Canal Countdown T-13

Here was T-23 days.  Now, in less than two weeks, the canal will be open.  Some of the vessels operated by NYS Canals to perform maintenance were featured in the T-23 post;  more are in today’s post.

Let’s start with Tender 2, T2, in Utica, nose to nose with tug Erie.

Tender #3 is tied up here just west of the dry dock in Waterford.

Left to right here are a self-propelled scow (SPS 60 maybe? the number) and Lockport.  That land derrick marks this location as Fonda.

Port Jackson is one of the new boats operated by NYS Canals.  The location is just west of lock E-13, and Grande Caribe, as well as her younger sister Grande Mariner,  powering her way west to Chicago will likely never be seen in the Canal again.

Tied up here in the shade east of Utica is Governor Roosevelt.

At the Utica section yard, it’s Erie again.  Note the NYS Thruway maintenance vehicles in the background.

Just west of lock E-19, the Dragon dredge gets support from Tender #4.

And on another occasion, it’s the same dredge assisted by Tender #5.  I took the photo between locks E-6 and 7.

And closing this out, how about a shot above the culvert of the tugboat that turns 120 years afloat this year, Urger.

All photos, WVD.  If you’re planning to transit the canal beginning on day 1 of the season  . . .  May 21, these are some of the maintenance vessels you’ll see. But don’t postpone a trip along the Canal because some of these could disappear any year now.

WVD is solely responsible for any errors of fact.

Virtual Erie Canal 5: The Noses to Little Falls

This dissected ridge just beyond E-13 is referred to as the Noses, a gap already gouged, the opening to the west.  Looking west, notice that this break is used by the Thruway I-90 south of the River, north of it, a major railroad, and to the north of that, a major state road, 5N.  The 19th-century canal ran between the Thruway and the south cliff, aka Little Nose. The north is called Big Nose.

Here’s a quite technical geology article, but here’s the idea:  a fault line runs through the Noses, the single ridge that once held back Glacial Lake Iroquois.  Water then tumbled over a waterfall.  Eventually the ridge gave way here, and  water gushed out, draining the lake and scouring out the gorges of the Mohawk Valley.  Keep this in mind heading west.  According to First Peoples lore, the Great Spirit cracked open the ridge in anger, wanting to punish them for corruption, converting a lake into a river.

This gap was the way west for early settlement of what we now call the Midwest, and east for trade that led to the rapid expansion of the port of New York City.

Looking back east from the water, you see rail and highway traffic on opposite sides.  The Walmart trucks are explained by a Walmart distribution center near Johnstown.

Grande Caribe here appears from a lush valley and approaches the town of Canajoharie, and heads

into lock E-14, seen in the distance beyond the black railing.

Canajoharie developed into a major Canal port because of the work of Bartlett Arkell, founder of the Beechnut, originally a packing company.  Canajoharie is certainly a rewarding place to walk around, stopping at the Arkell Museum, the family home, other homes, and old churches.  Beechnut still operates in the area in a much larger and newer facility across the river from Amsterdam in Florida, NY.

Many old stone buildings can also be found in Palatine Bridge, the side of the river the lock E-14 is located on.

Note the sign just west of lock E-14.  Amish?

Several miles north and west of Palatine Bridge in Stone Arabia, this 1788 Dutch church is open to the public.  If you want a still-accurate portrayal of the area, click on this 20-year-old article.

Fort Plain, location of lock E-15, was once an important manufacturing center.  The town was first settled by Palatine Casper Lipe in 1730.  Fort Plain was also home to Bud Fowler, and if you’re a baseball fan and don’t know the name, you must click here, or just google him.

An intriguing very large white building on the north side of the river just beyond E-15 is the garage for salt storage and the Longhorn Trucking Company.  It’s intriguing because of its size and absence of windows, spawning in my experience a plethora of stories about its purpose.

A bit further west is the Old Palatine Church, built in 1770.  Major funders for the construction were the Nellis family, who remained loyal to King George, and therefore had to flee to Canada not long after construction.   As is true for the 1788 Dutch church in Stone Arabia, this church is open for special occasions.

Just before St. Johnsville is the fortified Palatine homestead built in 1750, currently restored and operating as Fort Klock.  Although it was located not far from the river via a trail that comes out between red buoys 408 and 410, it’s not visible from the river.

Lock E-16 leads us into the first “land cut.”  Because the river meanders so much in this section, Barge Canal builders decided to bypass the river to the south.

Canal boats often overnight at this very remote lock because of constant dredging needed to keep the waterway navigable.

Less than a quarter mile west of the lock is this  southside wall, actually a portion of old lock 34, and a good tie up for small boats.  The recessed stone section, visible in the foreground,  once accommodated lock gates.

The landcut created an unnamed island.  You can name it.  I’ve named it Jigonhsasee Island.

Guard gates between the mainland (right) and the Jigonhsasee Island control water flow.  Dredging is often needed here because of silting from Nowadaga Creek flowing in from ridges to the south.

If both guard gates above are closed, water is shunted over the Rocky Rift moveable dam, the most remote one on the lower Mohawk.  Invisible on the south side is the Thruway and south of that is the Indian Castle Church.

Just round this bend,

you’ll see a sign indicating the home of General Nicholas Herkimer, son of Palatine immigrants who settled this area.  Click on the link for much more detail.

The site is a worthwhile visit.  The obelisk to the left marks Herkimer’s gravesite. The 19th-century canal ran right in front of the house, so you’re looking at the south bank of the canal.

We’ll stop here.  A few miles ahead is the most spectacular lock in the system.

More on the Palatines can be found here.  There’s even an annual Palatine conference/reunion.   Some prominent US families with Palatine ancestors include the Rockefellers and the Zengers.

For more on the Haudenosaunee,  the story about the formation of the “Iroquois confederacy,” this is a good read.

If you want a diversion, catch the next charabanc and see the sights:  from Canajoharie to Howe’s Cave is 20 miles, and to Cooperstown is less than 30.   Cooper will come up again later.  Hurry back, or you’ll miss the boat west.

Drone photo by Jim Kerins.

Related and in relation to the 2020 canal season, here’s an article from boatUS.

CB3

Let’s make this Fonda–current location of Urger— to Marcy, beginning of one of the highest sections of the Canal.

Approaching E-13 westbound, there’s a row of yellow painted bollards . . . starting from lower left here.

Each of those yellow bollards is on a sunken concrete barge. More sunken concrete barges can be seen at E-09.

We encountered lots of traffic . . .

including Dolphin, a

Canadian beaut.

Other traffic included Lil Diamond III and

Roman Holiday. 

At Marcy, Governor Roosevelt and

Erie were in the water, as were two buoy boats not shown.

x

 

 

Other Peoples Photos 63

Jack Ronalds took this photo of Ontario (Jeffrey K. McAllister) and Erie (Missy McAllister) in Canso back in August 2016.

John Jedrlinic took this in the sixth boro in December 2008.

I took the photo below a few months earlier in 2008, as the transfer from Normandy to Ross Sea was happening.

Grouper has been featured here many, many times over the years, but you’ve never seen this much of her out of the water;  it’s “draw-down” time on the Erie Canal near lock E-28A.  These photos come from Bob Stopper a few weeks ago.

 

From Bangkok, Ashley Hutto sends along photos of a decidedly pastel Thai tug

with two barges

on a hawser.

Thanks to Jack, Jed, Bob, and Ashley for these photos.

 

Really Random Tugs 40

Remember the December 2016 saga involving

Colleen McAllister and Katie G. McAllister?  Note the blackout painting where the stack rings once were?  Thanks to Krystal Kauffman, here’s

an update from Muskegon.

The photo below comes from Jake Van Reenen as they were departing Frink Park in Clayton near the 1000 Islands.  It’s a moody photo.  Ontario–ex-Jeffrey K McAllister— and Erie–ex-Missy McAllister— traveled from the East Coast, with a stop in Halifax, and

were in Cleveland earlier this year.  If that is Erie, along Ontario‘s starboard side, she’s already received some paint.  South Carolina, maybe scrapped by now, is a product of Manitowoc 1925.

Maine, a product of Cleveland, dates from 1921.

Towmaster is a 1952 product of Bushey, currently shown here in New London.

Ira S. Bushey also produced Thameship, a 1940 vessel, two hulls later than Chancellor.

Thanks to Krystal Kauffman for use of the first three photos, hats off to Jake Van Reenen, and the others by Will Van Dorp.

If you “do” FB, Krystal has a FB page called My Michigan By Krystal. 

 

Truckable Tugs 4

As a long-term gongoozler–or whatever such a person is called in the US–I wonder what workboats will maintain the NYS Canal system in 2117 . . ..  As a small waterway by today’s standards, small tugs like Erie and tenders like T2 are appropriate size.  But they are old, more than half a century old.  For more tenders, click here.

.

I can’t tell for sure, but the 1928-built T4 looks even shorter, yet that’s not even the most unique feature of this tug.  What distinguishes her from all the others is the power plant . . . less than five-year-old all electric power plant from Elco Motor Yachts.

So . . . what will we see when we tumble into the haze of years to come?

Here’s a clue right now.  Scotty is 24′ built in 2007.  I’m not sure what the draft is, but for trucking to the next job, I’m supposing the wheelhouse can be removed.

 

Here Scotty works on the Rexford Bridge, and as a tender on the project,

there’s the open boat with push knees to the right.

Is this the future?  What would Scotty look like painted in Canal colors?

All photos and conjecture by Will Van Dorp.

 

Canal Corp Boats 13

Here are the previous posts in this series.

What’s unique about these photos is the season, the gray of November and absence of colors in the trees set off by the vibrant paint on Erie,

 

the two Governors shown together here so that you can see the difference in paint scheme–Cleveland and

Roosevelt, which different even

in nameboard.

Waterford, I’d guess, got too close to a dredge pumping operation.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Life on the Canal 3

Find the clue to the location of Governor Roosevelt, canal champion, in this photo?  For info on the ex-president’s role in saving the canal, read here.   For tugster post on Roosevelt’s last tug ride ride , click here.  Click here for a photo of this vessel taken on a VERY cold day earlier this year.

Erie in Marcy.

One of many dredging operations ongoing . . .

A vestige of industry still extant but moved on.

Vestige of junction of current canal with old canal leading to Syracuse.

Current passers-through.

One of many self-propelled scows on the canal.

Here I need some crowd-sourcing help . . . this is former Coast Guard equipment, probably an inland buoy boat . . .  but what was its official original designation?

Bow view . . .

Night time configuration.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Life on the Canal 1

Just photos for now…  I’m day 5 on the Canal, having traveled from Little Falls to Phoenix.  If I had more time and better personal technology, I’d write more.  Enjoy.

Canal Corp Boats 2

Here was the first in what could be a series.   And this foto I’m happy again to credit  to Bob Stopper, some of whose photos can be seen here.   I’m not sure what the naming system is for Canal Corporation, but some of their vessels are named for towns with locks–like Pittsford— along the Canal.

Ditto–in this foto from my sister—Waterford.   By the way, the pre-eminent website for all things Erie Canal is fred’s at tug44.

In push gear and looking great at 85 years old, it’s Governor Cleveland.

If I still lived up that way, I’d get one of these, a buoy boat.

I don’t know how many of these there once were, but they are disappearing!

Click here for a foto of this deep looking Governor Roosevelt with her belly exposed.

There’s Grand Erie, and then there’s just plain Erie.

Then there are the self-propelled scows, but notice the difference in

engine exposure between this one shot by my sister and

SPS-54 shot by me

in August in Lyons.

Thanks to Bob and Lucy for these fotos.  The last two are mine.