When The Susquehanna Valley Had A Canal - The West Branch

From 1834 to 1900, The West Branch Canal ran from Northumberland to just below Lock Haven

The West Branch Canal began at the basin in Northumberland, and ran along the east bank of the Susquehanna River all the way to Farrandsville (just past Lock Haven), covering a distance of 73 miles.  There were 19 locks, "overcoming the 138.5 feet of vertical lockage."

Construction of the canal began in 1828 and was completed in 1835.  It was used primarily to transport lumber from north of Williamsport, but it was also used by passengers, and for transporting various supplies.

The laborers were mostly foreigners, and were "constantly at odds with those who lived above Williamsport."  In 1833 a riot broke out in Dunnstown, and three were killed before order was restored.

The canal was 28 feet wide on the bottom, 40 feet wide at the top and 8 to 10 feet deep. On October 15 1834, the first water was let into the canal.

On October 19th 1834, people from all of the neighboring valleys came out to watch the very first boat, owned by George Aughenbagh, pass through the canal.

"It was considered a great privilege to travel at the rate of five or six miles and hour on the slow packet boats, which were pulled by mules along the towpaths."

When the Captains conch shell or horn announced the boats arrival from a distance the locktender would raise the gate for the boat to enter, and the upper gate would then be closed. When the boat was inside, water would fill the chamber from small wickets in the bottom of the upper gates. The inflowing water would raise the boat to the next level and the upper gates were opened and the boat sailed out. 
Teams of mules or horses were used to pull the boats. For passengers, benches inside the boats served as beds at night.

Sketch showing the build and workings of a canal lock

The canal system flourished for nearly 20 years, through the 1830s and 40s. But by the early 1850s, the railroad was taking over. In 1858 the state of Pennsylvania sold the West Branch and Bald Eagle Canals to the Sunbury and Erie Railroad. The waterways were not completely abandoned until 1900.

As Henry Shoemaker said in 1948, "A few decades later the Sunbury and Erie R.R. was completed to Williamsport. The more speedy and tireless iron horses took the place of horses of bone and flesh and packet boat became obsolete."

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The West Branch  Canal

Town By Town
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Canal Basin At Northumberland
This is where the North and West Branches of the canal met.
The North Branch can be seen on the right, going up to the top of the photo.  The West branch is crossing the photo, running to the left.

Northumberland Canal Basin

0 Miles - Canal Begins
.6 Miles  Lock #13, 7.75 Foot Lift
6.5 Mile  Lock #14  5.94 Foot Lift

See more photos and maps of the canal at Northumberland, here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-canal-at-northumberland-pa-where.html

The Northumberland Canal Basin, Blue Hill in the Background

 Inlet to North’d basin- raised boats 13.5 feet from river to basin. 

Closeup of locks at Northumberland basin. – boats entering lock.

Canal Boats at Sunbury

The Canal At Sunbury

Canal Looking North, Sunbury PA

At the Winfield Dock

Lewisburg

8 Miles   Lock #15 Lewisburg Cut
8.2 Miles Lock #16 Guard Lock Near Lewisburg Dam

A short cut connection known as the Lewisburg Cut was built in 1833, to tie Lewisburg into the West Branch Canal System. Lewisburg requested a cross-cut canal be built to connect the town with the canal on the eastern shore. William Cameron of Lewisburg built the cross-cut canal, just over a half-mile long with a lift lock midway and another at the river, and a dam just below the cross-cut. Construction began in 1833 and concluded in 1834.

Oct 26 1833 - The Lewisburg Cross Cut Canal was completed.  The dam remains at the base of St. Louis St., across the Susquehanna.

Milton

1883 Map showing the canal running through Milton

Close up of the log basin on the 1883 map

April 1829 - John Deeter built the first canal boat along the west branch more than a year before the Canal was completed through his town.  

Today, Filbert Street in Milton runs where the  Canal once ran.  In this photo, The Shimer Building (the building still stands today, at the corner of Filbert and Race Streets) is shown on the left.

10.2 Miles Lock #17 6.12 Foot Lift Milton, including Limestone Run Aqueduct

The Lock was near Cameron Avenue where W.C. Fortney, better known as “Cappy,” manned the lock tender’s house. In the same neighborhood, the boat yard of Mathias Strine & Sons was located just south of Ferry Lane, between the canal and Cherry Street.

1858 Map showing the Canal In Milton

July 4, 1834, Capt. John M. Huff loaded his packet boat, the “George Washington,” with more than 100 Miltonians for an excursion on the canal.

Canal Boat In Milton Pa

Canal Boat Named The Mauch Chunk (At Milton?)

Watsontown

14.6 Miles Lock #18 5.2 Foot 

Canal & Lock Tenders House At Watsontown 

"The West Branch Canal - Owing to the Muncy feeder failing to supply this Canal with water, the navigation ceases for the present. Boats cannot possibly pass the lock at the Warrior Run, four miles above Milton. The Muncy Dam has  sunk about four feet: and measures ought to bo adopted for its immediate repair. At this time the inconvenience will be severely felt, by those who rely upon the canal for a safe navigation in the transit of their produce, merchandize, &c." - June 1831

Canal Lock & Lock Tenders House At Watsontown

Canal Boat At Watsontown

The 1936 flood - Canal on the right

Canal Display at the Watsontown Historical Society Museum

Montgomery

22 Miles   Lock 19  7.2 Foot Lift 

Muncy

Old Canal Lock At Muncy, Lock #20
Below Port Penn

At Muncy there was a privately built 3/4 mile connection known as the Muncy Cut

22.9 Miles  Lock #20  5.4 Foot Lift Muncy Dam Lock

24 Miles    Lock #21  5.5 Foot Lift
26.2 Miles  Lock #22  5.5 Foot Lift
28.8 Miles  Lock #23  6.5 Foot Lift Wash Taylor's Locks
29 Miles    Lock #24  5.07 Foot Lift Near Halls Station
33.2 Miles  Lock #25  6.12 Foot Lift Joe Phillips Lock
35.4 Miles  Lock #26  4.83 Foot Lift Head Of White Water

Montoursville

Lock At Montoursville

Lock  at Montoursville

36.2 Miles  Lock #27  6.3 Foot Lift
41.2 Miles  Lock #28                 East Of Lycoming Creek Aqueduct

1854 Lithograph, "View Of Williamsport" [Looking East]

Showing a canal boat on the west branch canal

Canal Boats at Williamsport During the 1865 flood.

Look to the left - the log booms are shown in the river.

Map of Williamsport, Showing the Canal 

Old Canal Lock at Williamsport

50.2 Miles  Lock #29                 Thomas Smith Tract

51.7 Miles  Lock #30                 Wild Man's Lock
53.9 Miles  Lock #31                 Larry's Creek

Bridge over the Canal in Williamsport
Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge over canal at east end near C.A.. Reed Company...Lycoming County. Now Tower Square 2009......Third and Chestnut street..

The Log Boom At Linden, Showing The Canal

Canal between Pine & Market Streets, Williamsport Pa

Jersey Shore
56.4 Miles  Lock #32                 Jersey Shore

1854 lithograph by Batchelder showing the canal in the foreground and Jersey Shore.

Lock Haven

66.4 Miles  Lock #33                 Guard Lock Below Lock Haven Dam
68.4 Miles  Lock #34                 Lockport

The extension of the canal to Lock Haven began in 1833, when a dam was constructed for the purpose of supplying water to the canal. 

In 1844, a spur of the West Branch canal was constructed from Lock Haven to Milesburg.  Completed in 1846, this was known as the Bald Eagle Canal.

Jersey Shore had lock number 32, situated between Locust St.and Cemetery St.. Locust St.

"The piers of the aqueduct which carried the West Branch across Pine Creek were still standing the last time we visited the Tiadaghton Elm a few furlongs toward the hills.  The pier in the middle of the stream, of smooth well-formed concret, would make an excellend monument for that part of the canal if a proper incsciption were placed upon it. "

The Lock Haven Express 11 June 1969

 

 Significance: The lock keeper's house at Lock No. 34 (see HAER No. PA-188-A) is a historically significant remnant of the Pennsylvania state-built canal system. Part of the West Branch Pennsylvania Canal (see HAER No. PA-188), this c. 1934 resources was one element of a transportation system that did much to economically develop the valley of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River from 183 to 1889 and that served to catapult Lock Haven and neighboring Lockport to a lesser extent into a center for transporting, processing, and distributing agricultural products, iron and coal, and lumber. The lock keeper's house was constructed as a residence for the attending lock keeper, who was required to tend the lock on a twenty-four-hour basis. The existence of a relatively intact lock and keeper's house is rare, adding to the property's significance. The house is architecturally significant as one of the oldest existing buildings in Lower Lockport. The house maintains its architectural integrity through the retention of vernacular Greek Revival stylistic details and the core of its original form. The house is a typical example of lock keeper's houses along the West Branch Pennsylvania Canal, in that the original section of the house adheres to the standard dimensions, use of materials, and architectural styling dictated in a plan book developed for the West Branch Pennsylvania Canal and evident in surviving examples of lock keeper's houses along the former canal.

The Bald Eagle Crosscut

73.4 Miles    Canal Ended at Farrandsville

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Diorama of a Canal Lock and Lock Tenders House

On Display at the Taber Museum in Williamsport

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Read more Stories & History From The Susquehanna Valley Here

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The West Branch Canal

From a Book By Homer Folk

"In 1829, the Muncy Line of the West Branch of the Pennsylvania Canal was started. With pick and shovel, wheelbarrows, dump wagons, and horses pulling scoops or drag lines, tremendous manpower and horsepower produced a continuous ditch with water that connected the remote parts of Pennsylvania with the cities of the east.

The standard dimensions of the canal in its cross section, termed the ”prism”, were a width of forty feet at top waterline, twenty-eight at the bottom, and a minimum depth of four feet. The chosen route through Milton had a constant sea level reading until near Cameron Avenue. There the elevation dropped, making a lock with a lift of 6.12 feet necessary. Stone walls held together with hydraulic cement (select limestone burned with clay) were one hundred and twenty feet long, with a passageway seventeen feet wide. Miter or angular joints on the inner edge of the heavy wooden gates located at each end of the lock sealed the gates, with little water loss when the gates were closed. The large square balance beams were manually operated to close the gates. The lock tender, who lived in the state house (lock tender’s house), was responsible for operating the gates.

To the west of the canal was the former Limestone Run creek bed . From this source and the marsh to the west of the bed, an unlimited amount of clay was available for the puddling operation, necessary to make the canal bed nearly waterproof. Sand, gravel, shale and other types of porous soils made puddling necessary. Clay was not always so available, sometimes it had to be hauled from miles away, chopped fine with narrow spades, mixed with water until it was pliable, and then worked into the natural soil or built up soil. Additional layers were applied until the clay puddle was two to three feet thick.

After much laborious work during 1828, 1829 and 1830, the canal was put into use in November 1830. Its use that year was short. With the coming of winter and the first ice on the canal, the boats were made ready for winter."

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