Rome, NY

It was 40 feet wide at ground level, 4 feet deep, and 28 feet wide at the bottom. It was also an object of scorn, political opposition, financial wheeling and dealing—and the end result of one man’s vision. In the life-size mural on the wall of the Erie Canal Village Museum in Rome, N.Y., it looks puny, a carefully carved rain ditch. In reality, the Erie Canal was, in its level of accomplishment, the 1817 equivalent of the first moon landing.

At the end of the American Revolution, Dominic Lynch bought 2,000 acres in the Mohawk River Valley and named the town he founded after himself. Lynchville sat astride the three-mile portage trappers called The Great Carry between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek—one leg of the water-and-land route between the Hudson Valley and the Great Lakes that was in use for hundreds of years. At the time, it was the only east-west passage through the Appalachian Mountains.

In 1817, two years before Lynchville incorporated itself as the town of Rome, newly elected Gov. De Witt Clinton secured money to act on a dream that had stymied generations of explorers—linking the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. He envisioned a waterway connecting east and west to move raw materials to manufacturing centers, and that dream eventually changed North America forever.

On July 4, 1817, the first shovelful of dirt was turned for what detractors called “Clinton’s Ditch,” connecting Rome with Utica, 15 miles away. Starting in the middle made sense—massive stone escarpments at either end were formidable challenges for men with limited engineering skills, and failure would fuel his opponents. Rome was the easiest place to dig and succeeding here would generate revenues allowing them to continue.

“The canal was the leading edge of technology in its day,” says Mike Milewski, property manager of Rome’s Erie Canal Village. “You also could say that if there was no Erie Canal, New York City would not be what it is.”

The original canal was not the godsend Rome hoped for because it was a half-mile south of town. That canal was soon replaced by a bigger, more efficient system running right through the village, however. Rome (today with 34,950 residents) prospered, becoming an industrial center—a position it held long after canal usage fell victim to railroads in the 1850s.

Rome—mindful of its heritage as a gateway to the West—in 1966 set aside 90 acres for a 19th-century village on the banks of what remained of the original canal, offering packet boat rides on the mile-and-a-half of restored waterway. Over time, 22 buildings, many originally built to serve and house canal workers and merchants, were donated and moved here.

In 1977, Milewski, then a farrier, was asked to run the village’s newly relocated blacksmith shop. He came, he saw, and he stayed, immersing himself in the village and the canal’s history.

The tavern, general store, church, barn, three period homes, and schoolhouse, among others, came together to form a canal settlement, showing the effect the canal had on the people who lived along its banks.

“We have records showing the names of children who worked on the canal boats, spending four winter months in our schoolhouse, never to be heard from again,” Milewski says, reflecting on the movement of goods and people the canal created.

Mike’s wife Melody—who came to work here eight years ago—points out three period homes that sprung up along the canal route. One is an 1801 settler’s home—a primitive two-room structure. By 1840, there was the Crosby House, with a complete living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms. By 1869, there’s the Shull House, a meticulously constructed, lavishly furnished cattle dealer’s Victorian. “This guy was making money hand over fist,” Melody says. “All because of the canal.”

The village and the town of Rome will celebrate the 185th anniversary of that first shovel of dirt this year. A new packet boat is planned, along with a steam engine and more buildings.

It will mark—for Rome and its canal—a glimpse of how it all began.

Warren D. Jorgensen is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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