Sandy & Beaver Canal - Day 107

  I promised you another canal tale, and here we go. Even with this, I missed telling you anything about the Ohio-Erie canal. It went up the east side of the state from the Ohio River to Lake Erie. It's important to at least mention it because the Sandy & Beaver Canal connected to it. The Ohio-Erie canal's towpath is the one that was under water the day we walked into Zoar.

The Sandy & Beaver Canal was a "minor" canal. It was only 73 miles long with 90 locks. It wandered more than most canals, but basically connected the Ohio-Erie Canal at Bolivar, north of Zoar, with the Ohio River to the east, as the Ohio is just starting south from Pittsburg, and forming the southern boundary of the state of Ohio. However, the Sandy & Beaver has some unique history.

For one thing, it was one of the few canals that was privately funded. It also was designed to connect some towns that were already founded. I talked about that yesterday. But canals were usually built to connect the most level elevations and then towns grew up around it, instead of the other way around. The name comes from the two creeks it mostly follows: the Sandy and the Little Beaver.

This is a nice watered piece of canal that looks as if it could still carry a boat. This is near Magnolia, Ohio.

The canal ran from just across the state line in Pennsylvania to Boliver, Ohio, which is northwest of Zoar.

Magnolia was one of the towns that grew around the canal in the ordinary way. This huge flour mill was built in 1834 to use power from a canal overflow, and the village was established later. The mill is still operated by the county park system. The last time I was here, I got the best corn meal I've ever had here.

But the most amazing thing about this canal is its two tunnels. The little tunnel was about 1000 feet long, but the big tunnel was almost a mile long- the exact length depending on what source you read. It's supposedly the longest canal tunnel in the U.S. This is Tunnel Hill Road. The tunnel is somewhere under that second hump out there, running left and right across the picture. At the deepest there are 80 feet of rock above the tunnel.

The tunnels were such a tremendous amount of work to build that they weren't completed until 1848. The large one was blasted through sandstone and lined with brick. The small one didn't have such good rock. But supposedly both were prone to cave-ins. They were only used for 2 years, and 2 years after that a dam gave way emptying a reservoir that supplied water to the canal and destroying a section. The railroads were taking business anyway, and that was the end of the commercial value of the Sandy & Beaver Canal.

So here's my really, really exciting adventure from the other day. I got permission to see the west end of the big tunnel. Keep in mind that the tunnels had to be 17 feet high and wide enough for a boat. This is all that's left- it's almost completely filled with silt.

This is a depiction on tile from the Spread Eagle Tavern, of a canal boat being poled through one of the tunnels. There was an effort a number of years ago to re-open the tunnel, but that was also abandoned.

In some places, the canal is easily discernable.

In other places, it's almost lost. This is near the location of the small tunnel- the canal channel is down in that valley as it approaches the tunnel entrance, although I could not find any evidence of the tunnel. Today, as I walked through Beaver Creek State Park, there are four locks that remain. This is Gretchen's Lock, one of the more famous ones. Legends abound, and here is one. The chief engineer for the canal, E. Gill's daughter died and was temporarily entombed in the rocks of this lock before being taken back to sea to be "buried" with her mother who had washed overboard when the family came to America. True? Who knows...

I am not going to have time on this trip to visit the two best-preserved locks- #36 at Beaver Creek State Park Pioneer Village, and Lusk Lock which is near Elkton, but off the trail. Lusk was even used as a showpiece to try to get investors. I have visited both in the past, but don't have those pictures with me.

I'll end with the Hambleton Mill- all that is left of Sprucevale. This village grew up around this mill, particularly after the canal was built. Sprucevale thrived until the canal failed, and now all that is left is the mill building. It has ghost stories of its own!

At the west end of the canal was a long aquaduct that carried the canal over the Tuscarawas River. However, it completely washed away in a flood. No visiting that!

Today was a beautiful hike with a lot of off-road miles. But I wanted to tell you some of the story of the Sandy & Beaver Canal.

Miles today: 15.7. Total miles so far: 1397.3.

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