK CROSSING

In the 306+ miles of canal between Lake Erie to the Ohio River, the Ohio Canal crossed over various streams fourteen times using an aqueduct, and eight times in a slack-water pool built up behind a dam^ⁱ. While an aqueduct is an imposing structure and slack-water pools are probably not considered such, the slack-water crossing of Sugar Creek below Canal Dover on the Ohio Canal has always held a particular fascination for many an avid canal buff.

The dam, itself, is described rather tersely in the Canal Commissioner’s Report for the year 1832.

“Ninety-Three miles south of Cleveland the Ohio Canal crosses Sugar Creek, a major tributary of the Tuscarawas River in the pool of a dam, this dam is constructed of a double row of closely spaced pilings, filled between the rows with stone, and brush, and gravel, and covered with plank, laid upon plates resting upon and secured to the heads of each row of piles with an extensive apron of hewn timber and abutments of cut stone founded upon bearing piles, the waters of the stream may consequently be commanded for the use of the canal, but the supply of water furnished by the feeder at Zoar is so abundant that it has been found unnecessary to appropriate any part of them to the purpose of navigation.”

1875 map of Canal Dover from the Everts Combination Atlas Map of Tuscarawas County.

I was first shown the remains of the Sugar Creek Crossing in 1967 by an avid canal buff named Richard Williams. Richard had a plane and several times we went “canal looking” from the air. I’ve had at least one column on these trips. This time though, we scrambled through barriers of high, thick brush to find the actual site. I was into that site several times again during the 1980s and ‘70s.

The crossing had been updated during the 1908-09 rebuild and the northern stone dam abutment replaced with a large concrete sluice (similar to the one in the canal towpath in the Craig-Pittman Trailhead just south of Navarre). In its most recent iteration, the dam was paced off to be some 50 to 60 yards long. That new Sugar Creek Dam and Sluice was constructed in 1909 (contract let on Oct 13, 1908) by Clark and Meldy for $5,761.71.

Apparently, the dam remained as a ‘refurbished’ wood-crib structure as little more than a raised line of fine stone marked it’s former location when I searched for it. The first time I was in that area alone and rediscovered the one remaining stone dam abutment, I approached it from the creek side and was quite impressed with the find.

A guard lock was located some 2,300 feet below the dam. It raised northbound boats to the momentary level of the slack-water crossing and protected the lower canal from high water, but it was, apparently, removed during the 1900s rebuild of the dam and crossing.

It took me quite a while to determine why the guard lock was so far below the slack-water crossing. Then, while perusing some Board of Public Works Reports, I ran across an item mentioning the need to repair the outlet lock for the New Philadelphia Lateral Canal. That sidecut exited the Ohio Canal just above the guard lock above a rebuild of the old Baker Mill Dam. The guard lock was required to be so far away from the crossing so that the Lateral could exit the main canal in the Sugar Creek slack-water level

In 1976, Don Baker, a reporter from the New Philadelphia Times-Reporter asked me to guide him to each of the remaining canal structures in Tuscarawas County for a Sunday Supplement segment he was preparing. We did this run in the month of July, and foliage was very high, almost too high, to get into the sites, let alone take coherent color photos, but the resulting Sunday piece was a good one.

1977 visit to the site. Terry Woods collection.

The Sugar Creek Crossing was one of those sites. The Union Camp Chemical Company was then occupying the entire area containing the crossing artifacts and had constructed some sort of processing plant and a cooling-water pond near the southern property line. The plant was vacant except for one security personnel the hot Sunday afternoon we made our journey and he was more than happy to relieve the tedium by showing us around. I gained a ‘perk’ by picking his brain concerning the New Philadelphia Lateral Canal which this security guard had swam in during his boyhood.

In 1982, Ted Kasper and I led a Canal Society of Ohio tour of Tuscarawas County. Ted gained the friendship of a gentleman from New Philadelphia whose name I no longer remember, but happened to be the Public Relations Director for the Union Camp Chemical Company. This man gave us complete freedom to visit the canal artifacts adjacent to the chemical company. Naturally, it was a high point of the tour.

I spent a great deal of time scouring that area in preparation for the tour. I came in through the chemical plant access road many times and once I even came in along the railroad tracks from the north, but couldn’t get onto the actual dam site from that direction as Sugar Creek was flowing strong and wide across my path. After the 1913 flood had destroyed the dam, the creek cut a new channel just to the north of the “new” concrete sluice.

During those last few visits onto the site I discovered that, during flood times, the creek was undercutting one wall of the sluice. At least 18” of the supporting wooden pilings were exposed. I was fearful that half of that concrete structure might soon collapse.

The rebuild had included concrete waste-ways about 30 yards before and after the dam, plus culverts to carry any surplus rain water away from the structure into the near-by Tuscarawas River. During one of my trips there in the ‘80s I discovered a wrecked 1955 Plymouth lying in the south culvert access ditch.

That whole area has been closed to the general public since the late ‘80s. Unfortunately, I may have been the cause of that censure. Shortly after the tour, I wrote to the head of the chemical plant suggesting that the company and the Canal Society of Ohio work together to get that area north of their plant declared a National Historic Landmark. Apparently, the company officials felt any such designation might jeopardize their work area and the Sugar Creek Slack-water Crossing was closed off. For that I am truly sorry.

I did get into that area one more time. In December of 2009 I wrote to the chemical company asking for permission to explore the area. The CSO was again planning a tour of Tuscarawas County and I wanted to include that area. On January 10, 2010, I was escorted around the area by a company official. He was quite gracious and let me see whatever I wanted to see, but access for the tour was denied. I took notes of that last excursion and may use it as a column in the near future.

i A GLOSSARY OF TERMS of the Ohio & Erie Canal, Terry K. Woods, KENT STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2008.

A Dredge Roll Call – Contracts 43, 46, 47, 48

Our roll call continues with a look at contracts 43, 46, 47, 48. All these contracts were for the dredging of the rivers that ran through the low lands and rivers of central New York, which was all the bottom of a glacial lake. As such, the material was muck, sand, mud and marl, all easily handled by the hydraulic dredge. Each contractor only needed to have one dredge each.

Contract 43 – The Stanwix

I could only find a couple images of the Stanwix. She was built by the Morris Machine Works of Baldwinsville.

Contract 46 – The Montezuma

The Montezuma was another Morris Machine dredge. There are a few postcards of the lower view which might explain the name boards.

Contract 46 was along the Seneca River and some cuts between natural loops. This was all fairly soft material and the dredge set a number of records for the amount of material removed. Note the width of the cut that the single dredge could make.

Contracts 47 and 48 – The Clyde and the Lyons

Both these contracts were held by the firm of Crowell – Sherman – Stalter and both the dredges were built by Bucyrus. Note the difference in construction of the head units between the Morris and Bucyrus machines.

We see the Clyde being built. Oddly, there are no images of these dredges at work.

Although built by Bucyrus, these are different machines. The Lyons was a much larger dredge. Both appear to be all steel hulls, which was an oddity..

The Society Newsletter – An Often Overlooked Resource

A few years ago, I was given a collection of canal research materials, and in all those boxes were neatly organized and bound newsletters of many canal societies. It is a remarkable collection. So this is a reminder that if you are conducting research on the history of any canal in North America, don’t overlook this invaluable wealth of information that has been presented in the journals, bulletins and newsletters of the state and regional canal societies and organizations.

To call these publications newsletters is often a disservice. The articles feature exploration and research conducted by dedicated volunteers who were engineers, academics and people who had spent a good deal of their lives researching the topics. And the subject matter is fairly wide ranging, from trip recaps to in-depth study into the workings of a lock or reservoir, or the biography of people who worked on the canals. The pages capture the loss of canal sites, the rise of the rail-to-trail movements and the preservation of canal remains. Many of these feature photos and maps drawn by the author. In short, they are as wide ranging as the membership tended to be. Most also carry some news and organizational business.

Most of the societies published on a two to four issues a year schedule. Beginning in the 2000s, some groups reduced their issues, and opted to use their website and blog space for content. Others, like the Canal Society of Indiana, went to the fully digital model, offering everything online and making their latest issue available to all, members and nonmembers alike. There continues to be a debate about the print verses digital model, but most of these groups continue to print and mail a newsletter at least once per year.

These publications were mailed to the membership and often to libraries and archives that might find them useful. Here is a listing of what is available and how to find them.

American Canal Society (ACS)

Name of publication – American Canals

Format / size – 8.5 by 11

Date of first issue- Spring 1972

Issues per year (currently) – 4

Publication History – American Canals was begun by Thomas Hahn with the purpose of providing and sharing information between the many state and regional canal groups. The issues carried reprints from other newsletters, and new research on canals and navigations in states that did not have canal societies.

Index available – Digital index on website

Digital copies available – All issues, except most recent, available as downloadable pdfs.

Repository / Archives – Currently at a private home.

Other Information- Over the years, eight Best From American Canals have been published as separate publications. These reprint many of the more in-depth articles that had appeared in the quarterly newsletter.

C&O Canal Association

Name of publication – Along the Towpath

Format / size – 8.5 by 11

Date of first issue – March 1970

Issues per year – Quarterly

Publication History – The first issue was published in March 1970 as Volume 1, Number 1. The Association had printed and mailed a few newsletters in the 1960 labeled as The Level Walker. These were printed “as needed,” and five issues were mailed. Since 1970, the Association has published on a quarterly schedule. The website notes that the newsletter contains information on upcoming events and current issues concerning the C&O Canal National Historical Park, as well as photographs and historical articles.

Index available – No, however, there is a index to the articles written by Dr. Karen Gray on the C&O Canal Association website.

Digital copies available – Yes, as pdf downloads

Repository / Archives –

Other Information – It should be noted that as a National Historical Park, there is an abundance of information available online. This listing is for the newsletter of the C&O Canal Association only.

Canal Society of Indiana (CSI)

Name of publication – The Tumble

Format / size – Digital

Date of first issue – October 1981

Issues per year – monthly

Publication History – From the 40^th Anniversary Newsletter, we get this history. The first issue was published as Indiana Waterways, which was called Volume 1, Issue 1, October 1981. The name was changed in October, 1989, to Indiana Canals, which was then called Volume 1, Number 1. In 2002, Indiana Canals was combined with a monthly newsletter and rebranded as The Hoosier Packet, which was offered as a monthly publication. Then in 2017, the society elected to go to an all online format under the name The Tumble.

Index available – There is an online listing by subject, and the society has a index that is not online.

Digital copies available – All issues of The Tumble and the Hoosier Packet are available as pdf downloads. The 1986-2002 Newsletter and the 1981- 1988 Indiana Waterways will be online soon.

Repository / Archives – Contact the society by way of the website.

Canal Society of New Jersey (CSNJ)

Name of publication – On The Level

Format / size – 8.5 by 11

Date of first issue – September 1969

Issues per year – 2/3

Publication History – The Towpath Post was the first newsletter from the Canal Society. Volume 1, #1 is dated September 1969. The last issue of The Towpath Post was the Spring/Summer 1977. The first issue of On the Level was Spring/Summer 1978.

Index available – No

Digital copies available – Some digital copies are available. These date from 2007 to the present.

Repository / Archives – By appointment only. Use the contact form on the website.

Canal Society of New York State (CSNYS)

Name of publication – Bottoming Out

Format / size – 8.5 by 11

Date of first issue – October 1956

Issues per year – 1/2

Publication History – In 2011, a history of the publication noted that the first issue of the Bottoming Out was dated October, 1956. At that time, the format was 5 by 7, and the first issue ran 8 pages. The name at that time was; Bottoming Out, An informal record of study and exploration by members of the Canal Society of New York State. In Issue #3, which adopted the title used today Bottoming Out, Useful and Interesting Notes Collected For the Members of The Canal Society of New York State. Unfortunately, the publication of the newsletter has taken place with little regularity. From 1956 to 1960, Bottoming Out was published on a fairly regular schedule. Some of the issues were treated as double issues, July 1957 was numbered 3 – 4, and July 1958 was 7 – 8, as were others up to 1965. Some years were entirely missed, as was 1961, 1963 and 1964. After issue 23 – 24 in 1965, the BO was not published until 1986. One issue was put out in 1986 and 1987, when the BO went back into hibernation. In 1993, the newsletter was brought back with issue #27 and it was published on a regular schedule up through issue #42 in 2001. No issues were published from 2002 until the Spring of 2004. At that time, the format was changed to a 8.5 by 11 size, and the familiar yellow cover was gone. Instead a glossy white paper was used to highlight newer advances in the printing and publishing field. Issues were printed during 2004 and 2005. No issues were published in 2006. Issue #46 came out in 2007 and the publication has maintained a fairly regular schedule since then.

Index available – No

Digital copies available – No, but the society plans to begin this service in the future.

Repository / Archives – The Samuel Center, 38 Rochester St., Port Byron, NY

Canal Society of Ohio (CSO)

Name of publications- Towpaths, Society Newsletter

Format / size- Towpaths is a 5 by 8 booklet, while the newsletter is 8.5 x 11.

Date of first issue- 1972

Issues per year- 2

Publication History- The Society prints both a newsletter and a journal. The newsletter carries recent news, society and trip information, board news and such, while the journal is more of a scholarly publication with in-depth research. Both are mailed to the membership at the same time. At what point they began this practice is not known as the Newsletters are not assigned a issue or volume number. The first issue in the ACS archives is from October 1985.

Towpaths first appeared as a mimeographed newsletter in August 1961. A total of eight mimeographed newsletters were issued up to November of 1962. Few of the issues were numbered or dated. The first offset printed eight-page bulletin appeared in January 1963. Publication has continued uninterrupted since. The issues of 1963, 1964, 1965 and Number One of 1966 are without volume number, identified only by issue number and year date. With issue Two, 1966, volume numbering was adopted and page numbering was carried through the year’s issues. The 1966 issues were designated Volume IV, recognizing the previous three years issuance of the bulletin. Towpaths has been expanded to twelve and occasionally to sixteen pages, as material available warranted.

The Society Newsletter, which is simply called the “Newsletter,” also includes information that shouldn’t be overlooked by the researcher.

Index available- Yes, 1963-2015 is available as a pdf file.

Digital copies available- No, although the newsletter, 2012-2015, can be found on the old CSO website by using the Wayback Machine.

Repository / Archives- The CSO website notes that they use the University of Akron as their repository. An online finding guide to all the CSO materials in the collection is available on the University’s website, The Towpaths issues that are available are between 1961 and 2011. This collection also lists a Table of Contents 1961-2003.

Other Information- An 50^th anniversary edition of Towpaths was printed in 2011 as a separate publication in a large 8.5 by 11 format.

Middlesex Canal Association (MCA)

Name of publication- Towpath Topics

Format / size- 5 by 8 booklet

Date of first issue- October 1963

Issues per year- 2

Publication History- The website notes that first issue of the Middlesex Canal Association newsletter was published in October 1963. Originally named Canal News, the first issue featured a contest to name the newsletter. A year later, the newsletter was renamed Towpath Topics. The number of issues per year has varied. In the years 1963 – 1982, typically 3 times per year; 1983 –2008, typically 2 times per year; 2009 — present, 3 times per year. The intent of publication timing has usually been to have the publication in readers hands two weeks prior to the beginning of the Winter, Spring and Fall meetings, canal section walks and full canal-length bike rides.

Index available- A Table of Contents is available online at the website, which lists the subject matter by issue. The page is searchable by using the “ctrl-F” feature and entering a search term.

Digital copies available- All issues are available as pdf downloads. Since 2019, the pdf’s graphics are offered in color or in black and white.

Repository / Archives- Middlesex Canal Association museum, North Billerica, Massachusetts. Contact robert@middlesexcanal.org

Pennsylvania Canal Society (PCS)

Name of publication – Canal Currents

Format / size – 8.5 by 11

Date of first issue – Winter 1968

Issues per year – 4

Publication History – The first issue of Canal Currents is labeled as Issue 3. Issues 1 and 2 were simple organizational newsletters titled Newsletter of the Pennsylvania Canal Society. The new name was introduced in Issue 3 and has remained so since. The issues were printed on glossy paper stock which gives great clarity to the images.

Index available – The Fall 1987, Issue 80, of Canal Currents has a subject, author and title index for all the issues 1- 79. The society is reportedly working to update this.

Digital copies available – No

Repository / Archives – The PCS uses the National Canal Museum in Easton as their archives. Wendi Blewett, museum collections manager 484-215-6235, Martha Capwell Fox, historian 610-923-3548. email: archives@delawareandlehigh.org

Canadian Canal Society

Name of publication- Canals Canada

Format / size- 8.5 by 11

Date of first issue- January 1983

Date of last issue- Spring 2017

Issues per year- 2

Publication History-The Canadian Canal Society was active between 1982 and 2017. Canals Canada was published twice a year, mostly in the spring and fall. Some years, only a single issue was published and the years of 2010 and 2011 were skipped entirely.

Index available- none available

Digital copies available- No, although digital copies will be on file at Brock University.

Repository / Archives- Brock University Library –archives@brocku.ca

Other Information- The Canadian Canal Society dissolved effective October 29, 2020.

Virginia Canals and Navigation Society (VC&NS)

Name of publication- The Tiller

Format / size- 8.5 by 11

Date of first issue- Spring 1980

Issues per year- 1

Publication History- The Tiller has been published on a varied schedule. From 1980 to 1989, there were 3 issues per year. Beginning in 1990, the journal was published quarterly until 2011. During this time period, some issues were printed as “double issues.” Beginning in 2013, the schedule was reduced to one issue per year.

Index available- Indexes available for 1980 – 1995

Digital copies available- No

Repository / Archives- 3806 S. Amherst Hwy, Madison Heights, VA 24572

In Conclusion

This is a listing of the larger statewide canal groups. There are also local and regional groups that should not be overlooked if you happen to be conducting a “deep dive” into a specific canal. The editor would be happy to add the information about any group that has published newsletters that might be of assistance to the canal researcher.

Sylvia Klingler- A Young Girl on the Canal

This interview was conducted by Terry Woods in 1970 when Sylvia was 76 years old. She worked along the Ohio and Erie Canal on the family boat between ages 8 and 16. She was born as Sylvia Zoph in 1894. She died in 1976.

Terry was not a trained interviewer, however, this rambling interview covers a lot of ground about life on the canal, dealing with drunken family members, and more. Her memory of details about lock and place names was very clear, but it appears that by the time Terry did this interview, she had been interviewed a couple times prior. That may have prompted her to refresh her memories with her books and pictures that she mentions. So there might be other recordings of her out there in some archives, but nothing on the internet.

I caution that there is a racial slur that I left in. It only happens once.

The Stark County Story- The St. Helena 2 at Canal Fulton

This short radio interview is about the new canal boat, the St. Helena 2, at Canal Fulton in Ohio. The date of the interview appears to be around spring 1970. Jervis Brady of the Stark County Historical Society is the guest.

This will be of limited interest but as we have it, it might as well be available.