Ohio & Erie Canal

Ohio and Erie Canal. . , Making the final leg of her journey on the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1840, sixteen-year-old Ellen Snell traveled 4,000 miles from her home in England to a country totally foreign to her. The Snell family were like many immigrants before and after them. They did not know the canal that brought them to their new home would also bring prosperity to Licking County, or that ground was broken for the canal in 1825 just four miles away from downtown Newark. However, their journey was a reflection of the canal's importance., Newark's location on the canal system, which linked the city to the rest of the nation and in Ellen's case the world - helped bring a new wave of people, business, and industry to the city., Believe it or not… you are standing on the old canal bed! It ran through downtown Newark between Canal Street and Market Street., 1825 , July 4, 1825 Canal groundbreaking near present-day Heath., 1830 , Buckeye Lake was built as a reservoir to provide water for the canal., The canal did not have a natural current, so canal boats needed to be pulled by horses. The paths the horses walked along were called towpaths., Buckeye Lake, which is roughly eleven miles south of Newark, was built between 1826 and 1830 to act as a reservoir to provide water for the canal system., The current location of The Works parking lot, once the site of the canal.