Exploring the headwaters of the Erie Canal

Black River watershed houses rich history of industry and innovation

By Tom French

Back in the day, if you stood in the right place in Booneville, you might think the river through town was flowing in two directions, both north and south. And you’d be right. Boonville was the summit level of the Black River Canal, which is technically still open, having never officially closed. It was simply abandoned by the state.

Built in the mid-19th century, the canal holds the record for the most locks along the shortest distance – 109 across 35 miles. It also survived longer than any other feeder canal in the Erie Canal system – lasting from 1850 until the last boats locked through in 1922.

When it was first proposed in the 1820s, the Erie Canal needed a lot of water to operate. A plan was hatched to divert water from the Adirondacks. The working canal was an afterthought advanced by North Country residents who wanted a piece of the canal action.

The Forestport Feeder to Boonville was completed in 1848 after 10 years of construction, from which point it could be said that the headwaters of the Erie flowed from the Adirondacks. The first boat to climb the 70 locks and 693 feet from Rome arrived in Booneville in 1850. The rest of the canal, 386 feet down to Lyons Falls was completed in 1855. From there, barges were towed to and from Carthage along the Black River. Plans to extend the waterway to Lake Ontario or the St. Lawrence River never came to fruition. 

Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) sponsored a paddle tour in 2024 to explore the history and upper reaches of the Black River watershed. My friend Doug Miller and I also took advantage of the opportunity to bike the 10-mile towpath along the Forestport Feeder with its history of sabotage and washouts.  

The tour began at the Black River Canal Museum, along remnants of the canal and a buried Lock 71.  Five separate buildings contain exhibits with artifacts, hundreds of pictures, and a number of dioramas. An original 1850 mule barn houses an interactive kids’ room with a working mini canal, a pulley wall, a derrick for loading and unloading boats, and a tiller in front of a backdrop suitable for pictures.  

A highlight of the museum is a 70-foot, full-scale replica of a covered canal boat. McKenna VanDreason, a college student who was working as a docent for the summer, described life along the canal. The small living space in the stern was “strictly for the captain’s family. Any other passengers or workers would be up top,” regardless of weather.

For seven months of the year, families lived on the boats while locking up and down the canal from Carthage to as far away as New York City and Buffalo.  They wintered on the barges or found temporary housing while kids went to school and men repaired the boats, cut ice, or found other work.

The largest family recorded in the museum had 16 children.

The captain and his sons would walk along the path with the mules and help open the locks, because you needed three people to get through a lock, VanDreason said.

Women did laundry on top and bartered along the shore with farmers for fresh food. A stable for four mules was in the bow. During daylight hours, two would pull the barge with a 200-foot rope from the tow path. Mules were rotated every six hours. Unlike horses, they could eat while walking, would not drink contaminated water (informing humans which sources were safe), and could more easily fit in confined spaces.

When Boonville was a boom town  

Until the canal, Lewis County was a remote outback with primitive and hazardous methods of transportation. Fortunes turned overnight as Boonville became a boomtown as the market opened for lumber, stone and cheese. An estimated 200 sawmills and 40 tanneries quickly sprouted within the Black River Watershed.

The remoteness of the timber resources and the ease of water transportation allowed the canal to prosper long after railroads cut into other markets. As Cris Adsit, a long-time docent at the museum explained, “The railroad didn’t really affect the canal because it was easier to float those long, 70-foot logs.  They could make a crib and float them behind the barges or stack them (on the decks). They only stopped using the canal after they stripped the woods of lumber.”

Several limestone quarries, including some that abutted the canal, provided blocks for locks and buildings throughout the Hudson River Valley and New York City.  

After the morning tour of the museum, the AARCH group traveled to the 1892 North Lake State House, home of the reservoir tender. The North Lake Reservoir was created in 1857, followed by the South Lake Dam in 1860. Part of a large network to supply water to the summit level of the Erie Canal between Utica and Syracuse, the dams are still maintained by the New York State Canal Corporation for the New York State Barge Canal.

Although the tender house is now in disrepair, Craig Williams, vice president of the Canal Society of New York State and a guide for the afternoon, recalled interviewing tender Phil Van Slyke in the 1980s. “He arrived during the Dewey administration, so there’s great folklore there.”

The tender was responsible for opening and closing the valves depending upon demand. In the early days, orders were transmitted by postcard. Tenders also ensured the dam didn’t breach during a heavy rain. In 1869, the North Lake Dam burst and took out mills and houses all the way to Watertown. 

The AARCH tour finished with a paddle across South Lake to its dam and valve house. Participants were able to admire several camps along the shore, early autumnal views of Raymond Hills and a deer swimming the quarter mile across the lake.

Doug and I camped at Whetstone Gulf State Park, a geological wonder, so we could bike the Forestport Feeder the next day. We parked at a boat launch along River Road above the dam in Forestport. The rapids are impressive. A control gate for the old canal is just upstream. Access to the tow path is along Dutch Hill Road. Signs point the way.

Rolling much of the way in the shade of trees, the scenic path took us about 75 minutes. Although I found anecdotes of people paddling the feeder, much of it looked too shallow and was obstructed by blow down.  

The Black River Canal Museum is open daily in July through Labor Day and weekends in late spring and early fall. Visit their website for more information. 

Photo at top: Participants of an Adirondack Architectural Heritage (AARCH) tour launch their paddle crafts on South Lake near Forestport in order to explore the lake’s history and connection to the Black River and Erie Canals. Photo by Tom French