Stop 6: Butternut Creek Aqueduct: The Reservoir Begins

GPS- 43.043633, -76.050145

We have now reached the second of our large aqueducts as we continue our 35 mile journey across Onondaga County: The Butternut Creek Aqueduct!

Some highlights of this aqueduct include:

Boards from the canal era still under water in Butternut Creek that help channel water under the aqueduct and help lessen the erosion of aqueduct by the creek.

A closer view:

and some great stone work, similar to the stonework 

we saw on Limestone Creek Aqueduct.

Some more about this aqueduct:

https://www.eriecanal.org/ButternutCreek.html?fbclid=IwAR1vdW6CF9bJPEuWQzV9DdRcVN40Fz98Vh47Ir5kaRpXjBmd2qi8Sr9g6oo 

However, after taking a moment or two to appreciate the Erie Canal Structures that remains,  perhaps something begins to nag at you....something in the back of your mind that you can't quite place your finger on, but something is different here, something...but what?

....Wait...there's water in this old section of canal! The old Erie Canal was abandoned in 1917 with the completion of the barge canal, but water still flows here!....and fills this section all the way back to Rome. But why? Why water, why here, and most importantly, why still here now?

Even from its earliest days, there was a feeder that took water upstream from Butternut Creek and gently merged it with Clinton's Ditch to fill the ditch and keep it filled.

Jamesville Reservoir and Butternut Creek Feeder were used as ways to add extra water to the canal. When the Erie Canal was widened and deepened, the canal needed more than three times the water to keep it at level. Butternut Creek was dammed in Jamesville creating the Jamesville Reservoir. 

 from the c.1850s

to the c.1860s

Then, the Enlarged Canal then had a greater

water flow to fill the canal as necessary

That only explains why water was there...but why is there still water there now? Why do Limestone Creek and Butternut Creek have that concrete channel that still carries water across them? (Hint: it's wasn't for kayakers, although that is a modern bonus 😉!)?

Answer: The Long Level (or Rome Level) is used as a reservoir for the Modern Barge Canal!

The opening by Butternut creek drive is where the Jamesville (Butternut Creek) Feeder still fills this section of the canal.

A great aerial shot by Jeff Heim

It is the only major working feeder left on this section. If it weren't for this section being used as one long reservoir, it would have been drained and abandoned in 1917. But this section has always had minimal maintenance to help keep water flowing in this section. Why the concrete channel and not the wooden troughs that were once used? Maintenance! Wood would need maintenance more frequently. Concrete would last longer. Here is a pic of the aqueduct from its wooden days:

And its later abandoned days when this area was not yet a park around 1970

(pic courtesy of Cori Wilson)

But gradually, people saw the benefit of sprucing up the old towpath into a recreation trail along the section which basically serves as a long reservoir to the Modern Canal, and the Old Erie State Historic Park was formalized and well onto the road...er...Towpath of being the park and trail that it is today.

https://parks.ny.gov/parks/olderiecanal/maps.aspx?fbclid=IwAR2pk51kQkOFtO7sq8JV5vuWJ_LJqgK_3VG3RDcUVb170tfcqb62OpsZQ6k

And so we leave the Butternut Creek Aqueduct and continue on our trip across the 35 miles of canal across Onondaga County to our next stop...