Muncy Heritage Park & Nature Trail

601 Pepper Street, Muncy Pa

Muncy Heritage Park is a wonderfully park located across from the river in Muncy.  There's a nice trail around a pond, a bird blind, picnic tables, a pavilion , and SO much history!

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The Walking Trail

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This is a really pretty park, and with all the history here, would be a great location for a homeschool group outing

There is a loop trail around the pond that might be 1/4 of a mile, with trails leading off the loop in 3 directions, including one that follows back along the old tow path,  and there is a 4th small trail across the road down to the river.  I've never measured it out, nor seen a measurement of the distances.

The Pond.  I've regularly seen turtles, ducks, geese, heron, and even a fisher here.  There's a bird blind, and a nice deck with a bench, looking out over the pond.

Geese on the pond

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The Towpath

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To access the towpath trail, walk back along the pond, on the left of the pond, at the very back, you will see a green bridge.

For reference, "Path" on the above map refers to the old towpath.

"Muncy Heritage Park and Nature Trail is 11 acres of historical and environmentally significant property on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The area allows Muncy to showcase the history and natural beauty of Penn Port, a commercial center and residential area that grew out of and around the bustling West Branch Canal industry of the 1800s."

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Mule Barn Pavilion

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There's both a pavilion, and a series of picnic tables here.

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HISTORY

& How It Is Showcased Here At The Park

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The old Canal Lock At Muncy

From 1834 to 1900, The West Branch Canal ran from Northumberland to just below Lock Haven Read more about the West Branch Canal here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/10/when-susquehanna-valley-had-canal-west.html

Today, part of the canal wall can still be seen, along the walking path to the river [located across the road from the parking area]

Sketch Of A Canal Lock

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PORT PENN

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"Established in the 1830s, Port Penn grew as fast as traffic through this section of the West Branch of the Pennsylvania Canal allowed. There were hotels and taverns as well as blacksmiths to shoe mules, lumberyards and sawmills to supply wood, boatyards and docks where canal boats were built and repaired, and dry goods merchants who handled products by the ton. The chief articles of export were hogs, wheat, flour, lumber, dried and salted meats, leather and whiskey. In canal days, there were 13 distilleries in the Muncy area with a total output of 1,200 to 1,500 gallons a day.

From 1830 to 1890, canals fueled new businesses and industry. The canal helped end the isolation of great sections of the country. Not only opening a market for the farmers, back-country mills and factories but also providing employment — owners, captains, boaters, and lockkeepers. River communities mushroomed into thriving ports overnight, and thousands of immigrants streamed into these areas. Canals made the development of river towns, like Muncy, possible by providing abundant water power and reliable, inexpensive transportation. Industries along the canal flourished — the Stolz Flour Mill, Muncy Woolen Mills — a major textile manufacturer, Sprout-Waldron's metal fabricating business, and other water-powered industries like the Clapp and Rissel lumber and shingle mill, located right here in Port Penn."

"Imagine that it is 1838 and you are on the deck of a canal boat, either a cargo or passenger boat. A team of mules has towed your boat from dawn to dusk for several days, traveling up river from Harrisburg with a load of cloth and barrels of goods bound for the merchants of Muncy. As you glide into Lock No. 21, a small, busy port west of Muncy comes into view. Just past Lock No. 21 is the basin where you will tie up awaiting first light and the chance to unload your boat. [Photo] At left, PA Canal Boat No. 502 unloads coal at the Sprout-Waldron Company plant in 1891.

A packet boat is another name for a passenger boat. While these long and narrow packets hauled people in comfort compared to stage coaches, packets rapidly disappeared from the canals as the railroad industry expanded through Pennsylvania. Passengers who wanted to board or disembark in the Muncy area could only do so at Port Penn; cargo boats could unload and load all along the Port Penn-Muncy section of the West Branch of the Pennsylvania Canal. At left is an illustration of a typical canal boat with passengers both inside and seated on the roof."

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The "Betty Louise"

Canal Boat Replica

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The "Betty Louise" is a replica canal cargo boat, salvaged by the Muncy Historical Society in 2012.    It was placed in the Heritage Park in 2014.

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The Lock Tenders House Replica

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"You are looking at a replica of a lock-house façade that was salvaged from the National Canal Museum, Easton by Muncy Historical Society volunteers in January 2012. Dismantled and brought to Muncy, the sections were reconstructed on this site in 2015. The original house that belonged to this lock stood nearby, abandoned for many years before it was razed in the early 1900s.

At the side of each lock about a half acre of ground was set aside on which to build a lock-house. These were generally rent-free homes, making attractive housing since the lock-tender's pay seldom rose above $20 a month ($540 in 2015 dollars)[.] These wages compared favorably to those of other unskilled laborers of that time. The lock-tenders lived busy lives, focused on the daily passing of canal boats up and down the canal.

There's nothing to see inside the mini house. 

 Normally this door is locked, but on a recent visit it was hanging open.

Lock-tenders assisted the boatmen in safety traversing the locks through day and night, if necessary, and also were responsible to maintain the lock and the level stretch of canal below the lock. The lock-tender was "on duty" 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He could not wander beyond hailing distance of the lock and most certainly could not take any time off during the entire boating season.

Most cargo boats traveled on week days only and lay up at least part of each night, while passenger packets could arrive at any hour, day or night. These boats signaled the lock-tender that they were nearing the canal entrance by blowing into a conch shell or a tin horn.

To supplement his meager wage the lock-tender set a fish line and/or gardened, selling off any excess fish or produce to the boatmen. His wife might bake bread or pies and the children might hawk the fresh water that they pulled from the well."

Crossroads

"The "Crossroads Quilt Pattern" is on the Muncy Historical Society's Heritage Quilt Trail. It represents one of the few places in Lycoming County where all the major forms of transportation came together... the river, Indian path, canal, roadway and railroad."

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THE WELL

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"The lockkeeper and his family needed a source of water that was clean enough for drinking.  Because of the proximity to the canal, the lockkeepers family probably sold well water, homemade baked goods, and produce from thier garden to the canal boatmen and their families."

"This is a dry laid-up stone well, which means that each stone was positioned to hold the surrounding ones in place.  The mortar that you see between the stones was placed there recently in order to preserve the well."

"The well pavilion and entry stone work was funded in part by donations from William Bailey, a descendant of John Smith, one of Port Penn's boatbuilding family."

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READ MORE

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A thoroughfare for centuries, the Susquehanna River played a major role in the region's development. Here is one of the few places in Pennsylvania where all forms of transportation came together. The river, American Indian trails, canals, railroads and roads all cross paths here.

American Indians paddled canoes up and down the river trading, and warring, with neighboring villages. Eighteenth-century explorers traveling the river recording that, by 1710, there was a network of paths and Indian towns along its shore. Upstream, is Warrior Spring, a historic American Indian gathering place.

Shortly after the American Revolution, George Washington proposed that a victorious America build canals to help settle and develop the newly independent nation. On July 4, 1834, the West Branch Canal opened. The 73-mile canal extended from Northumberland to Farrandsville and cost $1,158,580. In all, 1,400 miles of canals stretched across Pennsylvania in the 1800s. Canals enabled people to ship merchandise, coal, iron, farm products, as well as passengers, vast distances quickly. A canal boat from Port Penn reached Philadelphia in only six days.

The Muncy division of the Pennsylvania Canal Company opened in the early 1830s. A dam downstream created the Muncy Pool, raising the river level by 10 feet. This filled the canal with water even during periods of low water. A series of Locks controlled the water level of the canal, raising or lowering canal boats as needed. Built in sequence along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, double Lock No. 21 served as a gateway from Port Penn to towns and villages beyond, including Muncy, Williamsport and Lock Haven. A canal boat could travel from Port Penn south to Harrisburg and beyond, east to Philadelphia or west to Pittsburgh.

By the 1850s another form of transportation, promising faster, more reliable, scheduled service drew business from the canals. Railroad companies purchased canal companies and laid train tracks on the level towpaths and canal beds. The iron horse replaced the mules that once pulled the canal boats.

The Last Raft

Each spring, with the rising water, men moved more than 2,000 log rafts downstream to market, as far south as the Chesapeake Bay. The largest raft to pass this point was 300-feet long by 25-feet wide and weighed 150 tons.

The Last Raft was a reenactment, a tribute to the logging industry of the 1800s and early 1900s. Crossing the river is the million dollar Reading Railroad Bridge, built in 1928. This bridge is the site of the March 20, 1938 crash of the Last Raft. As thousands watched from the riverbank and bridge, the Last Raft struck a pier, tossing 48 people into the frigid Susquehanna River. Seven people died: Montgomery's major, Dr. Charles Taylor, raft pilot Harry Connor, Thomas Proffitt, Harold Beringer, W. C. VanScoyoc, Malcolm McFarland and Willard Holley.

See more photos of the Last Raft here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-last-raft.html

Across the road from the park entrance there is more of the park, with more educational signs, and a great view of the river.

How A Lock Works
"Canals are long flat waterways that do not follow the slope of the land, as do rivers and streams. To travel uphill or downhill, canal boats were raised or lowered in a lock. When a canal boat approached a lock, the captain would blow a horn (sometimes a conch shell) alerting the lockkeeper, whose job was to open and close the lock gate.

Once inside the lock, a crewmember would jump ashore and wrap a rope around a snubbing post, stopping the boat. Then the lockkeeper closed the gate and either raised or lowered the water, depending upon where the boat was headed. When the water in the lock equaled the next level, the gates were opened and the canal boat continued its journey."

Great Youtube video:

Links:

http://muncyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/welcome/heritage-park/

http://muncyhistoricalsociety.org/construction-planned-at-muncy-heritage-park/