Canal Society of New York State Tours Little Falls and Herkimer

Two days on the water and on land

LITTLE FALLS, N.Y. Members of the Canal Society of New York State spent Tuesday and Wednesday exploring the canal heritage of Little Falls and Herkimer as part of the organization’s annual fall study tour.

“We’re basically the history arm of the Canal organizations in New York State,” said Tammee Poinan Grimes, a spokesperson for the society. “We help preserve the history, and we do these study tours.”

The visit opened Tuesday with a land tour of Little Falls. Members visited the dam and powerhouse area, viewed the lock from the upper level, and stopped at the hydroelectric plant.

On Wednesday, the group split in two. Half boarded a tour boat and passed through two locks, including Lock 17. “Most of us are very excited about going through that very large lock,” Grimes said.

The other half traveled by bus to the Herkimer Home and several other stops in the area. From the shore, the land group also watched a boat pass through the lock, giving members a close look at the water rushing out as the chamber emptied.

Mayor welcomes a society that keeps history alive

Little Falls Mayor Deborah Kaufman greeted the visitors on behalf of the city. “We’re honored that you’ve chosen our community for your field trip,” she said.

“Little Falls has been shaped by water for more than two centuries,” Kaufman told the group.

She noted that in 1795, three decades before the Erie Canal opened, the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company completed one of the first true canals in the United States in Little Falls. The mile-long channel used five lift locks and a guard lock to carry boats around the 40-foot drop of the falls, helping open the Mohawk Valley to trade and settlement.

When the Erie Canal arrived in 1825, Little Falls became a key point on the route west, with an aqueduct carrying boats across the Mohawk River into the city’s harbor basin. The Enlarged Erie and later the Barge Canal continued to reshape the landscape.

Kaufman pointed out that Lock 17 remains the highest lift lock on the New York State Canal System and was once the tallest operating lock in the world.

A home in Little Falls

Kaufman thanked the society for its work in research, preservation, education and advocacy, saying it keeps the region’s living history alive. She closed with an invitation to return, telling members that “wherever your travels take you, you always have a home at Little Falls.”

The Canal Society of New York State works to preserve the history of the state’s canal system and organizes study tours that bring members to historic canal sites across New York.