Skip to main content

Erie Canal: Montezuma Heritage Park and Richmond Viaduct

Image
By

 Even though the Erie Canal has been modernized and has followed some slightly different alignments over the past 200 years, there are many old remnants, locks and aqueducts of the Erie Canal that are yours to discover and explore across the Empire State. The canals in New York State are definitely an important part of this state's rich history, so it's nice that vestiges of the Erie Canal can still be seen. Some of the old remnants are sitting quietly in the wild or alongside roads while others are preserved as part of various parks and historical sites. There's even a rest area on the New York Thruway in Port Byron that doubles as the Port Byron Old Erie Canal Heritage Park. Not far from Port Byron, in Montezuma, is another one of these relics from a bygone era of the Erie Canal. This area is preserved for public use as the Montezuma Heritage Park.


There is quite a bit of history to explore at the Montezuma Heritage Park. The park has some walking trails, including one that follows the old towpath of the enlarged Erie Canal, as well as a trail that goes to the ruins of the old Montezuma Fibre Mill, which attempted to make paper out of cattails. This area of Montezuma around the Montezuma Heritage Park is a bit swampy, so you can see why the mill tried to take advantage of these resources.

If you follow the Byron Lapp Memorial Trail that follows the old towpath of the canal, you will reach the remnants of the 840 foot long Seneca River Aqueduct, also known as the Richmond Aqueduct, as it was designed and built under the careful direction of Van Richmond, who was an engineer and surveyor. The aqueduct was constructed starting in 1849 and was opened for use in 1857. Today, a portion of the old aqueduct is still in existence, because when the modern day successor to the Erie Canal was constructed in 1917 along the Seneca River, part of the aqueduct was removed so boats could freely move up and down the Seneca River with the remains of the aqueduct jutting out into the Seneca River. During my visit to the park, I just walked down to the aqueduct and back, as a few of the trails were quite muddy and a bit flooded from the early spring snow melt.

Historical sign noting the Richmond Aqueduct.
Old infrastructure at the trailhead.

Walking down the old towpath.




Photos from the Seneca River Aqueduct, or Richmond Aqueduct.






Sources and Links:
Montezuma Historical Society - Visit the Park
TourCayuga.com - Montezuma Heritage Park
The Erie Canal - The Seneca River Aqueduct
The Travels of Tug 44 - Old Richmond Aqueduct 
New York History Blog - Montezuma Heritage Park: Interpreting Four Canals
New York History Blog - The Cat Tail Company: Montezuma Fibre
Town of Montezuma, NY -  Parks & Recreation

How to Get There:




Update Log:
January 14, 2018 - Originally published article to Unlocking New York.
August 19, 2021 - Transferred article from Unlocking New York to Gribblenation.
Labels:
Location: Montezuma Heritage Park, 8098 High St, Montezuma, NY 13117, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ghost Town Tuesday; Vineland, Florida; the town killed by Disney

By
Vineland is a small ghost town located in southwest Orange County, Florida near the junction of Florida State Road 535 and Interstate 4.  Vineland is somewhat unique due to it largely being squeezed out of existence by Lake Buena Vista which is the company town where Disney World is located. Vineland was founded in the late 1800s as Englewood.  The town name of Englewood changed to Orange Center in 1911 before finally assuming the name Vineland in 1924.  Much like the rest of Orange County the community of Vineland was centered around Citrus Grove.  In the case of Vineland said orange groves were centered around Ruby Lake. The end of Vineland came as the Disney Corporation began purchasing parcels of citrus grove land to build Lake Buena Vista.  Vineland fell into a sharp decline in the 1960s but the community managed to continue to exist to modern times.  Much of the street grid of Vineland still exists east of FL 535 but most of the original structures are either gone or falle
1 comment
Read more

Old NY 10 and Goodman Mountain in the Adirondacks

By
  Old highway alignments come in all shapes and sizes, as well as taking some different forms after their lifespan of serving cars and trucks has ended. In the case of an old alignment of what was NY 10 south of Tupper Lake, New York, part of the old road was turned into part of a hiking trail to go up Goodman Mountain. At one time, the road passed by Goodman Mountain to the east, or Litchfield Mountain as it was known at the time. As the years passed, sometime around 1960, the part of NY 10 north of Speculator became part of NY 30, and remains that way today from Speculator, past Indian Lake and Tupper Lake and up to the Canadian Border. At one time, the highway was realigned to pass the Goodman Mountain to the west, leaving this stretch of road to be mostly forgotten and to be reclaimed by nature. During the summer of 2014, a 1.6 mile long hiking trail was approved the Adirondack Park Agency to be constructed to the summit of the 2,176 foot high Goodman Mountain. For the first 0.9 mi
1 comment
Read more

Oregon State Highway 58

By
  Also known as the Willamette Highway No. 18, the route of Oregon State Highway 58 (OR 58) stretches some 86 miles between US 97 north of Chemult and I-5 just outside of Eugene, Oregon. A main route between the Willamette Valley region of Oregon with Central Oregon and Crater Lake National Park, the highway follows the Middle Fork Willamette River and Salt Creek for much of its route as it makes its way to and across the Cascades, cresting at 5,138 feet above sea level at Willamette Pass. That is a gain of over 4,500 in elevation from where the highway begins at I-5. The upper reaches of OR 58 are dominated by the principal pinnacle that can sometimes be seen from the highway, Diamond Peak, and three nearby lakes, Crescent, Odell and Waldo (Oregon's second largest lake). OR 58 is chock full of rivers, creeks, mountain views, hot springs and waterfalls within a short distance from the highway. OR 58 was numbered as such by the Oregon State Highway Department in 1940. OR 58 is a del
Post a Comment
Read more