ERIE CANAL CRUISE 2010
CRUISE REPORT 4
Seneca Falls was so enjoyable that we stayed another night. The Seneca Falls museum, just a few steps away, displays antiques, photos, and artifacts from the manufacturing era of this town made possible by the opening of the canal. The Wollcott Company made wooden measuring devices like folding carpenters' rulers and the very familiar rulers and yard sticks from our school days. Treadle operated machine tools such as lathes, drill presses, knitting machines (several big knitting mills were here) and the great Seneca Falls specialty - pumps were all produced by large factories. There must have been at least five large pump manufacturers making every kind of pump from the very small to the huge. Pump fabrication requires castings so there were several foundries. A big, noisy working town with a large population and lots of supporting businesses. Canal operations were busy 24 hours each day.
Pump manufacture lead to fire apparatus production. Seneca Falls is called the birthplace of the fire engine. For many years this is where the world went for fire engines. They were made here and transported down the canal and then to domestic and foreign destinations.
The town has changed character and most of the factories have disappeared now. Small businesses are struggling as they are all over this region. Most towns and villages' central business districts are relics from the early canal days with 200 year old brick and stone buildings in the style of that era with plenty of fancy architectural decoration and little parking since horses were the alternative to walking. These struggling towns are now looking to the canal for potential. New canal facilities are nearing completion and more are planned though the recent economic distress has slowed progress.
The town of Brockport has done it right. Their canal park has moorage with electrical power and water, good night lighting, a boaters' center with rest rooms, showers and laundry; free loaner bikes and the local supermarket has parked 4 little red wagons on the wharf area that boaters can pull to the store and back with groceries. A very pleasant place.
Palmyra is the town where the Mormons were founded. At the intersection of Church and Main streets there is a church on each of the four corners and none is Catholic or Mormon. Those are nearby, however. The tiny Palmyra harbor can moor only 5-6 boats but has free water and electrical power. The rest room and shower facilities are in construction. A fisherman asked us about our cruise. Out of curiosity, the Admiral asked him where the nearest market was located and he said it was probably too far to walk but he would take us there in his truck. Upstate New Yorkers are surprising.
In Spencerport we saw 2' x 3' banners hanging on each Main Street lamp post with a color photo of a service man or woman from the town entitled, "Hometown Hero" with an accompanying US flag. A flower basket also on the lamp post.
In the town of Lyons the fire station bordering the canal offers rest rooms and showers. We have our own head and shower aboard but it is nice to have unlimited hot water and a bigger shower room.
Lawn mowing goes on all the time here. Plenty of rain and sunshine makes the grass grow like crazy. Property line fences are almost nonexistent so villages tend to look like houses more or less scattered on a golf course.
The canal west of Rochester, so far, has been not river but a 100' wide, concrete lined ditch through small villages, farms and orchards. This concrete modernization about one hundred years ago was controversial. Concrete was new and not trusted. The masons and stone cutters were especially unhappy but technology prevailed. The terrain is flat enough that no locks are required until we get to the Niagara River but there are a bunch of lift bridges that we call by radio and then wait for traffic to be stopped and the bridge to be lifted.
Two hundred years ago the original canal's minimum dimensions were 8 foot wide and 4 foot deep. Barges were constructed to those dimensions. Two extensive modernizations and relocations later we have a great recreational resource designated a National Heritage Area controlled by the National Park Service that can only get better with time. All it needs now is to be discovered by the boating community.
On about June 15, the boat will be loaded and trucked to Puget Sound. This was the plan three years ago but we decided that since the boat was in the Chicago area, we might as well take a side trip before shipping. The side trip lasting through three summers was unexpected and wonderful. Spontaneity offers the most fun.
Captain Kenny and Admiral Barbara
