Ten Years, a milestone?

Ten years ago, I finished writing a book about the Erie Canal in Cayuga County. I had not started out to write a book, but rather to see what I could find out. To be honest, I was fairly disappointed that so little attention was being paid to the canal, its history, and its possible reuse. At the time, I was living in Weedsport and I spent many hours at the Old Brutus Historical Society, flipping through the card files and the old copies of the Cayuga Chief. I kept coming home saying, "Listen to what I found today! I should write a book!" My wife, ever helpful, said, "shut up and write the damn book!" When I was done, I found a local printer and had 250 copies printed, which I thought was a huge gamble. I then went on the "senior citizen" tour, where I gave talks using my slide projector, to any senior's group, service organization, church group, or anyone else who would listen and needed a free program. Over the following five or six years, I sold over 800 copies of the book, a figure that still surprises me.

A couple years ago, the ever energetic Cheryl Longyear and I decided we wanted to help celebrate the canal, and the resources we have available in the county. We started doing tours and promotions during the Canal Splash weekend; and held focus group meetings with local educators and the historical societies. One of the things that came up was the need for a website that could hopefully pull all of what we had rediscovered and found together. We applied for a small grant from the Canal Corporation to help create a website. One of the things I wanted to do on the website was refresh the book I had written and get it up as a resource. We found a local webdesigner, Adam Sweet of Weedsport, to help us out.

It wasn't until I was re-working the book that I realized that ten years had gone by. What a difference ten years has made. In ten years, a new enthusiasm has taken hold when it comes to the canals, across the State and across the County. There is a realization that the canal still has something to contribute to our area. The towpath trail, at least from Port Byron to the eastern county border, once covered by tall weeds and large trees, has been cleared and made into part of the Canalway Trail system. The Town of Montezuma is actively working on the development of a park, as is the Town of Mentz. Even the Village of Port Byron investigated the idea of rewatering the old canal. Four murals have been painted highlighting our history. And we had started a website and two canal related blogs.

And my old slide projector is only pulled out when nothing else works, in fact, I don't even think I can find a slide film processor anymore. Instead they have been replaced by a digital camera, laptop, and large monitor or projector.

So if you head over to the Cayuga County Canals website, you will find a copy of my book, with full color photos and maps. The pdf files are rather large, so give it a moment to download. Check out the other resources we have available, and let us know if you need more. I look forward to the next ten years and the changes that will come.

New Name, Same Old Site

I changed the name to reflect what I have been attempting to do with the blog. I have been adding in walks and places to see that are outside the Canal Splash weekend events. I will continue to publish info about our Canal Splash events and other happenings. The old Canal Splash info has been removed. I also added the links to the pdf's that we offer on the Resources Tab on the sidebar. It should make it easier to find the links.
And the address has remained the same.

Montezuma Aqueduct

I almost titled this post, The Montezuma Aqueduct Graveyard, but I didn't want to create a lot of confusion. But as I walked through the moss covered remains of the old Montezuma Aqueduct, it felt a lot like a graveyard. So here is my tour of the west side of the Seneca River, or what should be referred to as the Montezuma Aqueduct Graveyard.

The Montezuma, or Seneca River, or Richmond Aqueduct, was the second longest on the enlarged canal system. You can read my post about the aqueduct elsewhere in this blog. When the barge canal was constructed, the aqueduct created a problem since it blocked the river and the dredging that needed to take place along the Seneca to make it usable as a canalized river. Dredges were deployed on both sides of the aqueduct, leaving the structure intact until the very last moment. In the winter of 1917-1918, the aqueduct was removed and basically tossed into the swamp on the west side of the river. Not many people realize that the aqueduct was simply taken apart and tossed aside. It makes sense, but there is a whole lot of stone that was thrown away.

If you park in the parking area, just to the west of the Rt 31 bridge over the Seneca River, you can walk down a trail / dirt road to the aqueduct. If it is dry, you can drive almost half way along the route, but it isn't worth getting stuck for the extra 10 to 15 minutes of walking it will save you. So leave your car next to the bridge and cross the road, then follow the dirt road back about 3/4 of a mile. It looks like the roadway may have been built back during the deconstruction of the aqueduct, to allow workers to get to the site. The first thing you will see are the stones covered with a thick layer of moss. I have been here in the winter when the area was covered with snow, and although beautiful, you don't get the sense of how many stones there are here. You will also find an occasional piece of iron, such as a rod or a bolt. This is why I wanted to call this a graveyard tour. Of course, be careful as you poke around the stones. They appear to have been dumped off the side of the towing path, so they are located on quite a slope.

You will also see the three arches of the aqueduct off to the left. The trail leads over the towing path, into the prism and to the berme side. It is the easiest way to go. If the area is dry, you can walk right under the arches, but we couldn't do this today. Winter is the best time to visit, as the top is very overgrown and it is easier to see everything without all the leaves on the tree. I have been here during spring floods, and have been very limited on where I could go.

Remember as you are standing here, that when the enlarged canal was in operation the surface of the river was about four feet higher then it is today. My wife Mary, and Lizzy the Canal Dog, would have been underwater.

Now, once you are done climbing and wondering and wowing, and you think you are done; stop. Don't rush back to your car quite yet. Start back down the trail and look over to your right. If you know your history, you already should be looking for the remains of the first canal. This is where the first Erie crossed the river by way of a slack-water crossing. A slack-water crossing is where the man-made canal entered into the river and the boats floated over the river as the animals walked over a low bridge. Once to the other side, the boats re-entered the man-made canal. To protect the canal from seasonal river levels, a guard lock was built to serve as the entry to the canal / river.

Where you are standing is Kipp's Island, a one time real island located between the Seneca River and the Clyde River. So if we were headed west on the canal (say heading from Albany to Buffalo), we would have passed from the canal through a guard lock on the east side of the river, and would be floating on the river. (In the early days, this was the connection to Cayuga Lake.) Our animal team and driver would have walked over a wooden bridge to this shore and we would have entered into a cut through the island. This is where you are now. You can see the path of the cut as it passes through Kipp's Island. Our boat would need to cross the Clyde River before re-entering into the man-made canal by way of another guard lock.

When the Montezuma Aqueduct was built, the Clyde River was rerouted to flow into the Seneca just above the new aqueduct, and the island became no more except in name only.

Okay, I hope you got all that. So once you find the old canal, you can scamper through the brush to walk on the old towing path, or you can walk a little further and take a right down a dirt trail. Both will take you east to the river.

Once at the river, you will find quite a dirt road that will take you all the way back to Rt 31 and your car. You will also be rewarded with some beautiful views of the seven arches of the aqueduct on the east side of the river.

Once you are back to your car, drive a little west on Rt 31, about a quarter mile. When you are middle of the low-lands, look for the cinder block building and the winding stream of water that looks a lot like a drainage ditch. This is a old Clyde River route. Once you pass the block building, you are off the island.

Note- don't do this walk during hunting season!
Note- I know this walk isn't Cayuga County, it is in Seneca County.

Walk Abouts

There are times of the year when we want to get out and take a walk, but the ground is wet and muddy, and we simply don't want to let the dog get all messy. So I will post a link here for a walking tour of Port Byron that we did back in 2010. This tour will take you around the village in about an hour or two, depending on how fast you wish to walk. You could also drive it if you wish. If you want to have a hard copy, the Lock 52 Historical Society has copies for sale.

Canal Splash Tour

Following the Flow- A Canal Splash Event

August 13, 2011

Last year the three “canal” Historical Societies, Weedsport, Port Byron and Montezuma, participated in the State-wide Canal Splash event. This year, we are doing it again, with a slightly different schedule.

As usual, Old Brutus HS in Weedsport will open the doors of it’s building from 9am-3pm for tours. Tours of canal sites will begin at 11am at Lock 51, the lock one mile west of Jordan on Rt 31. There we will begin “Following the Flow” of canal water down the hill to the Seneca River at Montezuma. The old Erie had a couple of high points or bumps along it’s route between Albany and Buffalo, and the section in Cayuga County flows a bit backwards. It makes for an interesting tale of how Cayuga County was a difficult place to build a canal. We will spend about 30 – 45 minutes at Lock 51.

We will then head west to Port Byron, where we will make a quick stop at the St. John’s Church parking lot at 12:30. From this one spot, a person can learn a lot about the canals of Port Byron. We will talk about the two canal routes, the old mills, the use of the Outlet and early settlement of the village.

Plan to be in Montezuma at 1:30pm for a walking tour of canal sites. We will start at the Byron Lapp trailhead next to the firehouse in the hamlet. From there we will walk west toward the river, finishing the journey of the canal water as it reached the bottom point of the little dip in the canal route. We will talk about the Heritage Park plans for Montezuma, and visit the Seneca River Aqueduct, old Lock 62, view the junction of the Erie and Cayuga Seneca Canals and maybe even Lock 11.

Plans are still being made, so keep coming back here for more details as the date arrives.

Seneca River Flooding Shows The Past

I took a walk down to the Seneca River Aqueduct today. The river has been running very high due to all the rain, and I wanted to see where the water was today as compared to what historic photos show. I did some study a couple years ago that compared the old aqueduct to the water levels that were measured in 1862 and what they were in 2009. See the string and the sack of gravel? The bit of ribbon above the sack shows what the water level was as measured in 1862. And you can see the ice below. Now if you compare this to a historic photo of the aqueduct,
you can see that the ribbon is about where the water once was. I figure that the river runs about four feet lower today then it did in 1862, which is a result of the building of the barge canal and all the work that was done in dredging the channel.

The flooding offers us the chance to see where the old shoreline once was, since it has returned the water to its "natural" level. I have studied the old maps, and they show the river as being much different then it is today. Look at how the river bends around the lock. It almost looks like the canal builders dug out the canal and placed the spoils to create the towpath.But if you were to go there these days during the summer, you would see that the river is much further from the lock site, tens if not hundreds of feet away.

So today, thanks to the flooding, I was able step back a hundred and fifty years and see where the river once was. And it is striking to see. The river looks just like the map of 1834. I was able to walk out on the Clinton's Ditch towpath, surrounded on both sides by water. The lock site is within feet of the river, and the old canal lock is filled with water, right up to the upper miter sill.

Now realize that I am using one canal to gain an understanding of the other. The Seneca River Aqueduct is from the Enlarged Erie, but the map and the lock site are from the first canal. I have records and photos that show the water level of the river in relation to the aqueduct, so I used the aqueduct to measure and water levels, knowing that the river level was the same from 1834 and 1850. Make sense?

It is difficult to show with photos since all the trees block the view of the water. And the rain was threatening (again!) so the light was flat and not so good to help define water from tree from land. I have included a photo of the old towpath and one of the old lock.

Doing this helps to gain an understanding of what the river once was, and how it shaped our early settlement and growth. If you want my rant about how people are silly to build homes right on the river, thinking that it never floods, well, give me a call.

New Website

http://cayugacountycanalhistory.org/

We have a new website in Cayuga County. Last year, the three historical societies along the canal applied for a grant to develop a new website that would be useful to county residents, visitors and educators. We quickly learned that we did not receive the grant and went about our business. Then a couple months ago, Cheryl received a call from the Canal Corporation. "Could we use a little left over money?" It seems that the grant had a little extra to use up.

So we called a young man from Weedsport, Adam Sweet, of Sweet Design. He set about designing us a basic website that we will continue to build on as we move forward with this project. So give it a click and let us know what you think. Just be aware that some of the links still have to be filled with content.