Lock No. 13 & Independence Dam / Two Canals

Lock No. 13 and Independence Dam, also, Two Canals. . , Lock No. 13 and Independence Dam , Through this lock passed many canal boats carrying produce, goods, and passengers not only from Ohio and Indiana but from as far south as New Orleans and as far east as New York City. Boats were drawn by horses, or more often by mules, 2 to 6 in number depending on the size of the load. Spare animals were either carried on board the boats, to the discomfort of the passengers, or stabled along the canal. Speeds varied from 5 to 8 miles per hour. There were also, on the canal, huge rafts of logs cut from the virgin forests. These were floated to mills, operated by canal water power, and sawed into lumber for many uses., Independence Dam, located on the Maumee River just below here, was built to provide slack water for the canal. It derived its name from a town a mile up stream which sprang up during the canal construction period. Independence grew into a thriving center of commerce, rivaling Defiance at one time, but, like many canal “boom towns,” it all but disappeared when the canal was abandoned., Two Canals , This marker is on the trunk line of both the Miami and Erie Canal and the Wabash and Erie Canal. The Miami and Erie Canal, built by Ohio, was begun on July 21, 1825 and completed in 1845. It connected the Ohio River at Cincinnati with Lake Erie at Toledo. By the time the canal reached the Maumee Valley, the Wabash and Erie had already been projected from Fort Wayne to Toledo. At Junction, some 15 miles southwest of here, the two canals joined and became one. Indiana built the Wabash and Erie Canal from Evansville on the Ohio River to Toledo on Lake Erie. It was begun on February 22, 1832, a date which honored George Washington who first had suggested the construction of canals in this region. When finished in 1856, it was 458 miles long and one of the longest canals built. By the time of the Civil War, the canals were being superseded by the swifter, more dependable railroads. Section by section, the canals were abandoned. In the early 1900’s, the colorful period of the canals came to an end.