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Canal Comments – A Hike Along the Sandy and Beaver by Terry K. Woods

On April 6, 2022, Terry sent out this column. He introduced it by writing;

In going through my listing of columns, I noticed that I haven’t had one for awhile on the Sandy & Beaver, so I’ve resurrected these notes from a hike made in early June 1971, where I made a momentous discovery (to me) and also got terribly lost – fortunately the only time I did.

Max Gard did a tremendous job putting out his book on the Sandy & Beaver in 1952 before a lot of the data on the exact route of that canal became available. It is still a very accurate history. But I soon discovered when hiking the western division that Max’s guide, in several places, didn’t make sense. Then in the early 1990s, I believe someone “discovered” in the moldering files of an 1854 Lisbon newspaper, a listing of the parcels the Sandy & Beaver Canal had been auctioned off in to pay part of their debts. Now it, and Max’s guide are twin bibles to any hiker of the Sandy & Beaver canal. But I didn’t have the list of parcels then, so all I had was Max’s guide and my own sense of direction. Which failed me utterly during that hike in 1971.

That hike took place before I had seen the parcels, and when I discovered, what I later identified as Dam 9, and a stretch of canal of about a mile in slack water, I didn’t know what to make of it. There are still, even with the list of parcels and miles and miles of hiking that division, several sections that I can’t figure out, but I wrote a guide to the western division and made it available in the mid 1990s.

In the meantime, HEADWAY to you all!!!!!!!

SANDY & BEAVER HIKE

June 06, 1971^ⁱ

This hike was the first time, I believe, I was into this section of the western division of the Sandy & Beaver Canal. I was still driving my 1964 ½ Ford Mustang so I probably parked it at the Crossroads Shopping Center at the north-east corner of Route 800 and Route #183. There was an access road of some kind down into the flats just a bit south of that intersection toward the east. I may have taken it, as I did on a lot of subsequent hikes.

A section of the 1912 Historical Topographic Map Collection. Terry would have parked just to the right of the 939 at the top center and walked east along the creek.

Everything was very wet and mucky down in this area which had been only minimally disturbed by the construction of the “new” (1935) concrete Route 800 bridge across the Big Sandy Creek. The bridge was a result of the construction in the mid 1930s of several flood control dams in the area. One was built across the Big Sandy east of Bolivar and another one across the Tuscarawas north of Dover.

The hike at first wasn’t that strenuous once I got through the muck and wet to the canal towpath. There was a gas pipeline buried in the towpath and legends of “pipe-line walkers” over the years scanning the line for problems had left a clear trail for me. I got about 2 ½ miles in, at the point where the gas pipe line crossed from the right bank of the creek to the left. The canal had been quite evident all along here, and it contained a lock site (#28) that I don’t believe I noticed in this hike.

Just a little bit prior to this pipe-line crossing point was an ‘L’ shaped earth wall with heavy stone rip-rap on the creek side of the canal’s towpath that was mentioned in Max Gard’s Guide to the Sandy &Beaver Canal. It was in remarkably good condition and the action of the “L”, on the west end of the wall had ‘shoved’ the creek a bit to the south and away from the canal. I was thrilled at the discovery.

At that time I also thought I had “discovered” a lock site, (Max had mentioned Lock #28 was also in this area). Just to the north east of the earthen wall, was a site that had all the characteristics of a long-abandoned canal lock, narrow channel with higher earth walls, and numerous small bits of stone scattered about the channel. I later did find the location of Lock #28 was a good distance west, and I have never determined just what this site was, if anything.

The memorable part of this hike, though, was that, shortly after continuing on toward the east from this spot, I got terribly disoriented and “turned around”, and dismally LOST! East of this point there didn’t appear to be the clear trail of the pipe-line walkers that I had been following all the way in from Route #800. I was forced to leave the line of canal and move slightly to my right (south) and skirt the creek. Then, in trying to move back north to pick up the canal line again, I ran into, almost literally, an earthen embankment with some stone rip-rap running in front of me, but running at an angle that didn’t say, “canal embankment”.

I got to the top of this embankment and found a water filled channel in front of me running off to my right and left. I seem to remember following it to my right for a short distance and discovering it ended at a fast moving stream – the Big Sandy! What was that doing here? That discovery completely turned me around. If I had been following the canal, this embankment should have paralleled the canal, not run into it!

I retraced my steps and got to a point where I could cross the channel and I tried to move as directly east as I could. But I found nothing except a tree-choked area, with the towpath embankment turned into an 1899 railroad line^ⁱⁱ, no old canal channel, nothing but this embankment and a flat, tree-filled expanse.

But, I did hear the sound of what I thought was a “one-lung” gasoline motor, chugging away slowly, but steadily somewhere to my left front and above me – up on that ridge to my left somewhere. I turned to my left and began climbing a rather steep embankment. I kept climbing and the “chug, chug, chug” kept chuging. I had quite a climb, but I finally achieved my objective, an automatic and unattended oil pumping station. AND, there was an access road leading away from it. I was overjoyed. An access road probably would lead me to a real road and I could find out where I was in relation to the shopping center and my car. I followed it. It was a long trek, but down-hill and I believed north. Finally, I came out to a site I was familiar with – an octagon-shaped building that I had passed several times. It was located on the north side of Route #183, maybe three miles east of the Cross-Roads Shopping Center!

So now I knew where I was and could at least now head in the right direction to retrieve my car. I did finally reach the shopping center and my Mustang. I got into it, gratefully and tired. And went home!

I’ve made a number of additional hikes into that area over the years and discovered that the embankment was actually the remains of the Sandy & Beaver’s western division Dam No. 9 and that east of that point, for nearly a mile, the canal had been in slack water, so the only evidence of it was a towpath/railroad bed hugging the line of the steep hillside to the north. And that towpath/railroad bed hadn’t been very easy to see with all the trees in the area.

Still, I’ve never forgotten that particular hike and that particular feeling of being completely lost with my sense of direction utterly gone. Fortunately, that is a feeling I never had again while hiking.

i These notes are being typed in February of 2020, ,many, many years after the original hike, from a few memories and several references to this hike in subsequent hike notes.

ii The line of canal from just east of Sandyville toward the east (with a sidecut branch to Magnolia) was covered by a Baltimore & Ohio branch line constructed in 1899 to service the Magnolia Coal Company and also [provided a “combine Car” passenger service to a “station: adjacent to the Elson Mill in Magnolia. This branch line was operational until 1922.

Ronald D. Reid Map of Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania Canals

I found this map in a collection and I thought it was quite a decent map. Ron is a very good canal historian and this reflects his research. I searched for it on the web but didn’t see anyone offering it, so I contacted Ron and asked if we could post it. And he said sure. Thank you Ron.

I am not certain about the canal of the future. Was that in the works at one time? I will add this to the maps section on the homepage.

This map was drawn by Ronald Reid, P.E. in 1983.

Canal Comments – The Nimishillen and Sandy Canal by Terry K. Woods

Ed Note- The ACS has been gifted some of Terry’s files, including some of his hand written research notes, slides and books. One of the items was about 50 slides of the Nimishillen and Sandy, or the N&S. I didn’t know much about this never completed canal, but as Terry lived in Canton, he certainly did. So I knew I would find a Canal Comments about it in my Terry Woods file. I have added some of his images where I can identify his captions with what can be seen on the ground. So all the photos and maps are my addition to Terry’s column, and any mistakes in their captions are mine.

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Here was Terry’s email introduction to his article;

At a recent canal buff’s breakfast in Massillon, Jim G**** commented that a member (I believe) of the McKinley Children’s Museum will be giving a talk in early May on the Nimishillen & Sandy Canal. That was a proposed canal and slack-water navigation from about present Walnut Street and 6th St. N.W. in Canton to the Sandy & Beaver east of Sandyville.

The canal construction was begun in 1835 and stopped due to the economic Panic of 1837. When times were better around 1845, the Canton canal promoters had reset their sights on the resurrected Pennsylvania and Ohio Railroad project.

I have done a great deal of research on the N & S project and have debunked some of the local history of it. I also can’t remember the name of the Canton businessman who was on the Canal Commissioners in 1836. I may have to dig out my N & S Research box. Jim’s mention of the new talk made me get out some of my research. Here, again, is the history, as brief as it is, on the Nimishillen & Sandy Canal.

THE NIMISHILLEN & SANDY CANAL^ⁱ

Canton Ohio, the Stark County Seat, has been the undisputed industrial, population, and political leader of the area since it was founded in 1805. In December 1826, however, eight miles west of Canton, a new town called Massillon was founded on the banks of the recently approved Ohio Canal and, for a time, threatened to replace Canton as the county’s most prosperous and influential community.

You can see a bit of the old canal in this 1901 Topo map of Canton. The “forks” of the Nimishillen can be seen in the lower left where the two branches come together.

Canton’s merchants wanted to get in on some of that booming canal trade, so in the early 1830s, after a proposed eight-mile long horse drawn railroad to the canal at Massillon from Canton had been dismissed as an impossible engineering feat, the Nimishillen & Sandy Navigation Company was formed. A charter was issued in 1831 authorizing the Company to build a branch canal and/or slack-water navigation from Canton to some point on the Ohio Canal at or near Bolivar. A Mr. Fields made the original survey for the N & S.

It was planned to route the canal south from the village of Canton for a mile or so till the Forks of the Nimishillen were reached, then down the valley of that creek for eleven miles to the Big Sandy, then down its valley for seven miles to Bolivar and the Ohio Canal. When the route of the Sandy & Beaver Canal was finalized, the Canton group altered their plans and decided to tap into the S. & B. just above the junction of the Nimishillen and Big Sandy Creeks.

Max Gard’s map of the Sandy and Beaver Canal show where the junction would have been. We have the Sandy and Beaver maps available under the Maps tab on the home page.

Work was begun on the Sandy & Beaver Canal in November, 1834 and the first meeting of the infant Nimishillen & Sandy Navigation Company was held on December 25, 1834, where the directors were appointed. A slate of officers was elected on the 27th and Joshua Malin, a man with canal engineering experience in the east and a resident engineer on the Sandy & Beaver project, was hired as Chief Engineer. He had the first division of four-and-a-half miles located by January 30, 1835. Two reservoir sites were located just north of Canton. Malin was confident that either of these reservoirs would be sufficient to supply the canal with water until it reached the Forks.

Terry labeled this intersection at Rex Ave and 9th as the possible site of one of the reservoirs, c 2003.

Contracts for the first ten sections were let by May 15, 1835 and the southern-most five sections by June 20, 1836. Oddly enough, there is no record of the central division of five-and-a-half miles (11 sections) ever being let for contract. There is some indication, though, that a slack-water navigation had been constructed and was operating between Congress Furnace (North Industry) and a forge in (East) Sparta during the 1820s up until about 1833.

Initially, considerable work was accomplished on all the contracted sections of the Nimishillen and Sandy Canal. A local canal contractor, Cyrus Prentus, with a gigantic plow and a number of teams of oxen on call managed, at an official earth turning ceremony in Canton, to cut a channel down the east side of Walnut street through town “large enough to float a small boat”.

Looking up Walnut from railroad. The Nimishillen is just to the south of here, c 2003.

Looking along southwest along Market Street, canal was to the right, c 2003.

The navigation company was quite optimistic about its future. Statements were made early in 1835 pledging that the company would complete its canal to Bolivar even if the Sandy & Beaver Canal Company did not. In October, 1835, meetings were held in Ravenna about extending the N. & S. Canal north to connect with the P. & O. Canal, thus shortening the distance from Bolivar to the east by twelve to fifteen miles.

When the N & S. Canal company was organized late in 1834, its directors fully expected the canal to be finished and operating within two years. By the fall of 1836, however, the outlook was not nearly so bright. The Sandy & Beaver Canal Company was out of money and about to suspend operations. To make matters worse, a combination of cholera and lack of funds caused the P. O. Canal Company to shut down during the last quarter of 1836. With both the P. & O. and S. & B. canals maybe gone for good and their own canal not yet finished, Canton lost hope of being on a shortcut to the east. At best, Canton would be thirty water miles from Massillon and the Ohio Canal, an almost insurmountable handicap.

One of the canal company’s directors (???????) got himself appointed to the Ohio Canal Commissioners and lobbied to have the State take over the N & S Canal. That proposal was presented to the legislature for approval; and passed before that body twice before being defeated during its third (and final) reading in 1836.

This was labeled as being located on the site of Hazlett’s old tanning yard and that the canal was in the rear. This might be the corner of Walnut and East 7th. c 2003.

The Panic of 1837 undoubtedly put a stop to the efforts of the Nimishillen & Sandy Navigation Company, but just how much was accomplished before the final shutdown isn’t precisely known. It is believed that the canal was finished, or nearly so, from its northern terminus to the forks of the Nimishillen. Neither of the reservoirs appear to have been built, though, as that section was never even filled with water. If an earlier, improved waterway existed between the North Industry works and the Sparta Forge, it would have been abandoned around 1833, when both the iron works were closed.

Efforts by the canal company in the early 1840s to find a route for the N & S north to connect with the P & O Canal failed when surveys were unable to provide a feasible water route from Canton to the north.

This bank behind the South Canton High School was once part of the N&S. c 2003.

Sections 8, 9 & 10 of the N & S were refurbished and used as the race to the Browning, or Goodwill Mill in North Industry for some 25 years. And evidence remains of the canal channel being excavated from just below Sparta south, though any intersection with the Sandy & Beaver was covered by the new and higher railroad embankment constructed in 1935.

Some historians believe that the Star Mill (at Raynoldsville), south of Canton, used the old Nimishillen & Sandy Canal channel as a race, but an official map of the county dated, 1837, shows a separate channel for the mill race on the east side of the creek and the canal channel on the west. These same historians also believe that the mill in East Sparta used the bed of the old N & S Canal as a mill race, but that has not yet been confirmed. Again, the 1837 Stark County map shows the canal on the left bank of the creek past the site of East Sparta.

Terry labeled this as an unnamed old mill that may have used the old canal as a mill race. c 1969.

In Canton, the ditch down Walnut Street remained open for years and East Tuscarawas Street was still crossing it on a “temporary” type bridge as late as 1884 or 85. Finally, the canal in Canton was filled in, the mills in North Industry and East Sparta burned or were torn down and the Nimishillen & Sandy Canal was forgotten. Except for a very few of us.

This old bank is on the what was once the Hazlett Block. It is located at 126 Central Plaza. The area looks a bit different today. c 2003.

i An earlier, shorter, version of this article appeared in The Sandy Valley PRESS-NEWS, July 03, 1975.

Terry’s Canal Data page on the N&S can be found here.

American Canals Offers Tributes to Terry Woods, and to Thomas Grasso

Over the past year, the canal community lost these two wonderful men who were also fine researchers, advocates, and educators.

Terry Woods was one the old guard experts on Ohio and Pennsylvania canals. He was the author of many books, articles and columns. Thomas Grasso was the expert on all things New York, but I doubt that there were many canals, domestic or world-wide, that Tom didn’t know about. In addition to their own work, both served as members of the board and as presidents of their state canal societies, writing guidebooks and leading trips. The loss of these men has been deeply felt by all who knew them.

Over the last two issues, the American Canals newsletter has offered tributes to both men and just in case you didn’t know who they were, we are offering the newsletters here as pdf files. Feel free to download if you wish.

american-canals.spring-web-2022 Download

american-canals.summer-2022.web-based Download

American Canals has been published for 50 years and they cover a great variety of topics. The issues between 1972 and 2020 can be found on this website as free downloads. if you are researching a topic, the index can help you find your subject.

Barge Canal Construction Equipment, The Steam Shovel

Steam shovel on Contract 1. This might be a Marion model improved A.

The steam shovel was perhaps the most ubiquitous machine on construction and mining sites between 1880 and 1930. The earliest steam shovel dates back to 1835 when William Otis designed what was called a railroad shovel. The machine, which included a steam boiler, various steam engines, dipper arm assembly, fuel and water, weighed several tons.(1) At the time the only large construction projects that could use such a machine were in railroad construction so the shovel was mounted to a flatcar and set on standard gauge railroad wheels. The shovel could also be mounted to a barge and used as a dredge but that came later.

This shovel loads a train on Contract 12.

The Otis patent ran out in the 1870s, and this allowed many companies to begin the manufacture of their own machines. Well known brands were the Osgood, Marion, Bucyrus, Barnhart, and American steam shovels. Osgood shovels were produced in Troy, NY, while Marion, Bucyrus and Barnhart were all Ohio companies. Improvements were made to the shovels as they got sturdier, heavier and more powerful.

A Vulcan is working at Lock 8 in Rotterdam on Contract 8. This contractor would late abandon this project due to the quicksand.

Shovels were soon at work on railroad projects, canal construction, mining and quarrying, basically anywhere large quantities of materials had to be excavated. But as this is about canal construction, lets take a look at how they were used.

The crew of the Model 60 and the steam trail pose for the photographer at Cranesville.

Because the shovels were mounted to railroad trucks and moved on rails, the shovel could only cut level swaths. The shovel would be moved around the site by men laying out temporary rails. Once at the cut, the shovel would extend it’s outriggers for stability then begin excavate to its front and sides. The machine could cut about three times it’s width. All spoils had to be loaded into hopper cars that were set on a narrow gauge railroad. Once the area was cleared to its front, the track team would lay out a new section of tracks and the shovel would slowly crawl forward. If the job was large enough to warrant more than one machine, a second machine would begin to remove earth on a lower terrace, following behind the first. The tracks also helped to distribute the weight of the machine allowing them to work in wetter areas, however as they were not easy or quick to move, there are many photographs of shovels sitting in flooded work sites.

We get a good look at the bottom of the shovel after this one turned over. Note the chain drive.

Shovels could also be mounted to barges and used as dipper dredges. Many of these were site built with the machinery being shipped to the job site and the barge being constructed from locally sourced lumber. Once the job was done the machinery was removed and the barge discarded. (2)

This Bucyrus shovel is being used to move blasted rock. Not the men loading the skips in the foreground.

Although good at handling gravel, sand and other aggregate materials, they were not good at moving larger rock. Many times you will find the shovel being used to load skips that were moved by cranes or cable ways.

On Contract 6. The shovel is loading an inclined tipple.

As they were developed, steam shovels were fitted out with crawler tracks. The only existing shovel of this configuration can be seen in Leroy, NY where a Marion Model 91 sits in a field. Once the internal combustion engine and hydraulic drives began to be used in construction machinery, the days of the steam shovel numbered. One man could do the work of 4 or 5, and once mounted to crawler tracks instead of railroad tracks, the mobility of the machine made it more useful. Today the hydraulic excavator, a distant cousin of the steam shovel, can be found on almost every job site.

If you are interested in seeing these machines at work, check out the videos of construction of the Panama Canal. Bucyrus and Marion both supplied shovels to this work and were certain to make movies about it. With the clouds and steam and smoke, they make for interesting viewing. Of course the most famous steam shovel might be the Bucyrus in which President Roosevelt posed along the Cublra Cut in the Panama Canal.

There is a very good history of steam shovels at Heritage Machines.

Steam shovels were slow to move and were often caught in flooded situations.

This was a year after the flooded shovel. Note the dredge and steam pumps. The Marion Model 60 appears to be cold.

(1) A handy hint is that the model number refers to the weight of the shovel, thus a Marion 60 weighed about 60 tons.

Note the young girl sitting on the chair used by the man who operates the dipper.

(2) The images used in this post are from the New York State Archives, Barge Canal Construction Photos, 11833.

Canal Comments- The Ohio Canal and the 1918 Flu Epidemic

by Terry K Woods.

Today’s column is another one taken from personal interviews. This one was taken by me and the interview has first hand information. Still, I had to take many of the statements ‘out of context.’ Waldo Streby, the man I interviewed, would change the subject, get back to it, then sometimes talk about something else. This column is made up of bits Waldo told me on two different occasions.

I think it came out well. And it tells us something that not many know, that the canal between the feeder above Canal Fulton down to Navarre was repaired after the 1913 flood for hydraulic purposes. That is one of the reasons part of that section was chosen in 1938 to become Ohio’s first State Canal Park – it had been repaired just 20 years previously.

I REMEMBER THE OHIO CANAL; THE OHIO CANAL AND THE 1918 FLU EPIDEMIC^ⁱ

“During the 1918 Flu Epidemic, they closed the Canal Fulton schools. As I remember it, it was for two weeks. A lot of people were die’n, ya know. It was a real terrible mess. So, ah, they closed the schools down and this Johnny Moore^ⁱⁱ who was one of our neighbors – he was Superintendent of the Canal in the area right south of Akron, to, a, . . Navarre – down ta Navarre – took care of the canal – lived just a few houses up from where we lived, stopped and asked whether one of the boys could help him out – – work for him since the schools were gonna be shut down. Well, sure, I was available. My brother was available. He had a paper route, but I was available. Johnny McGee, Moore’s Grandson, lived just across the street from where we lived. Then there was several other boys. Fella name of Greenhole, – and I just forget who the rest of em were. Anyway, my brother, my next oldest brother, Lowell, we all went ta work for him down at Navarre. He had a job down there.

“Ya see, immediately after the 1913 flood, just within a year or so, these, these companies that wanted the water, the Steel Mills down ta Massillon, especially, wanted some fresh water, clean water. So they offered to pay so much to the County – er, the State – to fix up the banks, ya see and get the water down to em.^ⁱⁱⁱ So that was, – they had ta repair the banks all along where it was needed ta get the water down to where it was needed.

“They had ta even . . They even had ta repair some of the banks down by the lock there at Canal Fulton. But all that was done with some of Johnny Moore’s regular help – his crew. Then he had a crew. Well, as they finished it, they put water in the canal, see, and a, they, a, as they went down the line, there was a small leak at Massillon. And that was done. Now in 1918, the only leak was down – back in, in Navarre, ya see.

“When we were kids, we’d help Johnny Moore lots of times. Rode the State Boat down there ta below Massillon, out there by the Asylum. Remember there was a, – along the Canal, – of course it used ta be, before that, – when we were kids, Johnny McKee and I, we used ta go down there a lot of times, ride on the State Boat to cut grass and things, cutten grass and stuff. And, these guys, from the Asylum, used ta come down and talk to us, ya know – interesting people.

“But that leak at Navarre, during the 1918 Flue Epidemic, was the only time we worked at as part of Johnny Moore’s crew, right back of where the bakery, -where the bakery is down there now. Course its all filled with dirt now. You can’t see where the canal was. But, anyhow, there was a, a, lock there and a, a drain – – so the flood had washed, washed away part of the bank away, right bank of the canal. And Johnny Moore hired a, a, fellow – with a team and a slip-scraper. Moore didn’t have many, much equipment then. He hired him, with a team, ta go down ‘n drag in this dirt, ya know, ta rebuild the dike, – towpath bank. They always called it the dike, ya know. The dike. And of course we had a couple weeks work there.

“That was some of the last alterations of the canal done by, – the State. Now, after that, ya know, , that most of the alterations around the canal was done by a contractor or by a, a, someone – – a, for instance, up around Akron, – was a lot of changes made, but, in most cases, it was done by someone what was goin ta benefit by the changes. For instance, the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company made a lot of changes back around where they had their Golf Course. And a down at a, where the road usta cross over – the canal. That’s now route #93 that goes up through there. There’s where some of the water, well, all of the water came out of Portage Lakes. Came out there, – out of Long Lake, and a, they changed the canal, or the river, that went through the Firestone properties.

“Oh, I’m, oh yeah. Navarre. Whole canal’s filled in down there by Navarre now. That’s where we worked, cleaning it out. About two weeks. Took us down in a car, and back ta Fulton each night. Wouldn’t, we didn’t go down ta Navarre on the boat. He took us back and forth with a car. Eh, we could park, park up there above the hill there, back of the bakery, see. Then we had ta go down the hill, on back ta the lock. Couldn’t get the boat much past – -. They parked it up there where the old cemetery is in Massillon. There was a lot of water come down Cemetery Run. Build up a bar. You couldn’t get the boat past that, ya see, so they pulled the thing out and put the boat back of where, not the Hull farm, I guess it was the Cole Farm.

“After we fixed that last leak, the canal had water all the way down. Filled up, but just a, like a ditch. Water came down like through a ditch. So after we did that work in Navarre there was water in the canal clear down ta Navarre. But no boats.”

i From two taped interviews (1989 and 1990) with Waldo Streby at his home in North Canton Ohio by Terry K Woods.

ii John Moore was the last State Boat Captain in the Canal Fulton area. He maintained this position as late as 1927.

iii More than likely, these steel companies south of the Canal Fulton Feeder had water power leases with the State, so wherever these leases were of enough importance, the State repaired the canal sufficiently after the 1913 flood to maintain the leases requirements.

Barge Canal Construction Equipment- The Cable Way

Of the many machines we see in the construction of the “modern era” canals, the cable way (it is also seen as one word, cableway) is likely the least noticed. However it is one of the few machines that has survived the through the years and is still in use today. The cable way was the true multi-tasker of the construction site.

A cable way is a very basic machine with two towers, a hoisting engine with a steam plant to power it, wire rope (cable), and a traveling carriage that ran along the cables.

The cableway in use at the construction of Lock 32, Oct 1910. All the construction images are from the NYS Archives, Barge Canal Construction collection 11833.

Depending on what work needed to be completed, the contractor would build tall wooden towers so that the cable spanned the construction site. If the bases were mounted on flanged wheels on rails, the cableway could have movement in all three dimensions; side to side, back and forth, and up and down.

The Lidgerwood cable way carriage. As the carriage traveled away from the tower, the long pieces on the right would deploy and support the smaller cables. You can see these on the first image. As the carriage returned, the horn (with the point) would pick them up and store them.

Cable ways were very good at spanning deep cuts such as along the Chicago Sanitary Canal or in Lockport on the NYS Barge Canal.

All we see of the cable way is the carriage and large rock skip that is being returned to the work site to be loaded by the steam shovel. Many times multiple skips would be in use and they would simply unhook the empty and hook onto the full one.

They were useful on sites with soft soils such as along the Hennepin Canal for dredging out muck and quicksand. They were useful on lock and dam sites that spanned deep or wide rivers and would “fly” in building materials and buckets of concrete. They were also very useful on sites where there might be blasting as the cable wouldn’t be damaged and could be left in place unlike a steam shovel or other large equipment. Depending on the diameter of the main cable, the cable way could lift and move tons of materials at one time.

The Cable way is used to move materials across the Mohawk River at Lock 9, Dam 5 in Rotterdam Junction. Work has just begun in 1909.

Much of the lock is complete and work has moved to the piers of the dam, June 1910.

Work is basically complete and the work site has been cleaned up, Dec 1911.

Many manufacturers made cable way equipment as most of it consisted of the basic steam engine and hoisting machine that were used in many applications. In the Barge Canal photos you often see it described as the Lidgerwood cable way, but other manufacturers were Flory and Mundy.

Here the cable way is being used to shape the canal banks. It has been fitted with a clam-shell type dredging bucket. Note the caption says “Lidgerwood Cable Way.” Also note the piles of field stone on the base of the tower that was used as ballast.

A typical construction site with the cable way, a steam shovel in the cut, and a jib pole is seen west of Lockport at the site of a guard gate, Nov 1910.

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.

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.

Historical Roadside Markers

There has been a renewed interest in the use of roadside markers that note a historical place or event. These markers were first installed in the 1920s to help motorists identify historic sites and frankly, give them something to read as they slowly drove on by. Today it can be difficult and dangerous to try to read the signs as you zip by at 60 mph, or as you try to park on the shoulder of a busy highway. So many states have websites to help you find, read and understand the signs. Here are some that we have used to find canal sites and add them to our canal sites and parks map.

Be aware that some people will see these markers as a sign of a different time and this is true. As the way we view and understand history changes over the years, while these markers remain trapped in the period in which they were crafted. For instance New York State is littered with numerous signs noting the Clinton and Sullivan Campaign. But if viewed with this context in mind, they can help bring history to light and they might be the one remaining artifact that marks a long lost site.

The William G. Pomeroy Foundation has been offering a funding program since 2005 to help local municipalities and not-for-profits install new and replacement markers. They are now offering markers that will highlight food, legends, the national register, patriot burials, and historic canals. The process is fairly extensive yet very accessible to everyone. They also maintain a listing of markers.

The Historical Marker Database covers all the states, and at the time of this post in 2022, it shows 145,435 listings. It is a great place to start your search.

OHIO – Start with the Ohio History Connection, and then click on “Search Markers.” In the Keyword Search box on the right side, enter the keyword “canal”.

INDIANA – Start with the Indiana Historical Bureau. Either do a search by way of the four options listed, or search under in the various categories listed, or chose Category, and the Transportation.

MICHIGAN – Start with the Michigan History Center. Use the word “Transportation” in the search box, or use the filters to play around and see what you can find.

NEW YORK- Start with the New York State Museum to find information and the background history on the New York State roadside marker program. Use the Pomeroy site to find the markers.

VIRGINIA – Start with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources / Historical Highway Markers. Use the Marker Online Database Search, click on the agree button and then enter a search term.

PENNSYLVANIA – Start with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Scroll down and click on the Marker Search button. Enter canal in the keyword search box.

NEW JERSEY – I could not find a database of markers in New Jersey. However there was a report titled; Assessment of State Historical Marker Programs. Use the Historical Marker Database to search for New Jersey markers.