Resource Plan

RESOURCE PLAN Future of the Miami and Erie Canal a reference guide for those interested in the future of the Miami and Erie Canal RESOURCE PLAN Future of the Miami and Erie Canal Preface This resource plan serves as The canal resource plan is a reference guide for those conceptual and flexible. It interested in the future of the does not provide site-specific Miami and Erie Canal. The plans architectural/engineering design and ideas detailed in this report concepts, but does identify resulted from site inventory and issues facing the corridor, from analysis by people with interest in opportunities to constraints, the development of the corridor. as well as observed trends. The We encourage individuals to seek objectives and recommendations additional information on the presented are aimed at preserving various issues presented. and improving the historic Miami and Erie Canal, developing its natural, historic, and recreational resources from Delphos to Piqua. Acknowledgement We would like to extend a special thanks to the many partners that helped prepare this publication, including: Steve Dorsten, Division of Water Rev. Christopher P. Vasko Bill Bopp, Ohio State Parks ODNR Office of Communications Hung Thai, ODNR Division of Water 3 RESOURCE PLAN Future of the Miami and Erie Canal RESOURCE PLAN Future of the Miami and Erie Canal Contents I Introduction Preface ..............................................................................................................3 Acknowledgement ..........................................................................................3 I. Introduction ............................................................................................4 The Miami and Erie Canal was created The canal region is rich in cultural and in the early 1800s to provide farmers architectural diversity. A look back in II. History .................................................................................................7 in western Ohio with access to markets history reveals the pride of those who in the populated regions of the eastern built the quaint villages, one-room III. Inventory .............................................................................................. 15 United States. During its active lifetime, schoolhouses, magnificent courthouses the canal was critical to the settlements and rural churches. It was their work A. Natural Resources ........................................................................ 15 in the Northwest Territories. ethic, dedication and faith that helped Glacier the region prosper. The focus of this plan is the second Soils longest contiguous portion of historic The region also is blessed with Flora canal in the United States. Only New exceptional natural resources and Fauna York’s Erie Canal is longer. The 59-mile recreational opportunities, making it canal section stretches from Delphos in a playground for outdoor enthusiasts. B. Cultural Resources ...................................................................... 19 Allen County south to Piqua in Miami Its land is among the most fertile in the Cultural Demographics County and has miles of feeders from state. These resources require careful reservoirs that supply water to the canal. stewardship to ensure they remain Transportation In its glory the canal and its feeders in the future. (Feasibility Study: Executive IV. Public Input/Education ....................................................................... 27 measured more than 300 miles. Summary, 1/2000) V. Hydrologic/Hydraulics Section ........................................................ 31 VI. Recreation Needs ............................................................................... 35 VII. Goals & Recommendations .............................................................. 37 VIII. A Driving Tour of the Miami and Erie Canal ............................... 39 Map of the Miami and Erie Canal X. Bibliography .......................................................................................... 61 4 5 RESOURCE PLAN Future of the Miami and Erie Canal The gates to Ohio’s frontier were opened in the 1790s with the end of the Indian conflicts. Settlements lined the rivers and later the national road (U.S. Route 40), which was completed in the 1820s. History Large sections of the state remained unsettled with no reliable forms II In 1803, legislation went before Congress to carve the first of several states of transportation to reach them. from the Federal Territories. The Northwest Territory north of the Ohio River sought to become a state. And while the requisite number of residents inhabited the area, only an occasional wandering pioneer or frontiersman visited the region. The seeds of a great civilization had could be eased, commerce increased York. The young state was desperate been planted along the Ohio, Miami and industry given a boost toward for an inexpensive system of delivery. and Scioto Rivers, yet the interior the future. In February 1803, For a time, legislative pressure was remained isolated from the avenues Congress passed an act creating applied to the federal government to of commerce that meant future Ohio. When the state assembly build a road, resulting in the national growth and prosperity. Much of the met that March, among its first highway. But the cost of construction area consisted of untamed wilderness items of business was pondering and maintenance of such a road led where the bear, wolf, and cougar were Ohio’s potentially profitable interior. officials to question the merit of more prevalent than people. Dense Pioneer settlement located far afield extending it. There was no means yet forests, so old and thick that the sun from the principal rivers were capable of transporting large quantities of rarely shined on their leafy floors, of producing magnificent yields of goods quickly. (M. & E. Canal, Commerce stretched for miles. (M. & E. Canal, grain, fruit and livestock; however, and History, 1990, P. 1) Commerce and History, 1990, P. 1) the cost of getting those goods to markets along the Atlantic coastline Several surveys were reviewed prior It was the interior of the state, with was immense. Even as the New York to constructing the canal system. cheap land, that became the focus of market clamored for staples and retail Routes explored were abandoned investment in the region. Congress prices rose, the cost of flour remained because of difficult terrain and lack was convinced that by creating the well below the cost of transporting of sufficient water supply to the State of Ohio population pressure it from Ohio’s fertile interior to New canal. The Ohio Canal Commission 1803 1820 1817 1822 Ohio had grown to a population The National Road was completed Ohio state legislature In February 1803, Congress of 580,000 residents. only from Cumberland to Wheeling commissioned the first canal passed an act creating Ohio. Ohio suffered from a lack of and was an expensive method of feasibility survey in an effort transportation. The Ohio-Mississippi to bring a modern reliable reliable transportation to move New York broke ground river route was long and dangerous. transportation system to the its products to eastern markets. on a canal connecting growing state. Lake Erie with the Hudson River and New York City. CANAL TIME LINE CANAL 6 7 RESOURCE PLAN Future of the Miami and Erie Canal RESOURCE PLAN Future of the Miami and Erie Canal accepted a survey in 1825 and funds locks and aqueducts were preferably Mercer County Reservoir or their rock floor, which was then to provide building materials not stretch. Incomplete drainage meant were received by the legislature to built of stone, many were constructed Grand Lake, was an immense quarried for buildings stone locks only for the growing towns, but working in up to three feet of water, begin construction. Ohio Governor from native woods. The complex undertaking. Over the effective life and aqueduct abutments. Although also for export. The economy of infested with insects and disease. The Jeremiah Morrow turned the first canal structures built in the earliest of the Miami and Erie Canal, the official specifications mandated stone southwest Ohio boomed. On the sections of the canal built through spade of earth at Middletown. period of Ohio’s canal boom have reservoir gathered the tiny threads of boxes for each lock site, the swampy canal itself, the boats quickly grew to this region were among the last Actual construction moved north survived almost unchanged in spite available water into a mighty flood conditions made transporting stone a vast fleet, with improvements and completed. (M. & E. Canal, Commerce and and south from Middletown with of official abandonment and neglect. that fed billions of gallons of water virtually impossible and construction experimentation under way. Canal History, 1990, P. 14) separate crews working to construct into the canal, allowing its effective engineers made regular use of the captains attempted to enlarge cargo All canal boats included as part of The canal was completed in 1844. the single reservoir, which had been and economical use. A second, immediately available oaks to form capacity by eliminating the draft the “crew” several pairs of horses or Numerous locks used little or recommended for the canal. With no much smaller reservoir, was built temporary wood locks. In order to animals and gave steam power a try. mules, a team out on the bank doing no stone and attempts to rebuild significant delays, the huge black pit just

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