Lockport Locks
Celebrating 200 Years of the Erie Canal
1825 — 2025
Presented by
City of Lockport Erie Canal
Bicentennial Committee
Presenting Sponsor
acknowledgments
The City of Lockport Erie Canal Bicentennial Committee and Lockport Union-Sun & Journal are pleased to present “Lockport Locks.”
This unique book would not have been possible without the generous contributions from local historians and history enthusiasts alike:
Craig Bacon, Bill Clark, David Kinyon, T.K. Kraemer, James Lester, Anne Linnabery, Christa Lutz, Gail Reinbird, Bob Confer.
We would also like to thak the following businesses for their support and participation in this project.
Platinum Sponsor
Cornerstone Commmunity Federal Credit Union
Gold Sponsor
PB Elder Law
Silver Sponsors
Grigg-Lewis Foundation, Mills Jewelers, Newfane Lumber, Spalding Hardware
Bronze Sponsors
Diversified Manufacturing, Gould’s Flowers, Niagara Produce
Ontario Shores Federal Credit Union, Prudden & Kandt Funeral Home, Reid Petroleum
Scirto Jewelers, Stedman Nursery, Willowbrook Golf Course
Foreword
200 years. That’s what we’re celebrating in the City of Lockport, the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal and the impact it has had on our City. This book, in pictures and in words, will take you on a journey from the historic Erie Canal to the present. Including the Historic Flight of Five restoration to the future of the Erie and how it is used in recreation and tourism. Lockport has grown and prospered around this man made waterway and has benefited by the heritage tourists who are drawn here by its rich history.
I want to thank the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, specifically Publisher Cheryl Phillips and Group News
Editor Joyce Miles for their help and support in the making of this book, I could not have done it without them. I’d also like to the thank the Bicentennial Steering Committee, who are listed below, a group of prominent citizens, who love Lockport and have taken the time to make this book and our Bicentennial Celebration great. Lastly, I want to thank the Executive Director of the Niagara History Center, James Lester and Niagara County Deputy Historian/ City of Lockport Historian Craig Bacon for their hard work and exhausted research. I want to thank David Kinyon for his great and appreciated support.
So now, let’s take a historical tour of the Erie Canal’s past, present and future and let this book guide you through history.
Mike Tucker
Chairman, City of Lockport Erie Canal Bicentennial Committee
City of Lockport Erie Canal Bicentennial Steering Committee
Craig Bacon
Heather Benson
Melissa Dunlop
Holly Edwards
Laurie Ferris
David Kinyon
James Lester
Rachel Maziarz
Chris Parada
Grace Platt
Justin Rogers
Marietta Schrader
Rebecca Schweigert
Copyright ©2025 by Lockport Union-Sun & Journal • All Rights Reserved • ISBN: 978-1-63846-167-8
No part of this book may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.
Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. www.pediment.com. Printed in Canada.
From Clinton’s Ditch to America’s Destiny
ANN MARIE LINNABERY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, NIAGARA HISTORY CENTER
Long before the first shovelful of dirt was turned at Rome, New York on July 4, 1817, the question of how to connect the Atlantic Ocean, and the mercantile cities along its coast, with the natural resources of the Great Lakes, had been discussed in American political and economic circles even before the Revolutionary War. Despite the effort of the British to keep a tight rein on their American colonists, those who were restless and land hungry continued to push further into the interior of the continent, clashing with indigenous people, creating settlements, and looking for new opportunities for commerce and trade. In New York, as early as 1724, attempts were being made to connect the Mohawk River with Lake Ontario by way of a series of smaller rivers and streams, and short land portages. Sixty years later, after the conclusion of the American Revolution and the expulsion of the British, General
George Washington, a surveyor by trade and an advocate for internal improvements, visited the sites of two ongoing projects which strived to link the Hudson River with both the northern and western lakes.
The Northern Inland Navigation Company endeavored to join the Hudson River to Lake Champlain and the Western Inland Navigation Company sought to do the same with the Hudson and Lake Ontario via the Mohawk River. Upon his return, Washington wrote, “Prompted by actual observation, I could not help taking a more contemplative [and] extensive view of the vast inland navigation of these United States, and could not but be struck with the immense diffusion and importance of it…”
Washington knew that for the nation to expand its boundaries, improved roads and connecting canals would have to be built.
In the late 18th century, New York State Governor George Clinton and the
state Legislature had not yet considered a state-wide canal but were still focusing on and funding the Lake Champlain and Mohawk River projects. The first act passed by the New York State Legislature which hinted that a Hudson River to Lake Erie route was even being discussed, was the incorporation of the Niagara Company in 1798. The proposal was not of a state-wide waterway but of a canal with locks at the western end of Lake Ontario constructed over the Niagara Escarpment to bypass Niagara Falls. This scheme, or any other that suggested a canal could be built across the state, was derided as nonsense. One engineer declared it was “much more extravagant [than] the possibility of a Canal to the moon.”
Despite the naysayers and the obstacle that the “Great Falls” presented, Mother Nature had bestowed some advantageous geography in relation to a Hudson River to
OPPOSITE: 1974 Drawing of canal laberors working in the Montezuma Swamp west of Syracuse during the initial construction of the Erie Canal. Originally by Steven Kidd. — Niagara History Center Archives
Lockport’s First Lock Tender
GAIL REINBIRD TOWN OF CAMBRIA HISTORIAN
Gertrude Peterson, the great granddaughter of Zenas P. Thrall saved a letter sent to him dated, “Lockport, October 23,1825.” It read, “Having confidence in your capacity and industry, you are hereby appointed lock tender for the locks at Lockport, during the pleasure of the canal commissioners or either of them, for such compensation as they from time to time may deem reasonable. Mr. Ladd been appointed assistant lock tender and is to have the privilege of residing in the house built for the use of the locks.”
This handwritten letter was penned by William C. Bouck, the Canal Commissioner for the Niagara County section of the Erie Barge Canal.
Zenas Thrall was born in Windsor, Connecticut July 2, 1801. The family lived for many years in Dorchester, Mass. years before Zenas came to Lockport in 1821. He may have seen an advertisement that read, “1,000 men wanted at Lockport -$12 per month and found.” “Found” meant that food and shelter was provided. The shelter was usually a bunk house or shantie, and the food included pork, flour, whiskey, and not much else.
At sunrise on October 26, 1825, “A salute was fired from the mountain adjoining the locks.” Many people had come from all over the state for the event, and a procession was formed at 9:00 that marched to the foot of the lock. They
wanted to see the very first packet-boat pass through. The boat, carrying many dignitaries, was named the William C. Bouck, after the canal commissioner that wrote the letter appointing Zenas Thrall as lock tender. So, at the age of 24, Zenas became the first person to “lock” a boat through the canal in Lockport that day.
In 1828 Zenas bought 75 acres of land on Upper Mountain Road in Cambria that was later called Fair View Farm. He lived there with his wife Charity until his death on March 28, 1874. There are still some of their descendants living in Cambria where Thrall Road is named for the family.
OPPOSITE: Designed and fabricated by Youngstown, NY artist Susan Geissler, the Lock Tenders Tribute Monument will consist of the twelve Lock Tenders, the little girl and the photographer. The monument is a project of the Lockport Locks Heritage District Corporation, the non-profit organization which operates the Erie Canal Flight of Five Locks and the Flight of Five Lock Tenders Tour. — Courtesy of Lockport Union-Sun & Journal Archive, James Neiss photo.
Two Centuries on the Canal: Newfane
BILL CLARK
NEWFANE TOWN HISTORIAN
The Erie Canal significantly influenced growth and development in Newfane just as it did in Lockport and the surrounding communities. Many of the pioneers and families that were drawn to Lockport and Niagara to participate in the work and prosperity of the canal would eventually buy homes, start businesses and turn to farming in Newfane. The historic development of the Lockport-Olcott trolley and the Olcott Beach Hotel would bring thousands of Western New York residents each year to the lakeshore for summer recreation, picnics and good times. Generations of Lockport families had summer residences and rented cottages on Olcott’s West Bluff and along the lakeshore. A look at the census records or a visit to local cemeteries will confirm there is more than an obvious match among the family names found in Newfane and Olcott to those of Lockport. The
presence of the Eighteen-Mile Creek in Lockport and through Newfane influenced canal building and industrial growth, and it remains a principal drainageway for canal operations and recreation. Businesses and manufacturing that first started near the canal in Lockport would eventually settle in Newfane, including Cocker (Oldam) Saw and the Lockport Felt Company, and Lockport firms such as Harrison Radiator, Simonds Steel and the Upson Company were the principal employers of Newfane residents.
ABOVE: Vintage postcard photo from the Town of Newfane archive. Opposite: Fall color lines the banks of 18 Mile Creek in Newfane and Niagara County beyond. — Courtesy of Lockport Union-Sun & Journal Archive, James Neiss photo.
barge traffic into a new landscape meant to attract tourists was not problematic” and “in the eyes of the Commission, a tourist economy was just as effective (if not better) in restoring the economic and historical significance of the Erie Canal landscape”. However, the entrepreneurial spirit of heritage can be a double-edged sword. When capitalistic marketing and heritage tourism are combined, it has the potential to dilute historical accuracy. In other words, “heritage has the ability to twist historical accuracy to serve modern purposes. Simply put, ‘history is the past that actually happened, heritage a partisan perversion, the past manipulated for some present aim’”. Heritage, by its very definition, exists within the present, but seeks to call back to a past that may be skewed, or never existed in the first place. In case of the Erie Canal, “because the Erie Canalway NHC was developed to encourage economic growth among deflated economies of the Erie Canal towns, the heritage became adapted for profit-making”. To facilitate this new focus on the heritage industry, the Commission turned its attention to tourism. Scholars have noted the rise in heritage tourism throughout the late 20th
century, with some, like Rodney Harrison, proposing that “the rise…comes from ‘deindustrialization, reconfigurations of the tourist ‘gaze’, and the emergence of heritage as an element of a new ‘experience’ economy’”. This new industry, given the nature of the communities that lie along, and directly benefited from, is perfect for the Erie Canal region.
To the supporters of the ECNHC, the communities along the canal are like a “string of pearls” stretching across the lateral spine of the state. As they have described themselves in a 2019 report, the Erie’s “national and international allure lies in its historic integrity and its ability to deliver authentic high-quality visitor experiences”. Furthermore, “heritage development strategies that integrate preservation, conservation, recreation, regional partnerships, and economic growth will maximize the competitive advantages of the Canalway Corridor for present and future generations”. For all intents and purposes, the ECNHC has succeeded in their endeavor. In 2024, $196,349 in tourism grants were awarded to 45 nonprofit organizations and municipalities, 140,700 people attended 37 sponsored events, and
OPPOSITE: Lock 35 emptying to send a boat down the escarpment, 1960s. — Niagara County History Center
65,000 Erie Canalway Map and Guides were distributed to tourists, just to name a few of the milestones reached thus far. In preparation for the Erie Canal Bicentennial celebrations in 2025, they ensured that “more than 600 communities, organizations, and individuals are better prepared to roll out the red carpet”.
With the attention, investment, and continued interest in the revitalization of the canal, the communities around it, and its continued impact on the topography and geography of the state, the Erie Canal is primed and ready for everything that the succeeding decades and centuries bring it. The canal is a testament to human engineering and perseverance, not only due to the immense, backbreaking labor that was required to construct it, but also the continued work to preserve, promote, and interpret the waterway’s place within a 21st century society. The Bicentennial celebrations that will take place along the entire canal route are but the penultimate capstone to the canal and Canalway’s enduring legacy and history. There are many more years to come, and many more milestones to reach.
BEAUTY IN ALL SEASONS: A break in the winter storm shows off the Erie Canal in a fresh coat of snow. At right, an aerial view of the Lockport Locks featuring the Lockview IV tour boat on a late spring afternoon cruise.
— Courtesy of Lockport Union-Sun & Journal Archive, James Neiss photos.
