A myriad special events are planned to celebrate bicentennial or Erie Canal
By Stefan Yablonski
A defining feature of New York’s history and development is turning 200 years old this year — happy birthday to the Erie Canal.
Cayuga County is ready to welcome history enthusiasts eager to honor this milestone, according to Noah Howard, public relations manager, Cayuga County Office of Tourism.
To commemorate this historic occasion, they have launched a dedicated Erie Canal Bicentennial section on TourCayuga.com.
One of the most anticipated highlights of the bicentennial celebrations is the arrival of the Seneca Chief, a full-scale replica of Gov. DeWitt Clinton’s historic packet boat, Howard said.
Built by the Buffalo Maritime Center, the Seneca Chief will embark on a 28-port commemorative voyage, retracing the original journey that marked the Erie Canal’s grand opening in 1825.
The vessel will stop in Cayuga County (Weedsport) on Oct. 2, offering a unique opportunity for residents and visitors to witness this living history event firsthand.
As excitement builds for this once-in-a-lifetime bicentennial celebration, the Cayuga County Office of Tourism encourages everyone to stay updated by visiting TourCayuga.com for event details, historical insights and ways to get involved.
Other highlights include:
• Canal History Blog Series — Delving into the canal’s profound impact on Cayuga County and beyond.
• Bicentennial Photo Gallery — A visual journey through the canal’s past and present.
• Bicentennial Canal Photo Contest — An invitation for photographers of all skill levels to capture the beauty of the canal and submit their best shots.
• Downloadable Canal Bicentennial Explorer’s Guide — A comprehensive guide to key sites, attractions and experiences along the canal in Cayuga County.
• Exclusive Erie Canal Bicentennial Poster — A beautifully designed poster by David Owens Illustration, celebrating the historic waterway.
• Canal Bicentennial Events Calendar — A continually updated listing of celebrations.
Erie Canal’s Immediate Impact
“The canal was so important because it radically transformed the speed and expense of transportation across New York state, reducing a journey of one month from Buffalo to New York City to roughly one week and reducing the price of that journey to about 10% what it had been before the canal,” said Derrick Pratt, director of education and public programs Erie Canal Museum.
This resulted in an explosion of growth along the canal’s banks as well as in the regions it connected, the Great Lakes Basin and New York City, with farms and factories springing up to take advantage of the economic advantages offered by the canal, he added.
“It also allowed for the rapid spread of information and new movements took off along the canal ranging from abolition and women’s rights to Mormonism,” Pratt said. “The impacts of all of these transformations can still be felt in many ways, the majority of people in Upstate New York still live within 25 miles of the canal and even our food is influenced by it. For instance the salt potato has its origins in Syracuse salt boiling fields, which boomed as a result of the canal’s opening.”
“Perhaps the biggest though is the voyage of the Erie Canal Boat Seneca Chief, a full-sized replica of the first canal boat that has been produced by the Buffalo Maritime Center, which will travel from Buffalo to New York in October, stopping at many canal towns,” Pratt said. “Here at the museum we are offering a number of free lectures on canal history, as well as our Beers, Bikes and Barges cycling tours, which guide cyclists through the history of several canal towns and end with a complimentary drink at a local brewery or bar.”
The museum is open seven days a week all year round (some holidays excluded) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Most of the year the museum is free with a $12 recommended donation, though from mid-November to mid-January it has mandatory admission for its Gingerbread Gallery.
The Erie Canal Museum, located in Downtown Syracuse (318 Erie Blvd. E.), engages the public in the story of the Erie Canal’s transformative impacts on peoples and places in the past, present and future.
“We are stewards and interpreters of Erie Canal related materials and heritage,” Pratt said. “The museum is housed in the 1850 National Register Weighlock Building, the last remaining structure of its kind.”
The museum building once housed the offices of weighmasters and New York State Barge Canal Engineers.
The Erie Canal Museum is celebrating more than 50 years as the official museum of the Erie Canal by sharing its historic photograph and manuscript collections on New York Heritage Digital Collections.
The canal system is listed as a national historic landmark.
Three Erie Canals
Craig Williams is a volunteer at The Canal Society of New York State. The nonprofit operates a facility in Port Byron on the Thruway.
“It is the bicentennial; there are basically three Erie canals,” Williams said. “There is the original that we are celebrating its completion in 2025, the 200th anniversary. And then there is the canal from the mid-19th century — an example of that is the canal lock at the Thruway stop.
“And the canal is still around today, the third generation the barge canal — you have it at Lock 8 right there in Oswego.”
The society’s big project is replica canal boat the Lois McClure, a full-scale, 88-foot long canal boat that had gone up and down the New York state waterways for the last 20 years but has been retired. It has been donated to the canal society, he said.
The Lois McClure is a replica of the type of canal schooner that was built beginning around 1862, known as the “1862-class canal schooner.”
The replica was designed based on shipwrecks found in Lake Champlain. It was built in 2002 by a team of shipwrights and volunteers at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, Vermont. The museum shifted its focus and decided it was time to retire the McClure.
The Lois McClure was donated to the Canal Society of New York State in October 2023.
“We are going to bring it to the park and put it in our section of the original Erie Canal,” Williams said.
“The project is to get the canal boat, which is right now on land at Fox Ridge, New York, near Montezuma, and hopefully in the next month or so we will put it on a trailer and — believe it or not — bring it down the New York State Thruway. That will be something to see. We’ll bring it to the park where it will be permanently berthed to give people a sense of just how large these canal boats were in the 19th century. That’s our big bicentennial project.
“The park on the Thruway, we probably get the most diverse audience of any canal just because it is the Thruway. We get people from all over the world who have heard about the Erie Canal. The cache certainly attracts a great many visitors to the park and to other canal sites throughout the canal corridor.”
The Canal Society of New York State was founded in 1956. It is a volunteer organization for canal advocates interested in education about and preservation of New York’s 200-plus years of canal history. Among other activities, the society maintains a Heritage Park in Port Byron, where the Lois McClure will ultimately continue its educational mission as a land-based exhibit within a section of the Enlarged Erie Canal in the park.
The Heritage Park is accessible directly off the Thruway (I-90) between Waterloo (Exit 41) and Weedsport (Exit 40) heading eastbound. Driving west, get off at Weedsport and take Route 31 to the Heritage Park in Port Byron. The dog-friendly park is open daily 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. May-October.
“We work cooperatively with the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse,” Williams said.
How it Got Started
In the first decade of the 1800s, a movement began to grow, advocating for state and federal funding of an artificial waterway between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes.
Eventually, DeWitt Clinton arose as the leader of this movement. In 1817, the State Legislature narrowly approved the construction of the canal and shortly thereafter Clinton was elected governor. At the time, the canal became known as the “Clinton Ditch.”
As Gov. Clinton was celebrating in New York City, a smaller ceremony was also occurring in Rome, where the first shovelful of dirt on the Erie Canal was turned.
Work was completed in October 1825 and a grand celebration took place across the state as Clinton traveled aboard the Seneca Chief from Buffalo to New York Harbor, where he ceremonially poured a barrel of Lake Erie water into the Atlantic, symbolizing a “Wedding of the Waters” in early November.
The Erie Canal stretches from Albany to Buffalo. Pick any part of the Erie Canal to enjoy by the canalside trails or on the canal itself with one of the many tour boat companies traversing its waters, including tours originating in Camillus (www.eriecanalcamillus.com/boat.htm) or Herkimer (https://eriecanalcruises.com).
Wander into any of the small towns dotting the canal to try a new restaurant, buy ice cream cones or iced coffee and check out unique shops.
The Erie Canal once ran through Clinton Square in the heart of downtown Syracuse.