The following appreared in ThisWeek Northland, 2/2/06:

 

 

PHOTO: This 1908 photograph shows the canal and its locks leading to the Scioto River in Columbus. This site is now occupied by the Waterford Tower on Main Street.  Courtesy of the Columbus Metropolitan Library

 

AS IT WERE

Recalling life on the Ohio Canal

Thursday, February 2, 2006

Ed Lentz

 

It is difficult to overstate the value of the canal system to the people of Ohio in the years before the American Civil War.

 

Ohio had literally been carved out of a wilderness west of the Appalachians in the years after the American Revolution. The people who came to Ohio were seeking a new life as well as new land in the new country. Most of them found just that in the state that was named after the great river they followed to find their homes.

 

http://www.thisweeknews.com/thisweek.php?edition=Northland&story=thisweeknews/020206/Northland/News/020206-News-90494.html

 

Celebrating 175 years of local canal opening in Portsmouth

Daily Independent, November 22, 2007

 

WEST PORTSMOUTH - The 175th anniversary of a significant chapter in local history, the opening of the Ohio & Erie Canal in Scioto County, will be celebrated in West Portsmouth on Dec. 1.

 

The public is encouraged to join the celebration by the Scioto County Canal Society from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Oldtown Methodist Church on Rt. 104 next to the Westside IGA Center.

 

For years, the canal was the major thoroughfare for the area, operating from Cleveland to Portsmouth from 1832 until 1913 along the current path of Rt. 104. Historians say canal boats ferried passengers north as far as Cleveland, or brought them south to Union Mills, now known as West Portsmouth. The 308-mile canal could be traveled in about 80 hours, with a top speed of about four miles per hour.