Elsewhere on this site you will find a post about selling some recently discovered books; The Sandy and Beaver Canal, written by William H. Vodrey and Max Gard. Along with the books came a small folder with some notes the men had gathered as they researched the canal. It is a mix of hotel reservation notes, some lock locations and a listing of canal boats and their masters. For those researching the canal, this might have clues to potential research locations.
These are all in pdf files, so you will need to click on the link. Each file has anywhere from 2 to 5 pages.
I found these two maps in the back pocket of the wonderfully researched and written, “The Sandy and Beaver Canal” by Ronald Max Gard and William H. Vodrey, Jr. The book was published by the East Liverpool Historical Society, East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1952. There was a reprint in 1972, and as far as I can see, no one has new copies for sale. The book can be found in some libraries and on the various book sellers, although finding a copy with the maps will cost you a good bit. I also found an old link to a CD copy of the book, but it was dead.
If you have an interest in the canal, chapter 20 is titled; Guide to the Canal, and it is a structure by structure guide for the 90 locks and 30 dams along the 73 mile-long canal. However, the authors caution that their map is a reconstruction based on a couple period maps and that they were not able to “reconcile” a few locks.
Terry Woods, who was a friend of both men, and served as the president of the Canal Society of Ohio and of this organization, sent along this note;
In the intervening years (since the publication of the book) a great deal of additional information has surfaced. So, while the book is terrific and I encourage everyone interested in the nation’s canal era to read it if available, the guide is not that accurate. The middle division is great. I always thought the Eastern division was accurate, though I’ve just been engaged in a series of e-mail sessions with a couple of historians who, through intense efforts in field work and electronic map looking, are attempting to correct some errors in Max’s Eastern Division guide. Max had some serious errors in the guide of the Western Division. I did some intense field work in the early 90s and published a typewritten guide to the western division around the turn of the century. However, more work needs to be done on it.
After reading through Terry’s guide, I must say it is a remarkable bit of field investigation. However, he welcomes any corrections or other comments. I have been using it to update the canal sites map.
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