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SCOW Archives
177th Year of Inland Navigation For New York's Canal System The original Erie Canal was started on July 4, 1817 in Rome, and was completed in 1825. Today's canal covers 524 miles, and allows one to board a boat in the middle of New York and cruise to any place on the globe that's navigable. It passes through some of the most beautiful areas of the state, including the Finger Lakes region and the Mohawk and Champlain Valleys. Today, the canals almost exclusively serve pleasure boats, and the long, rambling bears little resemblance to the four foot deep, 20 foot wide "Clinton's Ditch" that opened the American Midwest to settlement in the early 19th century. The boats that now cruise the waterway are, however, very much the descendants of the mule powered vessels of a century and three quarters ago. During the past 20 years the state and Federal governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in an effort to rebuild and develop the former "Barge Canal" system, which dates to 1918, into a major tourism and recreational asset. And, just as the original canal and it's enlarged successor was a huge force in developing the industrial-era economy of the state and nation, the waterway of today has become an important part of plans for an economic resurgence in Upstate areas bypassed by the boom times of the 1990s. The New York State Canal System, originally a division of the State Transportation Department, has been operated since 1992 by the NYS Canal Corporation, a subsidiary of the Thruway Authority. SCOW Public Forums: Lending an ear, finding a voice Last year, the State Council on Waterways began a series of public forums, or "mini-conferences," across the state to address major waterway issues relating to the canal system. Topics have included Navigational Dredging needs (last December in Albany); Canal Promotion & Tourism (February in Syracuse); and Preservation & Development of Canal Lands (April in Albany). Future forums include a retrospective on a decade of canal system administration under the New York State Thruway Authority. It is planned for Thursday, June 20, 2002 in Rochester. The programs are free and open to the public. SCOW plans to publish a record of these discussions for use as a primer on current canal issues. A public policy guide containing suggested legislative remedies or regulatory changes that address issues identified during the series is also contemplated. Annual Meeting Set for June 1st The Annual Membership Meeting of SCOW and a meeting of it's Board of Directors is scheduled for Saturday, June 1st, at the Waterford Harbor Visitor's Center. The Center is located at 1 Tug Boat Alley in Waterford, and is just south of Erie Canal Lock 2 of the Waterford Flight of locks. The harbor is at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, and is the eastern gateway to the Erie Canal and the southern gateway to the Champlain Canal. |
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