Stop 2- The Fayetteville Feeder: Add Water

GPS- 43.044547, -76.010080

The basics of the canal was a ditch and water, but real life complicated things. While the Rome level was the first section of the canal to open in 1819, getting water to keep the ditch full was the challenge. Channels called feeders added water from many of the northward flowing creeks in the area to help keep water in the canal. Here in Fayetteville is one the best preserved feeders in the county. Water from Limestone creek is gently channeled into the old Erie Canal. And enters the canal just east of the bridge.

Water was channeled upstream from Limestone Creek. The water is a gentle flow. The last thing the canal builders and boat captains wanted was a current. Currents erode structures and make it harder for mules to pull the boats. Over the years the land has reclaimed the channel turning back into marshland where it meets the canal by the Limestone Aqueduct.

Today the Limestone Feeder no longer functions as it once did. It barely adds water during high water times. The feeder channel has slowly filled in and is just a remnant, like the original Clinton's Ditch channel, that gives clues as to what it took to keep the canal flowing.

While Clinton's Ditch, the original channel, was 4ft x 40ft per linear foot, the enlarged Erie was 7ft by 70ft. More than three times the water was needed after it was enlarged. Feeders were necessary to keep the the water levels up and the ditch filled as water levels could vary due to boats locking up or down and due to weather. 

The ditch could not run dry...unless a section was drained on purpose.

(A view of the Enlarged Erie section just west of Jordan)

In the winter, the canal would be drained back for maintenance. It was easier to work on frozen ground in an empty channel to fix berm walls and dig out built-up sediment and debris.

In the spring, these feeders would have their gates opened upstream and the canal section they were in charge of filling would slowly flood until the levels were raised to sufficient depth for traffic to resume. 

So as we head eastward with our mules, we will come quickly to our next stop...