Press

ALBANY, NY: Way before the New York State Thruway, Amtrak and the Erie Canal linked places throughout New York State, people got around. It may have taken a little longer, but innovative and determined travelers made use of existing waterways.

For ten years, Philip Lord, the acting chief of the historical survey at the New York State Museum, has studied early river travel and the very first canal age in New York - more than 30 years prior to the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. What he found was remarkable. He will be presenting some of his findings in an informal gathering in the main lobby of the State Museum from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 27.

The Durham Project - named for the flat-bottomed boats used for this travel - has uncovered journals, maps and logs that documented the often harrowing trips people would take to make their way from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. Lord will display some of the maps, as well as models he has constructed of the boats used for these trips.

"It's trying to fill a gap in our illusion of transportation after the Revolution and before the Erie Canal," Lord said.

In the late 18^th century, the inland navigation corridor between Albany and Oswego, on Lake Ontario, was a highway of commerce and migration across New York and into the Midwest through the Great Lakes. Previously, it had been used for exploring and warfare.

Lord, who is working on a book about the project, first became aware of the possibility of an earlier canal system when remains of 18^th century canals were unearthed during a state Department of Transportation project near the city of Herkimer in 1983.

"That led me to wonder if there were more of these remains," Lord said. Before the Erie Canal was built, Lord found that people integrated a series of natural and artificial waterways.

Lord's findings have also included the discoveries of such diverse items as:

• the site of the first canal dug in the state, completed near Utica in 1730;
• the true location of the primary village of the Mohawks during the French and Indian War west of Canajoharie;
• an ancient sinkhole near Richfield Springs where a stream disappears underground, a fact noted on British maps almost 250 years ago;
• several errors in the names of places.

The project has also provided a glimpse of what rivers and river travel was like in the days before good roads carried people west. The trip - which entailed traversing rapids and very shallow water at times could sometimes take as long as 10 days. Travelers would often sleep in their boats. Other times, they'd stay at taverns or ask farmers if they could sleep in their barns. They would even camp along the riverbanks or in the woods.

Lord is in the midst of constructing a database consisting of the maps, journals, letters and other data that he uncovered. Anyone would be able to access that data for research when it is completed. The project has already aided college students and Native American researchers.

Durham Project of the NYS Historical Survey