Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum

The Mohawk River Valley cuts through the Appalachians, separating them into the Catskills (south) and Adirondacks (north).

Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum
7010 Lakeport Road
Chittenango, NY 13037
315.687.3801

Once, if you were an Ohio farmer and wanted to send produce to the East Coast, you would send it down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River, where it would float downstream to the Gulf of Mexico coast. There it would be loaded onto ocean-going vessels which took it around Florida and then up the Atlantic coast. The time taken to reach ports on the Eastern Seaboard was much shorter and the cost much less compared to traveling in wagons over the Appalachian Mountains.

The Mohawk River, a tributary of the Hudson River, cuts a horizontal channel across the Appalachian Mountains in New York state, separating them into the Catskills and Adirondacks. The Mohawk River Valley was the only cut across the Appalachians north of Alabama, and led almost directly from Lake Ontario and Lake Erie on the west to the Hudson River on the east.

What prevented the Mohawk River Valley from being used as a major commercial route was that 1) certain stretches required an overland portage of cargo, and 2) from the Hudson River to Lake Erie there’s a 600-foot rise in elevation. The solution to these problems was the construction of the Erie Canal, with its series of locks which were used to raise and lower boats between sections of water of different levels.

The completion of the canal in 1825 fostered a population surge in western New York state, and opened regions further west to settlement. It also helped New York City to become the chief port in the U.S., as the Hudson River and the Erie Canal together formed the only water-route through the Appalachian Mountains.

The Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum reconstructs and interprets the site of an Erie Canal shipyard in which cargo boats were built and repaired. Around that shipyard developed an entire community – there was a sawmill, a blacksmith shop, a mule stable, a boarding house and a general store. These facilities serviced the shipyard, passing boats, their crews, their animals, and passengers migrating westward. At the start of the visit you can watch a quarter-hour orientation video that tells you a bit about the history of the site and how it was uncovered by archaeologists, then you go out and walk around to see the restored facilities.

The boat being constructed here could have transported 200 tons of grain from Buffalo to New York in about nine days. In this view the feeder canal is to your immediate left, and the Erie Canal is behind you. After construction was finished, workers would stand to your right and push the boat into the feeder canal.

The crew would have consisted of a captain, two steersmen, two mule-drivers (hoggees) and a cook. The boat had living quarters for the captain and his family, and a stable for the mules. In case you’re wondering who’s the guy lying down on the straw-covered floor, that’s one of the hoggees. A working-day on the Erie Canal was divided into four six-hour shifts – both for the hoggees and for the horses and mules. While one hoggee drove his animal for six hours, the other pair rested.

When archaeologists discovered this set of three parallel dry dock facilities, the pits had been filled in with garbage, and stones from the inner walls had been removed for use elsewhere. Ships needing repair would enter from the Erie Canal, which is directly behind the gates at the far end. The middle dry dock (in front of you) demonstrates a drop gate, while the one to your left demonstrates a mitre gate. A drop gate swings open and shut along a horizontal axle placed below the gate, while each door of a mitre gate is attached at one side to a dry dock wall. Water pressure from the canal kept the doors shut tight.

This is a replica of the building that contained a sawmill, a workshop and a blacksmith shop. Most of the structure was taken up by the sawmill, which supplied the shipbuilders with finished lumber. The canal was not navigable during the four coldest months of the year, so during those months shipyard workers supplied local businesses with products made here.

Sawmill machinery was powered by a steam furnace.

Among many other things, the blacksmiths made horse shoes for the animals used to drag ships along the canal. In many ways, the enterprise at Chittenango Landing was like a “service station” for canal travelers.

This building served as a general store and warehouse. The store supplied local workers and residents with their daily needs, and was also used by travelers along the canal.