Stop 22- Halfway Points: Of 363, 350, and 339

 GPS- 43.054804, -76.309833

While the de-facto halfway point in the canal was Syracuse due to it being the major city between Albany and Buffalo, the true halfway point of the canal is just to the west of the city

Just past Camillus Landing,...

 ....you will come upon a split path and road.

After the canal days, the Towpath was converted into a road for the 

Camillus Sportsman Club.

And not far down the path you'll come to a sign:

And across the way, in case you missed it,...

...is the halfway point on the Enlarged Erie.

This stretch is the improved, straightened and widened channel, 

70ft wide and 7ft deep.

You are halfway from Albany and halfway to Buffalo 

This is due to the specs of the Enlarged Canal

But where was the halfway of the original Clinton's Ditch?

For that you will come to this sign in Memphis, NY!

But "Halfway" is a movable term depending on which canal you are talking about and where that point is marked. The original halfway point was the Village of Canton...Later the Village of Memphis just a few miles west

And the halfway point of Clinton's Ditch actually lies about just east of here.

The first incarnation of the Erie Canal, now lovingly, but once slanderously called Clinton's Ditch or Folly was a much longer route 363 miles winding its way the easiest and cheapest way to dig and fill a ditch, often hugging hillsides and going around curves. It worked for a time but at 4ft deep and 40ft wide its winding ways became impractical for larger vessels.

The reality is that the middle was just a mile or so east of Memphis, 

but past the crossroads of Newport. 

But once you made it to Memphis, 

you knew you were halfway in your cross-state journey

In its day, Canton, whose name was later changed to Memphis, 

was a bustling village and stop along the canal

 

map c.1859

Bird's eye view from the hills south of Memphis

The Enlarged Erie flowing past the Hotel. 

The building, although much altered, is extant today.

Looking south from just over the railroad tracks.

But where is the halfway point today?

When the canal eventually switched in the 1918, the Modern Barge Canal used today was completed and replaced the "old" Erie Canal. 

It is now about 339 miles long just and uses natural waterways whenever possible. 

Why the change? 

Two reasons: aging infrastructure and the widespread use of mechanical engines made using natural waterways plausible. And so the new "Halfway" point changed once again as the route changed and now lies about a mile east of Baldwinsville Community Park.

So lined up on an old map from 1874,

and on a modern map...

But while we have passed the middle of the canal and we are one mule step closer to Buffalo, the other piece of good news is we are more than 2/3 though our journey across the county!

 So after staying overnight in a nearby hotel

(a proper bath does wonders for the spirits...

and food you don't have to cook on a hot summer day),

we are reminded of faster mode of transport nearby....

That will one day make this channel of water next to the tracks obsolete...

because people and goods move faster by train...

...And still do around here!

But we continue on the next day with our imaginary team of mules, well-fed and rested, and our boat captain and family, well-fed and rested, and travel on to our next stop...

Stop 15- Amos Mills: The Mill and the Disaster

GPS- 43.050723, -76.158248

This unassuming brick building that once stood on the banks of the Erie Canal

has a story that goes back to before the founding of Syracuse...

before Syracuse was barely a crossroads to the catalyst to update the Erie Canal and its infrastructure that would lead to the Erie Canal through Syracuse being abandoned through Syracuse for the Modern Barge Canal we use today.

So let's step back in time...a time where water power would be necessary 

to help grow a community...

On the 1810 James Geddes map, you can see mills already along the creek

On this 1834 map, several mills had been along Onondaga Creek, harnessing the power of  the creek to mill grain, wood, and anything else that needed the power of water to move.

Enter Syracuse Mills, then Empire Mills, then still later Amos Mills

The original owners of the mill not only saw the waterpower potential to grind grain, but the ready made market of both producers (local farmers) and consumers (locals, canalers, and breweries)
It's next store neighbor, Greenway was a ready-made client

...As was Bartels!

When Clinton's Ditch was enlarged to accommodate larger boats, 

a new limestone aqueduct was replaced the original sandstone one in 1838.

Years went by, but as time passed, the canal infrastructure aged along with it.

The mill was so successful under Amos in the late 1800s, he built a fancy new office!

The Canal Corporation knew the old canal was aging. 

Even with regular maintenance each fall winter and spring, it really needed to be rethought. 

Boats were getting too big to fit into locks. Things were breaking or in danger of breaching.

The railroads were dominating the transportation of goods. 

But people wanted to hold onto the past...
But on July 30, 1907, a section of one of the arches in the aqueduct gave way. Twice the amount of water that is is in the Westcott Reservoir today, drained from the canal in a matter of a couple of hours. It was reported that the force made the water appear to flow upstream in Onondaga Creek. The water drained from Lock 48 in Lock Square to Gere's Lock to the first lock on the Oswego Canal...it was a huge disaster!

It was a disaster of unprecedented proportions! 

Part of the north facing wall of Amos Mills collapsed. 

Canal boats were destroyed!

Water flowing from the mill races still poured into the hole from 
Onondaga Creek

It was a HUGE mess!

Slowly the canal bed had to be cleared of debris, 

broken boats were burned to get them out of the way, 

and then the repair could begin!

Boats were backed up to the east and to the west and to the north 

of Syracuse for SIX WEEKS waiting for the repair to be completed. 

It couldn't have happened at a worse conjunction.

Some more info:
https://reflections.eriecanalmuseum.org/towns-people-city-dwellers/the-great-canal-break-of-1907/?fbclid=IwAR1pMosLind3u_FvMmIg53yof2dYlhOohZLbfnvrSqoRJUERzkORU01EaL8

And that repair remained in place for over 100 years. This bridge graduated from carrying boats to carrying cars on the "new' Erie BLVD. Over time, this stone structure needed repairs once more by 2014 so it could continue to carry loads across the creek.

https://www.syracuse.com/kirst/2014/10/in_syracuse_the_most_beautiful_erie_canal_bridge_no_one_ever_sees.html?fbclid=IwAR1tqMLgbSNtbzk7gFPEyFDvVa0MdthYo_0xjinNICXaoy6knmo4g8wFhuw

Eventually the aqueduct was patched with concrete and metal patch and reopened in September, leaving only about one month for canal captains to complete their work 

until the canaling season closed for the winter.

If you look closely, you can see where Amos Mills' brick was repaired as well. 

Over 100 years later, it still looks good

The walls were trussed for stability.

And still has a place to tie up your boat!

But after this disaster, and with mechanized boats being commonplace, 

engineers and surveyors began to look seriously into utilizing and connecting natural waterways to transport goods across the state.

And so with this disaster, the beginning of the end of the Erie Canal was set in motion.
In less than 10 years, the Modern Barge Canal would replace this one,

 and the Erie Canal would be buried under the streets of Syracuse.

But for now, we continue on the Towpath to our next stop...

 

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...