Chenango Canal facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Chenango Canal Summit Level
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 Location in New York
Location in the United States
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| Nearest city | Norwich |
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| Area | 0 acres (0 ha) |
| Built | 1833 |
| MPS | Historic and Engineering Resources of the Chenango Canal MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 05000684 |
| Added to NRHP | July 6, 2005 |
The Chenango Canal was a special waterway built in the mid-1800s in central New York, United States. It was 97 miles long and followed the Chenango River for much of its path. The canal connected Binghamton in the south to Utica in the north. It operated from 1834 to 1878. This canal was an important link in the water transportation system of the northeastern U.S. It connected the Susquehanna River to the famous Erie Canal.
Contents
Building the Chenango Canal
People first suggested building the Chenango Canal in 1824. This was while the Erie Canal was being built. Local leaders in the Chenango Valley pushed for it. The New York government finally approved it in 1833. The canal was finished in October 1836. It cost about $2,500,000, which was twice what they first expected.
In 1833, a big party was held in Oxford, New York, to celebrate the canal's approval. A famous engineer named John B. Jervis was the Chief Engineer. He helped design the whole project. This was a time when many canals were being built in the United States. They were like highways made of water. These canals helped create a big transportation network in the eastern U.S.
Who Built the Canal?
Work on the canal started in 1834. Most of the digging was done by hand. Irish and Scottish immigrant workers used picks and shovels. They dug through rock and walked through wet marshlands. They earned $11 a month, which was three times more than a common worker's pay back then.
Skilled workers came from the completed Erie Canal project. They brought new tools, like a clever stump-puller. This machine used oxen or mules to pull out tree stumps. Work camps were set up along the canal route. As many as 500 men lived in each camp. The canal opened in October 1836. People called it the "best-built canal in the state."
How Big Was It?
The Chenango Canal was 42 feet wide at the top. It was 26 feet wide at the bottom. The water was usually about 4 feet deep. The canal had many important parts:
- 116 locks (water elevators for boats)
- 11 lock houses
- 12 dams
- 19 aqueducts (bridges that carry water over land)
- 52 culverts (tunnels for water under the canal)
- 56 road bridges
- 106 farm bridges
- 53 feeder bridges
- 21 waste weirs (small dams to control water flow)
The Chenango Canal was special because it was the first canal in the U.S. to be fed by reservoirs. Reservoirs are large storage areas for water. Feeder canals were dug to bring water from these reservoirs to the highest part of the canal. This idea had been used in Europe but not yet in the U.S.
The project had to get water almost 23 miles uphill. It went up 706 feet to the highest point in Bouckville. Then, it went down 303 feet to the Susquehanna River in Binghamton. At that time, there were no engineering schools. The study of water flow, called hydrology, was not yet a science. But John B. Jervis and his team designed a complex waterway. It was considered the best of its kind.
The Canal System
The main Erie Canal was built between 1817 and 1825. It was a key water highway to what would become the Midwestern United States. It connected to the Great Lakes at Buffalo. The Erie Canal linked the Great Lakes to the Hudson River. From there, boats could reach the port of New York City.
The Erie Canal used New York's unique land features. It was the only easy path through the Appalachian Mountains. This allowed boats to travel east-west from the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes. This canal system gave New York State a big advantage. It helped New York City grow as an international trade center. Buffalo also grew from 2,000 people in 1820 to over 18,000 by 1840. New York State became known as the "Empire State" because of this important connection.
The Erie Canal was the first major water project in the U.S. It showed that large water projects could be done without harming the environment. All the smaller New York canals, like the Chenango, followed this example. Canals needed water for many reasons:
- Filling the canal each spring
- Water for locks (which use water to raise and lower boats)
- Water lost through leaks in the banks
- Water used for factories and mills
Because of this, floods and droughts were common problems for all New York canals.
Chenango Canal's Role
The Chenango Canal operated from April to November each year. When it opened, it cut shipping time from Binghamton to Albany from 9 days to just 4 days. It also made shipping goods much cheaper. The canal was meant to connect Binghamton and nearby towns by water to New York City and the Great Lakes.
The northern end of the Chenango Canal was in Utica. It connected to the Erie Canal there. The southern end was in Binghamton. State Street in Binghamton was built on the canal's path in 1872. Towns like Port Dickinson, Port Crane, and Pecksport grew because they were stops on the canal route.
Port Crane grew quickly after the canal opened. It had stores, hotels, and boat repair shops. From 1840 to 1865, Port Crane was very successful. Overall, building the canal led to a boom in factories and construction in the Chenango Valley.
Challenges and Changes
An extension of the canal, called the Extension Canal, started in 1840. It went west along the Susquehanna River to Vestal. This extension was planned to connect with Pennsylvania's canal system. This would have created a route to the coal fields in Pennsylvania. It would also connect to western New York through other canals and lakes.
However, the Chenango Canal was built late in the "canal era." The connecting canals in southern New York and northern Pennsylvania were never fully finished. Some parts fell apart before others were even done. The canal era was ending before the whole system could be completed.
The Chenango Canal also had its own problems. It was hard to keep up with repairs because they were very expensive. Like many canals, it started with too much debt. If it didn't make enough money from fees, it would lose money. Also, the first locks were made of wood. New York's cold winters and freezing-thawing cycles damaged the wood quickly. As soon as one part was fixed, another would break. Eventually, all the wooden structures were replaced with stronger stone locks, but this cost a lot of money.
How the Canal Operated
The canal made shipping much cheaper. Before the canal, it cost $1.25 to ship 100 pounds of goods from Binghamton to Albany by wagon. This trip took 9 to 13 days. A canal boat made the trip in less than four days and cost only $0.25 per 100 pounds. A passenger ticket from Norwich to Binghamton cost $1.50. The trip started at 6 AM and ended between 6 and 8 PM.
Many types of boats used the Chenango Canal. These included:
- Packet boats: These carried passengers.
- Scows: Flat-bottomed boats for cargo.
- Lakers: Boats that could travel on lakes.
- Bullheads: The most common freight barges. They were called "bullheads" because of their blunt, rounded front. They were about 14 feet wide and 75 feet long. Sometimes they were so heavy they would drag on the canal bottom.
Boats were pulled by horses or mules on the towpath. Passenger boats traveled about four miles an hour. Horses pulling passenger boats were changed every ten miles. Mules pulling freight barges were changed every four to six hours.
Each barge had two cabins. One at the front was for the animals. The other at the back was for the captain and crew, and sometimes their families. Packet boats had names like The Madison of Solsville or Fair Play. They needed at least three crew members:
- A driver on the towpath controlling the animals.
- A bowsman controlling the front of the boat.
- A steersman at the back.
Passengers sat in chairs on the top deck. When the boat neared a town, crewmen would shout: "Low bridge!" Everyone would go to the lower deck to avoid being hit by a bridge.
Impact of the Canal
The first passenger boat, The Dove of Solsville, arrived in Binghamton on May 6, 1837. This officially opened the canal. New businesses and homes quickly appeared along the canal's route. The area benefited from new settlers and new goods. It also had a way to ship finished products in and out.
Mills and factories grew along the southern end of the canal. Stores and hotels appeared along the whole route. Many other businesses also did well, like taverns, inns, and boat yards for building and repair. Farmers could now easily sell their milk to butter and cheese factories. The factories could then ship their products to market. Apple cider and vinegar were shipped from Mott's, a famous company. Lumber mills could get their wood and send their products to market cheaply. However, some mills had to close. For example, Madison's Solsville Mills lost its water supply because it was diverted to the canal.
The Chenango Canal also made passenger travel easy, comfortable, and relatively fast. New residents arrived from Utica, many coming through New York's port. Many of the canal's construction workers were immigrants who stayed and settled in the area after the canal was finished.
In 1861, the canal helped transport 1,000 soldiers of the 114th Regiment. They traveled from Norwich to Utica in 10 packet boats. This was the first part of their journey to join the Union Army during the Civil War. Each town they passed through greeted them with flags and celebrations. A painting of this event is in the Chenango Museum in Norwich today.
The canal was also used for fun. In summer, people swam, boated, and fished. In winter, after the water froze, people enjoyed ice skating and even horse racing on the ice.
Before the Chenango Canal was built, much of the Southern Tier and Central New York was like a frontier. People lived a simple, tough life. They did not have the comforts enjoyed by other parts of the state. They asked for a canal so they could get things like clean-burning coal from Pennsylvania. Before, people only heated their homes with wood. After the Chenango Canal, trade increased between New York City, Albany, and the Southern Tier. Merchants could sell heavier items like furniture and coal-burning stoves. Life generally improved with the canal's opening.
The canal also created jobs. It is believed that Philip Danforth Armour, a millionaire meat packer, first worked as a mule driver on the Chenango Canal. He later walked across the United States to work in the California gold fields. He eventually became very rich and a shipping leader. He likely learned a lot from his time on the Chenango.
Another driver was Nuel Stever. In 1927, at age 76, he shared his memories of living on a Chenango Canal packet boat. His interview was published in The Norwich Sun: "When I was five, I began driving canal boat teams on the towpath. This was common for boys my age. I remember driving a team for 20 miles when I was five. When I was tired, I'd lean on the towrope to rest. My father was steering. When I turned 10, I took my turn at the helm, and a younger brother drove the teams. Whole families lived on the canal boats. I was the oldest of 21 children. We would go to Oswego to load lumber for Bartlett's Mill in Binghamton. Hamilton was the highest point, and the canal froze there first in the fall. Often, 82 boats loaded with lumber would be stuck. When the ice started, Bartlett would bring teams of horses. They would drag stumps through the canal to break the ice so boats could get lumber to his mill. Canalling was a varied business. For example, we'd pick up firkins (small barrels) filled with butter for merchants. We'd boat grain to the big stills in Hamilton, Pecksport, Bouckville, and Solsville. Then we'd bring back loads of whiskey, which merchants sold or shipped away. We only did the boating. Whiskey sold for 25 cents a gallon back then. It was a busy canal in those days. Three years before the canal closed, about 50 years ago (from 1927), 120 boats carried coal."
Closing of the Canal
The Chenango Canal opened in 1834. It was an important link in New York's transportation system. Canals had helped the Industrial Revolution in England. The success of the Bridgewater Canal in England, finished in 1761, started a canal-building era there. The U.S. wanted to develop too, so it followed this trend.
However, the Chenango Canal was approved late in the canal era. By the time it was built, canal technology was already becoming old-fashioned. The steam locomotive was invented in England in 1811. Railroads began to develop in England by the mid-1820s. These new technologies were better than canals. Railroads were stronger, more flexible, more efficient, cheaper, and most importantly, faster.
In 1848, trains arrived in Binghamton with the Erie Railroad. This new technology meant the end for the canal. Over the next 20 years, Binghamton became a transportation hub. It had the canal and several railroad lines. After the American Civil War, more railroads were built. These included the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, the New York, Ontario and Western, and the Delaware and Hudson. These railroads in the Chenango and Susquehanna Valleys made the canal outdated. It's ironic that the canal itself carried the engines, tools, and rails for the trains that would replace it. The D&H railroad even started as a canal company.
Even though it helped the economy of the Southern Tier and Central New York, the Chenango Canal never made much money. After years of competition, decline, and losing money, the state government voted to close the Chenango Canal in 1878. This was only 44 years after it opened. The land and parts of the canal were sold off. Much of the canal channel was filled in and often paved over, especially in cities. But some isolated parts of the canal were simply closed and left alone.
While larger towns and the state benefited from railroads, many smaller villages did not. If a small town was on the canal but missed by the railroad, its success often left when the canal closed. Port Crane and Pecksport are good examples. Very little of these once-busy villages remains today.
After 1900, a remaining part of the closed canal became known for carrying illegal goods through Hamilton. Officials built a checkpoint to control this traffic. Surprisingly, over five million dollars worth of illegal items were seized between 1900 and 1930. This became one of the most famous water-based law enforcements of that time. You can still see parts of the old checkpoint buildings today.
The Chenango Canal Today
In many places, the canal path became the roadbed for streets. You can trace its path by the roads that replaced it. These include Binghamton's State Street and Chenango Street, and New York Routes 5, 8, 12, and 12B. In Utica, the canal bed runs next to or under New York Route 12B/12.
Parts of the old channel, stone aqueducts, locks, and other structures still remain. You can see them in several places:
- Between Bouckville and Solsville
- Near Hamilton
- North of North Fenton and west of County Road 32
- North of Sherburne, west of New York Route 12B
- In the village of Oxford, on Canal Street and the remains of a harbor on North Washington
The only place with moving water is between Woodman's Pond, near the old Pecksport, and the aqueduct on Canal Road, just after Bouckville. This was the highest point of the canal. Many of these canal remains and the original path can be seen using Google Earth.
A section of the Chenango Canal bed still exists in Utica. The waters of Nail Creek flow through this part. The stone work of a lock is still in good condition here. However, the towpath is currently overgrown with plants.
The Chenango Canal Summit Level is a national historic district. It is near Bouckville in Madison County, New York. This district includes three important structures. It is a five-mile part of the Chenango Canal built between 1834 and 1836. This five-mile summit section has water. It is owned and run by the New York State Canal Corporation. It is part of the feeder system for the Erie (Barge) Canal, about 30 miles north. The important structures are the canal channel and the nearby towpath, the remaining parts of the aqueduct that carried the Chenango over the Oriskany Creek, and two stone bridge supports. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
Today, people in the Madison area are working to create a trail along the original towpath. They hope to collect historical items for display. They also want to make what is left of the Chenango Canal in that area a Madison County park. The Chenango Canal Corridor Connections trail project is a big plan. It aims to link various trails along the canal and old railroad paths from Utica to Binghamton. Citizens are working with state parks, the Canal Corporation, and Parks & Trails New York. They want to create a plan for this corridor that crosses three counties and many towns.
The Chenango Canal Prism and Lock 107 at Chenango Forks in Chenango County, New York was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
