Old Feeder Joins Erie: (
Satellite)
 |
| 1895/95 Oneida Quad @ 62,000 |
Yvonne Wall
posted 21 images with the comment: "Oneida Feeder Canal, Saturday and then I add in my collections."
[See
hmdb for more information on this marker. Specifically, the location of the marker is
43°05'33.1"N 75°39'01.0"W.]
 |
| 1 |
Images 2-8 are closeups of the above image.
 |
| 2 |
 |
| 3 |
 |
| 4 |
 |
| 5 |
 |
| 6 |
 |
| 7 |
 |
| 8 |
 |
| 9 |
 |
| 10 |
 |
| 11 |
 |
| 12 |
 |
| 13 |
 |
| 14 |
 |
| 15 |
 |
| 16 |
 |
| 17 |
 |
| 18 |
 |
| 19 |
 |
| 20 |
 |
| 21 |
The devil is in the details. I have some bones to pick with the historical marker.
First of all, the text says "to a dock
north of Elm Street, which I agree with." That is, the canal was not down by the marker's location, which is a few blocks south of Elm Street.
Second of all, the feeder canal would have ended at the Erie Canal a little west of the
Oneida Creek Aqueduct at Durhamville, NY. The short canal from the Erie Canal to Oneida would be a branch canal to deliver cargo to downtown Oneida. Technically, it is the Oneida Canal.
Third of all, I think the houses with bridges were on the west side of Main Street, not the east side. In this closeup of the topo map, we see a gap between the houses on the west side of Main Street, but there is no gap on the east side. Also, note that there are houses on the south side of Elm Street where the canal would have been if it went south to the historical marker area.
 |
| Digitally Zoomed. |
I repeat Yvonne's last photo because it states that it is looking "up state." Every usage I've seen of "up state" in New York means we are looking North. If we are looking North, then the houses are west of Main Street.
 |
| Image 21 |
Fourth of all, I don't think any of the images with a curve in the canal are of the Oneida Feeder Canal nor the Oneida Canal. For example, this image claims to be at Main and Elizabeth Streets. But those two streets don't intersect. And Elizabeth Street is south of Elm Street, which is where I think the canal ended.
 |
| Image 13 |
Here is a closeup of the topo map that includes Elizabeth Street.
 |
| Digitally Zoomed |
To summarize, blue is the original Oneida Feeder Canal, Red is the newer Oneida Feeder Canal and yellow is the Oneida Canal.
Some of the second Oneida Feeder Canal has yet to be filled in. And much of the path back to the lake can be traced through the trees.
Here is another wet part.
Ok, I think there's a bit of confusion here. The Oneida Lake Canal(s) and the Oneida Feeder were two different, related things. The Oneida Feeder was solely to provide makeup water to the Erie for the water used by the Oneida Lake Canal.(Oneida Lake being 66' lower than the Erie). The water was taken from Oneida Creek, *all the way up near Oneida Castle* - even though on the topo maps it looks like it stops at the railroad in downtown. It was never intended to be navigable. The portion of the feeder from Elm Street to the Erie was made navigable by private interests for the purpose of getting freight from the railroad to the Erie. The feeder south of downtown was basically a glorified ditch, as seen in your postcards. There were indeed a couple of big sweeping curves in the feeder near Elizabeth Street, not far from where the canal diverged from Main Street. What I've been struggling with is how the feeder got through downtown. It must have been underground for a couple of blocks!
ReplyDeleteNoble Whitford's "History of the Canal System of the State of New York" goes through the whole history of the Oneida Lake Canal(s) and feeder in excruciating detail. (I'd link it but this won't let me). I also have GIS imagery that I would link, but....
(Oh, and where it says " up state feeder" is just lazy verbiage. They mean "up THE state feeder).
https://www.eriecanal.org/texts/Whitford/1906/Chap16.html
ReplyDelete