Leaving Canajoharie, we locked through 4 locks - Erie Canal Lock Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 17. Here are the first three.
Erie Canal Locks 14, 15 and 16
The peacefulness and the loveliness of the weather made this stretch of the Erie Canal a joy to travel along. After Lock 16, the Canal is no longer mostly the Mohawk River but becomes more like the straightaway canal one expects, with the Mohawk wandering in and out here and there.
Views of the Erie Canal become less broad river and more canal-like; the Mohawk diverts off to a dam (lower left image)
The last lock today, Lock17 deserves some special comment. The locks we passed through so far this trip all consisted of chambers with double doors at the entrance and exit – the weight of the water behind the doors providing the force to keep the doors (angled to each other) tightly shut together under intense pressure. Lock No. 17 was particularly frightening not only because it was different, consisting of a rusty guillotine entrance downstream – but also because it raised the boat upwards in elevation by 40 feet, which they say was the highest vertical lift lock in the world when it was built in 1915. It was damp, cool and like being in a deep cave-like pit as we began the locking procedure.
Lock 17 gate prior to opening.
Lock 17 while the guillotine gate is opening
Lock 17 lived up to its fearsome reputation. The inner chamber had ropes to grab onto on the port side of the chamber (they would only let you sidle up to the port side – as the starboard side was gushing water already – likely a malfunction in the mechanism). The force of the water entering the chamber after the guillotine groaned shut immediately pushed the boat away from the lock chamber’s side so unexpectedly that it took us both some effort to return the boat to position (Lesson: Don’t be complacent in a lock. Boats do the darnedest things.) Luckily no one was on the starboard side after all.
Once we were out of Lock 17, we made our way over to the unexpectedly well-equipped and welcoming Little Falls Rotary Park Marina, run by volunteers that seemed so pleased to provide a comfortable stay for Loopers.
During the end of the last Ice Age, the enormous quantity of melted glacier water in the Great Lakes was seeking a way out to sea. The Mohawk Valley owes it’s existence to the fact that the Great Lakes created it and in the process tore a path through stone and left behind the 78 foot falls at Cohoes and the 48 foot falls at Little Falls. The Cohoes area (Albany and Schenectady) profited greatly from its falls (see previous blogs) – as did Little Falls - using its location to add value to every good passing through it. Little Falls was the westernmost settlement of the colony of New York when founded in 1723 by German Palatines, repeatedly raised by Iroquois natives throughout the 18th century.
Little Falls became a manufacturing powerhouse making textiles, clothing, boxes and cheese in the 19thand early 20thcenturies. It was one of the largest manufacturers of cheese in the United States (due to the innovation of mass-produced rennet produced in Little Falls) and at one point it actually exported cheese to the UK. But the cruelty of comparative advantage killed the industry in short order as higher milk prices elsewhere prompted farmers to ship away their milk to other locations and deprived Little Falls of the milk to make their famous cheese.
Little Falls may have made money from its geography and industry but it has sadly lost a lot of its industry and its people over the years since its heyday. Left behind are some picturesque buildings in a narrow valley – alongside the ruins of the old canal structures, including the last Erie Canal aqueducts that funneled canal boats over the Mohawk from a higher pool to a set of 5 locks – that were ultimately replaced by the 40-foot Lock 17.
Little Falls straddling the Mohawk River (parallel to the current Erie Canal)
The ruins of the Little Falls aqueduct (only the abutment remains). The more modern Little Falls upper town.
Unfortunately, the well-known French restaurant and the antiques markets here were closed on Sunday. Monday we leave for Utica.