Sunday, April 30, 2023

Stop 19- Gere's Lock: Lock Up to the Jordan Level!

 GPS- 43.068377, -76.232893


And now we've reached the end of the low point through Syracuse 
and are ready to Lock-up through Gere's Lock onto the Jordan Level!


The stones you see are the capstones for Gere's Lock's chambers.

Due to Solvay Process, the landscape you see is 
completely different than 100 years ago.
If you could step back in time, you would see...



A flatter landscape with a store/tavern, blacksmith shop, stables, 
a lock tender's office on the middle "island" of the lock chambers, and of course...water!


Some of the hard crew that it took to work the lock. 
It was quite the skill to get barges into the lock chamber 
without damaging the boat or cargo.

Here you can see divers and their teams walking along on the towpath.

More about Gere's Lock
which was built, then rebuilt for the enlargement 
and then enlarged one last time to accommodate 
more boats going into Syracuse


As we began to cross Onondaga County,
boats had to lock-down off the Long Level or Rome Level 
into the Syracuse area


Gere's Lock raised the boat up onto the Jordan Level.

Who was Gere? Robert Gere of the Gere Block, Gere Bank, 
and many other enterprises


His house was just a wee distance away from this lock.


While no longer extant, a large house like this in the 
middle of the country showed just how wealthy he was!


Gere owned the land around the lock.
Here on the 1852 map, the Gere (and misspelled Geer) family name 
can be seen along the canal from Geddes to the Camillus border.

In this picture, you can see the lock chamber drained back for winter maintenance



A view of how deep the channel should be right here


And while none of the infrastructure remains here, 
you can see a replica locktender's office on display in Camillus


...and part of an original lock gate.
As gate replacement was part of regular maintenance, 
this gate had to have seen the last boats go through this lock 
on display as well.


pic by Mike Sims

But why is it all gone? Why is it all filled in? and why don't we just did it out?

The answer to all three questions is Solvay Process.

Gere's sons worked for Solvay Process and allowed them to dump on his land. 
Then when the canal was abandoned, 
he allowed them the fill in the canal bed and chambers 
with industrial waste.
If you bury it, the problem goes away...


....except it doesn't 😔


This is a photo from 1977 showing the dumping that took place here.
This area has toxic waste buried underneath. 
It wouldn't be safe no practical to excavate 
this lock to showcase the handiwork of its builders.


The best we can do is stay on the path and marvel from a distance...

A hard lesson to be learned here 😢



And so, on we go to our next stop along the Jordan Level, 
as we head west, to learn the other side of the tale of what could of been 
and how one couple stopped Solvay Process from going any further...


to be continued at our next stop...









































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