A Photo Tour of the Canal in Port Byron

Port Byron and the canal are fairly well documented when it comes to photos and maps. So I thought it would be fun to piece together a walking tour of the canal through Port Byron.

Since most of the photos we have are from the early 1900's, we can use the New Century 1904 map of the village as a guide. I have a crop of the canal here. (You can find all these maps on Bill Hecht's map site. Look for the link on the Cayuga County Genweb site.) The 1904 map is likely the least accurate of all the maps we have of the village, but it will do. The right is east, and the left is west. We will start on the east side of the village.

Here is a Google Earth view. You can see the watered remains of the enlarged canal ending at Schasel Park. The orange line shows the route of the canal. The numbers and arrows show the locations of the photos and what way you will be looking. (well at least for most of them.)

1 &2) Our first two views were taken from the Main Street bridge. The boats are passing under the Utica Street bridge. Actually, it looks like they are taking a break and using the vertical stone walls to pull the boats over and change their teams. The Sterling Salt Company boats are sitting low in the water, which means they are loaded, and that means they are headed east. You can see that the read boat has its rudder lashed up, and that means the boats are a double header. The captain stands and steers from the back of the first boat, using the rear boat as a rudder.

The large barn on the right is Caldwells Warehouse. You can see that you can get your Lehigh Valley Coal here. The hill in the background is a great place to take "birdseye views" postcards of the village, which are quite popular with the locals. Well, we can't stand here all day, let's go.

The stone walls inside the village help to save room, since they are straight up and down, not sloping like they are out in the country. It makes a great place to dock boats, and if we look across the canal, we can see the Bertha, a small steamer that runs between Port Byron and Weedsport. It looks like they are getting ready to go. (The paper reported the Bertha stopped running in 1909)
 

Walking west, if we look back, we can see the Main Street bridge we were just standing on. The towpath is on the north side of the canal, and most of the businesses that use the canal are on the south bank. From here, we are going to cross the field and get on Green Street so we can see the aqueduct over the Owasco Outlet.

3) The wooden walls of the aqueduct were recently replaced with iron plates, and we get a good look at the structure from the Green Street highway bridge. This aqueduct replaced the original aqueduct which we can stop by and see a bit later.

We can walk on down to River Street and then up to the towpath again.

 5) Once we get to the canal, we will head west and climb up on the Canal Street Bridge. Looking back, we see the River Street bridge and in the distance, we can see the steeple of the Presbyterian Church. If we look really hard at the canal just past the bridge, we can see where the canal is narrowed by the aqueduct. The boat docked off to the right is a stark reminder that the glory days of the canal are behind her. 

6) There is quite a crowd standing around in front of the tavern. The "drys" have been trying to vote the Town dry, but so far, they haven't won. But they are getting close. (The Town would go mostly dry in 1907 and totally dry in 1909) You got to wonder what would happen to all the bars and taverns if they indeed do win the vote. But for now, it is a good place to watch the traffic and all the activity at the Tanner and Shetler Drydock.

Standing at the Erie House and looking east, we can see the Canal Street bridge and a line of boats waiting at the drydock. You can see the cupola of the Port Byron Free Academy in the back ground.

 Looking directly across, we see the drydock and in the background, the new power house for the Rochester, Syracuse, and Eastern Interurban. Tanner's is a well known and respected drydock. (The orange circle marks its location) You can't see much from this side of the canal, so when we cross over, we will get a better look.

And now we reach Lock 52. Like all the Erie Canal locks, this is has a side by side arrangement that was built to allow boats to pass heading west and east at the same time. These days, the lock is not as busy. The canal flows west toward the Seneca River, so we approach from the high side of the lock. Kern's Store can be seen on the far side of the lock, taking advantage of the time that the boat and its crew are held captive as the boat is raised or lowered. The pole in the front allows the towline to pull on the boat without snagging on the office and other lock structures.

8) If we walk down the towpath to the lower end, we can see lengthened chamber. When the boaters started running two boats with one team (remember the boats we saw on the east side?), the State doubled the length of the lock so the boaters could pass through without unhooking and hooking the complicated steering mechanism. But they only did one side. So the captains let the lock operator know if they pulling a single or a double. At night, they light one or two lanterns to help out the lock tenders. Let's head up on top of the lock.

7) Standing on the lock gates, we look east toward the head of the lengthened chamber. The old gate pockets for when the lock was only a single length can seen at the half way point. The cables laying on the left wall are connected to a capstan and that helps to pull the heavy boats into and out of the locks. The mules have quite a job trying to pull a boat through the lock from the tow path, so a clever engineer devised a mechanical capstan to help them out. Since the water of the canal is always flowing, a small water wheel at the head of the lock turns the capstan and that gives the mules a rest. 

9) Standing on the lock, we get a nice view west toward Montezuma. From here, the canal passes through the flat mucklands, a great place to grow potatoes, celery, and onions. 

With our curiosity aroused about the capstan system, we walk to the head of the lock, but this time on the south side of the canal. We cannot see the water overflow that powers the capstan, but we can see the wooden platform at water level between the chambers. The platform serves to act as a bumper and guide for the boats, and as a strainer keeping logs and other large objects out of the culvert that runs under the length of the lock. As the water falls into the culvert, it is directed into a small water wheel. That turns gears and that turns the capstan and that pulls the boat. (the photo is mislabeled, we are looking west)

 And as long as we are here, we are able to get a better look at the drydocks. We can see that the drydock is indeed a busy place. These days, we see a lot of steam powered boats. Many of the old mule boats have been converted and we can see a smoke stack on a couple of the larger boats in the canal. These steam vessels can pull two or three non-powered boats. The old mule quarters on the old boats are now used as living space or removed to increase cargo capacity. The smaller boats travel back and forth between cities and don't go all the way to Albany or Buffalo.

 4) Since we need to walk back to our buggy, we can follow West Dock and Rochester Street over to the old aqueduct. The old stone structure marks the route of the first canal, which was moved during the enlargement in 1858. (the view I present was taken from the old Rochester Street bridge. That was moved in the 1930's when Rochester was straightened out. Moore Place marks the old route and you can see it on the 1904 map.) You have heard all the stories about the glory days of Port Byron when the canal ran through the center of the village, not around the north end. You have heard about Beach's Mill, the largest mill in the state, that was done in by moving of the canal. It burned shortly after the canal closed! Go figure. You have also heard about Milliners Drydock and its now very famous worker, Brigham Young. Everyone in the village claims to have a house or fireplace built by the Mormon leader. But those days are long gone, and now all that remains is this old aqueduct that the Church built a shed on top of. (the stone of the aqueduct was removed sometime in the early 1900's to help build a canal feeder that used the old Beach Mill raceway. The stone forms a pit and that lead to a large iron pipe that ran underground to the canal.)

So there we go. Our tour has come to an end. Hope you enjoyed it.

Enlarged Lock 52

A visit from good friend Andrew Lauren prompted a revisit to Enlarged Lock 52 and the surrounding area. So on a very cold Sunday morning, we headed out to see what could be seen.

Lock 52 is the lock that lies directly alongside the Thruway, and it sits on Thruway property, so it is kind of inaccessible to the public. So I won't say how we got some of the photos we did. Anyhow, don't do as I do; do as I say! So don't say you were not warned. You can be ticketed for trespass!

It helps to start with a map, and we are fortunate to have a good map circa 1896.This map shows the lock, drydock, and other neat things to find.

Parking at the Erie House on Maiden Lane, we head toward the lock. As we approach the lock, we are on the high side. This lock was one of five that stepped down to the west, in this case, the lock is stepping the canal down to the level of the Montezuma (Cayuga) Marsh. From this point, the canal is level through Montezuma, across the marsh and onto Clyde. At Lock 53 in Clyde, the canal steps up until it reaches Lake Erie and Buffalo. The reason we have this step down is that Lock 52 sits at the base of a little high spot in the canal. To the east, the canal rises over a small hump, passing through Lock 51 at Jordan. After passing by Camillus, the canal steps down to Syracuse, and then back up another rise until it reaches the Rome level. After Rome, it is all downhill to Albany. So let's get back to the map and the tour.

This view is basically the same as the color postcard above. Except all the water, gates, buildings and well, everything is gone and what is left is stone. The three holes in the front show that this is the high end. If there was no lockage to use water in the canal, it would overflow through these passages into a tunnel that passes straight through to the far end.

These views look into the lower end of the lock. It is difficult to duplicate the postcard view as one would need to stand in the Thruway to shoot it. You can see here the lengthened end and if you have the opportunity to download my guide to Lock 52, you will know that the towpath is on the side away from the lengthened chamber. The missing stonework was first thought to be from Thruway construction work, and we know that some stone was removed during the construction of the highway. However, this photo shows that stonework was already missing in the 1930's.

  The road this photo was taken from was in existence on the south side of the canal when the canal was in operation. It can be seen on the map except that it appears that the road was pushed across the canal after it was abandoned to allow access to the old towpath on the north side. What is remarkable that all the wood is gone, except for the gates. Someone made use of the wood and started on the stone. You can also see the end of the tunnel. Nowadays, even without the snow, the tunnel is covered by lawn.

What I didn't realize is how quickly the land dropped off on both sides of the lock. The lock really sits on the edge of the contour or elevation change and was built out into space with banks formed on both sides. It is clear that soil and land was removed during the construction of the Thruway, but not that much. If you take a look at these photos, you can get a sense that the land did drop off.

Why the drop off? Drainage.On the map, you can see the drainage ditch collected water from the wet areas on the south side of the canal and routed it north toward the Seneca River. The map shows the ditch running down both sides of the canal, and the cross under culvert. The stonework for the culvert is still in very good shape on both ends. There is even an intact culvert marking stone.

The road on the map crossed over the drainage ditch on a small bridge that is somewhat intact.

The road is still remarkably intact although I don't know if you would be able to see it in the summer. After walking around the wet area to the southwest, we got this view of the lock and what is called Guidone's Hill, a small drumlin that was cutting off and used as fill during the construction of the Thruway.

Another road was constructed during the Thruway building, and it is now known locally as Rooker Drive. It was a temporary entrance to the Thruway from Route 31 for a bit as the Thruway to the east was being finished.

You can also see the line of the Rochester, Syracuse and Eastern Trolley going off to the left. The first canal, Clinton's Ditch followed this line also. We then headed over to see what could be found of Tanner's Drydock and Clinton's Ditch Lock 60.

One chamber of the drydock is fairly visible, as is the drydock entrance. I thought that the first lock was part of this chamber, but I don't quite know anymore. The top map is the same as I posted before, and the second map shows the location of both locks in the 1850's. If you look at the property lines, you will see that the ditches and drydock don't quite line up. But it is close. Stone from the lock may have been used in the construction of the drydock.

 Here you can just see the stonework and drain for the drydock. The drydock pit is beyond. Below is the curved stone entrance as seen from the canal.

This is about as close as I could get to duplicating the old photo of the man on the boat.

So there you have it, a winter day tour of Lock 52. 

Tour Schedule

August 14, 2010

This tour is a new idea and we really don’t know what to expect. We have set up a very ambitious schedule for the day and a lot depends on how many people decide to attend the guided tours. We are also looking into the future to make this into a tour package that can be offered to groups.

The distance between the first and last stops is a little more than 12 miles, so it really isn’t a long drive, but with two long walking tours, getting people in and out of their cars and lunch, we will be pushing you along. However, this is not a forced march. The point of having guides is to give you the best tour possible and making this a rewarding day for everyone. And where can you learn so much history for free?

You will be staying with the same tour guide all day. The guide will meet you at the designated stops at the scheduled time. In case you are delayed, please take your time and just catch up. Do not speed, especially in the villages! We have scheduled time for lunch after the Port Byron walking tour.

To help you find your way, I have included GPS coordinates for the parking lot of each stop.

Stop 1 43 03’59.89”N 76 29’45.21”W

Our tour starts at Lock 51 on the enlarged Erie Canal.

Lock 51 is at the western end of what is called the Jordan summit level, a bit of a high spot between Syracuse and Montezuma.

Water from Skaneateles Lake was fed into the canal at Jordan, where it flowed east toward Syracuse and west toward Montezuma. So at Lock 51, we will begin to follow the flow of water westward to Montezuma. Lock 51 is a good place to start since both the first Erie and the enlarged Erie cross the same bit of land, and we can show how the first canal was built and talk about why it was changed during the enlargement.

Lock 51 is located just off Route 31. The two chambers have been partially filled in so you can walk right into the lock and see the rock walls up close.



Tour Schedule- We are allowing 30 minutes for this stop.
If you are west bound, this will be your first stop and start at 9am.


Stop 2 43 03’01.39”N 76 33’44.31”W


Our second stop will be at the Old Brutus Historical Society (OBHS). The Society has a very nice display of local artifacts, dioramas, and a whole army of manikins! If you are not participating in the tours, the OBHS will be open all day from 9am until 3pm for your enjoyment. The Society will also have extra copies of the walking tour guides and any other information that might be handed out during the tours. (Please note that the tour guides are available for a small fee.)

OBHS is .42 miles from the red light at the intersection of Rt’s 31 and 34 (near the Arbys). If you are coming from the west, it is .13 mile from the red light at the intersection of Rt 31 and Brutus Street. Look for the large sign or mural. There is a parking lot on Rt 31 and parking is also permitted on the wide road shoulders. The main entrance is located on Rt 34 in the village, where there are also nice wide shoulders and parking spaces. The OBHS is handicap accessible.

Tour schedule- We are allowing 45 minutes for this stop.
West bound- 9:45am


Stop 3 43 02’35.79”N 76 34’32.37”W

The third stop is the Centerport Aqueduct.










This aqueduct on the enlarged canal carried the Erie across Cold Spring Creek. It will not be a part of the narrated tour, but we are encouraging you to stop and see it, so we have padded the schedule to give you time to see it on your own. There is some very good signage by the parking lot that explains the site. The aqueduct is a short walk from the parking area.

Stop 4 43 02’10.08”N 76 37’28.38”W

The fourth stop is a walking tour in the village of Port Byron.

We will park at the Town Office complex and walk around the village viewing canal and other notable sites. Port Byron’s roots go back to the late 1700’s, when early settlers began to settle around the Owasco Outlet. The canal was opened for business through the village in 1820.

Port Byron was one of a few villages where the canal route was changed during the enlargement. As we walk, we will trace and see the remains of both routes. We will also see the location of three dry docks, the Erie House and Lock 52, and other neat stuff.
This tour covers about 1.5 miles, with a couple of very small rises. All the walking is on pavement, except at the Erie House, where we will be on grass. Parking for this tour will be at the Town Office Building located on Mentz Drive.


Tour schedule- We are allowing 90 minutes for this stop. Please note that both tours will be in Port Byron at the same time, so it is important that we try to get started on time.
West bound- 11am


Stop 5 43 00’37.16”N 76 42’11.58”W

The fifth stop is a walking tour of Montezuma.

Montezuma was a true canal town and it has many great canal sites. Montezuma was the western end of the canal in 1820. We will park at the fire department and walk west to the Seneca River to see the Seneca River Aqueduct. Along the way, we will see the junction of the Cayuga Seneca Canal, a dry dock, a lock site from the first canal, learn about the problems of crossing the Seneca River and learn a little about the barge canal.


This tour covers about 1.6 miles and is flat. However, the walking is all off pavement on grass and dirt (or mud if it has rained). Parking is located at the Fire Department, located on Erie Drive just off Rt 90.


Tour schedule- We are allowing 120 minutes (2 hours) for this stop. There is a lot to see!




West bound- This will be your last stop and starts at 1:30pm.