The Lyons Drydock

The Lyons Drydock , Thee Lyons drydock, located just west of the village was the last drydock built on the New York State Canal System after nearly a century of improvements. , Drydocks like the one at Lyons were needed so that canal boats could be maintained and have a place to winter over. The original Barge Canal plan called for public drydocks at Schuylerville, Waterford, Little Falls, Baldwinsville, Rochester, and Lockport. Later, when the Baldwinsville site was dropped, the facility at Lyons was added. , The Lyons drydock was completed in 1931, with a storehouse and machine shop added the next year. Lyons became one of two principal drydock sites in the canal system (the other was Waterford)., Today, the Lyons shop repairs equipment still used on the canal. The drydock is used to berth tugs in the off season and stores Dipper Dredge No. 3, one of the original Barge Canal dredges. , [caption] Dipper Dredge No. 3 today, at the Lyons drydock. Inset photo shows the size of the two scoops. , Dipper Dredges And Derricks , Dipper dredges and steam derricks were the heavy equipment used to dig, clear, and maintain the Barge Canal from its inception until today. The dredges, like old No. 3, were used to remove the silt and muck from the bottom of the canal and deposit it beyond the canal's banks. In the course of this work accidents sometimes occurred. , In 1911, barge machinery claimed the life of a young man from one of Lyons most prominent families. Calvin Hotchkiss Jr. grandson of H. G. Hotchkiss (the "Peppermint King"), stumbled on a rain-slickened deck and fell into the gears of a dipper dredge that was excavating a section of the canal near Lyons. Within seconds the operator stopped the machine, but not before the young man had suffered a fatal injury. , [captions] A dipper dredge at work during the construction of the Barge Canal c.1910. Derrick barges on the canal in western New York c.1910. Gears on the boom of Dipper Dredge No. 3.