Genesee Valley Canal

Note: Unless otherwise stated, this history comes from Whitford

The western section of the state in the Genesee River valley contained an extensive fertile and productive land having no easy access to the markets of the country.   The Genesee River, which meets the Erie Canal at Rochester, is separated from the Allegheny River at Olean by a very narrow divide.   By constructing a canal across this divide and by canalizing the two rivers, an unbroken inland water communication would be afforded between all the important sections of New York State and the valleys of the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri. Arkansas, Osage, Illinois, Wabash, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, a watershed covering ¾ of the entire United States.   The dream of so extensive a line of internal communication appealed to the people of the Genesee Valley as affording irresistible arguments for constructing a canal along this route.   As early as 1823, a petition from citizens of Monroe, Livingston, Genesee, Allegany and Cattaraugus Counties was presented to the State Legislature requesting for an appropriation of $10,000 from the State treasury for the purpose of improving the navigation of the Genesee River.   This petition was not acted upon.

This route was not considered to be of sufficient importance or else its advocates were not insistent enough to have it included in the first group of lateral canals that were authorized, but it was begun after the mania for canal-building had somewhat abated, after the utility of railroads began to be demonstrated, and its construction was protracted during a long period while the resources of the State were being severely taxed for the enlargement and repairs of the other canals.   The whole history of this canal reveals a series of unfortunate events.   The time for building was inauspicious.   The advisability of beginning the project at so late a day was not sustainble.   Numerous delays were very costly.

The subject first came before the Legislature for serious consideration as the result of a message of Governor De Witt Clinton in February, 1825, "respecting a navigable communication between the waters of the Allegany river and the Erie canal, and soliciting a full investigation of the proposed measure by able engineers" and recommending the adoption of effective preliminary studies.   As a result of this message, together with 16 petitions from counties in the neighborhood of the proposed improvement, an act was passed on April 20, 1825, rendering it "the duty of the canal commissioners to cause examinations, surveys and estimates to be made of the most eligible routes . . . from Rochester to Allegany river at Olean, through the valley of Genesee river; from Scottsville by way of Le Roy, to the upper falls of the Genesee river; . . . from Lake Erie to Allegany river, through the valley of the Conawanga, and from the Allegany river at Olean to the Erie canal by way of the village of Batavia."   This law directed the canal commissioners to in 1826 report the practicability of each of these routes in 1826, although they did not make any comparisons between them.

The 1825 act showed to what an extent this desire to participate in the benefits of canal navigation had spread throughout the state.   It ordered the surveys of 17 separate routes in various parts of the state.   James Geddes, the veteran engineer of the Erie Canal, made the surveys, and his reports were embodied in the communications from the canal commissioners.   Although 29 petitions were presented during the spring of 1826, no legislation was enacted concerning this project.   In 1827, 15 petitions were presented, some requesting the construction of a canal from the Erie Canal by the way of Tonawanda Creek to the Allegheny river at Olean, some by the Genesee Valley route, and others for a canal from the Erie Canal at Buffalo to the Allegheny river along the valley of the Conewango Creek.   The canal committee to which these petitions were referred could not select a line from the rough surveys already made of the three routes, and recommended that for the present the condition of the finances of the State was not such as to warrant the expense of constructing this canal.

In April, 1827, an act was passed incorporating a company to improve the navigation of the Cassedaga and Conewango Creeks and the Chautauqua outlet.   Although incorporated for the purpose of constructing the long desired canal, this company accomplished nothing.   During the next three years, 27 petitions were received.   In April, 1830, an act was finally passed authorizing a careful survey of the Genesee Valley route, but as the appropriation of $750 was so obviously inadequate, no survey was attempted.   From 1831 to 1833, only 19 petitions were presented, but in 1834 the friends of the Genesee Valley route began work in earnest and 28 petitions were brought before the Legislature.   The desire for the canal was no longer confined to the counties in the western part of the state, but from every section came petitions.   Even the Common Council of New York City and the American Institute of the City of New York passed resolutions "appealing to the intelligence, justice and patriotism of the Legislature" to effect the necessary legislation for the opening of intercourse with Pittsburg and the inexhaustible beds of bituminous coal of western Pennsylvania by means of the canal system of the State.   The valley through which this proposed canal was to pass contained over 100,000 inhabitants and remarkably fertile lands.   Over 200,000,000 feet of lumber passed down the Allegheny River annually, and it was supposed that this would, for the most part, be deflected to the New York State canals.   From these considerations the canal committee recommended a minute survey of the Genesee Valley route.   An act to this effect was passed on April 30, 1834, and it also provided for a side cut from the village of Dansville down the Canaseraga Creek to the Genesee Valley line at or near Mount Morris.

The canal commissioners ordered a very complete survey and examination of the proposed route by an engineer, Mr. Frederick C. Mills, the result of whose investigations was embodied in the report of the canal commissioners on March 2, 1835.   Mr. Mills reported that the proposed canal, side cut and navigable feeders, if located on the west side of the Genesee river, would extend over 122¼ miles, with 1,057 feet of lockage and were estimated to cost $1,890,614.12.   If the east side of the river were chosen, the length would be 123-3/10 miles, the amount of lockage the same, and the estimated cost, $2,002,285.92.   These estimates did not take into consideration damages to lands through which the canal was to pass or to hydraulic works and water privileges.   A part of the line south of Mount Morris was shown to be very difficult and expensive.   At the falls, the high lands closed in upon the river with perpendicular sides, at some places rising nearly 400 hundred feet.   In a distance of two miles, the river appeared to be a continuous succession of falls, descending 274 feet.   The plan proposed was to construct a tunnel for 1,056 feet through an immense projecting cliff of rock.   The summit level of this canal was to be 11½ miles long and the greatest depth of excavation was stated at 12 feet.   It was estimated that an adequate supply of water could be obtained without any material damage to water privileges.   This report was made too late in the year for any action to be taken on it, but the friends of the project were determined that by persevering they would win, and during the sessions of 1835-6, 111 petitions were filed.   Finally, on May 6, 1836, an act was passed, providing for the construction of a navigable canal to be known as the Genesee Valley Canal, "from the Erie canal in the city of Rochester, through the valley of the Genesee river, to a point at or near Mount Morris; and from thence, by the most eligible route, to the Allegany river, at or near Olean; and also a branch of the same, commencing at or near Mount-Morris, and extending up the valley of the Canaseraga creek, at or near the village of Dansville. And should the canal commissioners be of the opinion that the construction of the said canal will injure the hydraulic privileges at Rochester, then they are required to connect the said canal with the Genesee river, above the feeder dam above Rochester, and from thence to construct a navigable canal to the Erie canal, or improve the Erie canal feeder from this place, as may best promote the public interest.   The canal commissioners shall determine on the width and depth of the said canal and branch . . . and shall borrow, on the credit of the state, . . . such sum or sums of money as shall be required for the same, as they shall deem best for the interest of the state, not exceeding two millions of dollars."

In June, 1837, contracts were let for building that portion of the canal extending from the Erie Canal in Rochester to the rapids on the Genesee River, a distance of two miles.   The estimated cost of these two miles of canal, including the expense of a dam across the Genesee River, was $47,492.59.   On November 14, 1837, proposals were received for constructing 28 miles of this canal from the rapids to Piffard’s in Livingston County.   The cost of the work calculated at contract prices was $522,181.89, while the estimate of 1834 was only $408,725.63, but the prices of supplies of all kinds, were considerably higher than when the first estimate was made.   At Scottsville, the Genesee Valley Canal crossed that of the Scottsville Canal Company, a company that was organized in 1829, with a capital of $15,000 to build a canal from Scottsville to the Genesee River.

By January 1, 1839, the first two miles of the Genesee Valley Canal were completed and work was in progress on 51 miles more, from the rapids to Dansville, all of this work to be completed by October 1, 1840.   In addition, the canal commissioners had made a careful examination of the various proposed routes from Mount Morris to the Allegheny River, and after having finally decided on a route, contracts for 50 miles had been let on October 31, 1838.   This route passed from Mount Morris up the valley of the Canaseraga Creek to the Keshequa creek, following the line on which the branch canal to Dansville had been located, then up the valley of that stream through Nunda and Messenger’s Hollow, by the deep cut near Colonel William’s, and then to the Genesee River, crossing that stream by an aqueduct to Portageville, then up the west side of the river to Black Creek, then up the valley of that stream to Cuba, then down on the east side of Oil Creek to Hinsdale, then down on the east side of Olean Creek to near Olean, crossing that creek by an aqueduct, and then passing Olean to the Allegheny River.   The work under contract at that time between Rochester and Nunda called for an expenditure of $1,959,011, while the estimated cost of completing the canal between Nunda and the Allegheny River amounted to an additional sum of $2,791,111.79.   These contracts and plans called for a canal 26 feet wide on the bottom, 42 feet wide at water surface, the banks 7 feet high and calculated for four feet of water, the locks to be built of hammer-dressed masonry, laid in hydraulic cement, 90 feet long and 15 feet wide.

In May, 1839, an act was passed favoring a cheaper form of lock and giving the canal commissioners the power to change the plans accordingly, thereby reducing the expense of the canal $384,506.95.   The contracts for the remaining 20 miles were let in October, 1839.   In 1840, that portion of the Genesee Valley Canal between its intersection with the Erie Canal at Rochester and the Genesee River dam near Mount Morris, a distance of 36 miles, was so far completed that water was admitted in the latter part of August and navigation was opened on September 1.   On that same day, the first packet boat passed up the canal from Rochester to Mount Morris and a daily line of packets then began this trip.   Numerous warehouses were erected along the line of the canal and freight boats were engaged in the transportation of produce and merchandise.   A collector’s office was established at Scottsville and from then until the close of the season $6,929.15 was collected in tolls.   In the fall of 1841, the canal was opened from Mount Morris to the junction at Shaker settlement, 5.22 miles away, and the branch from there to Dansville, 11.12 miles, thereby giving 52 miles of finished canal.   In April, 1842, a collector’s office was established at Dansville and a collector appointed.   The portion of the canal, from Dansville to the Genesee River, which was completed, was supplied with water from the Canaseraga and Mill Creeks.   In April, 1840, an additional appropriation of $500,000 was granted to carry on the work of the Genesee Valley Canal, and by an act passed on May 18, 1841, the canal commissioners were authorized to borrow $550,000 to be applied toward the construction of the canal.

The financial panic of 1837 had so disturbed monetary affairs, that the work of enlarging the Erie, building the Black River and Genesee Valley Canals, and repairing the other canals was prosecuted under considerable embarrassment till the passage of what is popularly known as the "Stop law."   On March 29, 1842, this act was passed for the professed purpose of "paying the debt and preserving the credit of the State."   It ordered the suspension of all expenditures on public works at that time in progress of construction, except such as were necessary for the protection of work already done.   This act practically stopped all work on the canals of the state, and contracts already let were stopped abruptly.   In March, 1843, it was estimated that the total cost of the Genesee Valley Canal would be $4,535,776.47 and work to the amount of $4,224,700.88 was then under contract.   During the summer of 1843, practically no work was done on the canal beyond that absolutely essential in the line of repairs.   During this season, navigation was more or less interrupted on the Dansville Branch from the inadequacy of the water supply.   Another obstruction to navigation during the early part of the season was experienced in consequence of large accumulations of deposits above the dam across the Genesee River near Mount Morris.   It was originally intended to cross the river at this point by means of an aqueduct, and the contract was let and well under way, when in 1839, under an act passed May 1, 1839, the aqueduct was dispensed with by the acting commissioner then in charge, who was of the impression that he was thereby cutting down expenses, and a plan of locking boats to the pool above an existing dam was adopted.   The aqueduct would have been very expensive, but a channel had to be dredged above the dam to allow boats to cross the pool, and nearly 4,000 cubic yards of accumulated earth had to be taken out annually.   If all the difficulties of maintaining good navigation through the pond could have been foreseen, it is probable that the original plan would have been carried out and the aqueduct constructed.

The citizens of Dansville were dissatisfied with the terminal facilities that had been supplied for them, and after having applied in vain to the canal board and the canal commissioners for the construction of a slip or for permission to construct a slip from Dansville and connect it with the side cut, they proceeded to construct a slip and basin and applied to the Legislature in 1844 for permission to connect them with the side cut.   Several remonstrances were also presented to the Legislature against building or assuming this work as a State charge.   After a bill for this purpose had been defeated, the people of Dansville were greatly aroused and one evening at dusk more than a hundred of them assembled on the bank of the canal.   One of them who was a large property owner mounted a pile of lumber and made an incendiary speech to the people, describing the manner in which the bill was defeated.   He said to the crowd that they "were the sovereign people, and their rights had been trampled on, and they must do as their forefathers did to resist oppression, obtain their rights by their own power."   On the following morning they reassembled and cut through the berme bank and let the water into the new side cut, after using force to eject the State employees from the village.   Indictments were secured against the ringleaders of this mob and they were all punished.   At the next session of the Legislature, another bill authorizing the builders of the side cut to connect with the Dansville Branch of the Genesee Valley Canal was defeated on the ground that its passage would sanction a violation of law.   Not until 1848 was the canal board authorized to assume the Dansville slip and basin as a part of the Dansville Branch of the Genesee Valley Canal.   The main objection to this slip was the fact that even without it the supply of water was inadequate and it would require a great deal of water from the side cut and could give none in return.   In accordance with this act, the canal board assumed the slip and basin on December 10, 1851, and they were thereafter considered a part of the canal.

Some repairs were made to the canal in 1844-5.   The banks were to a considerable extent composed of material easily affected by the action of water and required much labor to keep them in repair.   By an act of May 12, 1846, the commissioners of the canal fund were authorized to pay to the canal commissioners $10,000 to be expended by them in protecting and preserving from decay the unfinished works and in the preservation of materials collected for construction.   A large amount of this fund was spent for transporting materials from the unfinished to the finished portion of the canal near the Shaker settlement, to be used in repairs or to be otherwise disposed of.   Although operations had been stopped for the most part for over four years, the work was standing well.   The unfinished portion extended from the junction at Shaker settlement to Olean, a distance of 66½ miles, in which there were 95 lift locks, the foundations of 71 of which had been laid.

On January 1, 1847, the new State Constitution went into effect.   This permitted appropriations for the canals under article 7, section 3, which allowed for revenues to be applied to completing the Genesee Valley Canal.   From the time of resuming work till the opening of the entire canal in 1862, the record shows a continuous succession of small appropriations.   The first of these was made by the act of May 12, 1847, by which $128,000 was appropriated towards the construction of the Genesee Valley Canal.   Contracts were let for finishing section No. 54, known as the "Deep Cut;" for finishing the Portage Tunnel, 1,082 feet in length, and some smaller pieces of work.   By an act of 1847, a further appropriation of $50,000 was made and this enabled the commissioners to let the contract for the completion of the foundations and masonry of the Portage aqueduct and several locks.

Around 1847, it was found that the Genesee Valley and Erie Canals were taking so much water from the Genesee River as to greatly damage the water privileges of the many manufacturing interests located on the river, in and below Rochester.   The Legislature took action immediately, and after several methods of augmenting the supply of water in the river were examined, they decided that making a reservoir of Conesus Lake was the most feasible plan, and by an act of April 12, 1848, they authorized the canal commissioners to construct the works necessary for this purpose.   The Legislature appropriated the sum of $218,000 on April 10, 1848, to be applied to the construction of the canal between the navigable canal at Mount Morris and the Genesee feeder at or near Caneadea.   The contract for the completion of the Portage Tunnel was abandoned by the contractors with the consent of the commissioner in charge, in September, 1848, and a new contract for an "open cut" in place of the tunnel was awarded, thereby directly saving over $72,000 to the State, and indirectly a large amount, as a tunnel would require very large expenditures to keep it in repair.

In 1849, that section of the canal from Mount Morris to the Caneadea feeder, 36½ miles, was all in progress of construction.   This entire distance was to be supplied with water from the Genesee River at Caneadea and from the Wiscoy Creek.   On the remaining 32-mile portion from Caneadea to Olean, a large amount of work was done previous to the suspension of work in 1842.   From previous experience with stone found in this vicinity, it was found that it would not withstand the action of the atmosphere and frosts; therefore, the canal commissioners changed the plans, specifying wood instead of masonry locks, thereby reducing the cost $38,500.   On April 5, 1849, the $128,000 appropriated in 1847, or as much as remained unexpended, was reappropriated and in addition $120,000 was appropriated to be applied between the navigable canal at Mount Morris and the Genesee feeder at or near Caneadea, and $20,000 to the Ischua Reservoir.   In the following year, an appropriation of $170,000 was made for construction of the canal.   In the spring of 1851, 36 miles of canal extending from the Shaker settlement, four miles above Mount Morris to the Genesee River feeder, near the village of Rounesville, were opened. This made 88 miles of completed canal and left 30 miles partially finished.   The Rockville Reservoir and the Ischua feeder were begun respectively in 1839 and 1840.   Millions of feet of lumber and staves, besides timber, shingles and other produce were transported over the new portion of the canal during the season of 1851.   Most of the supply of water required for the canal between Oramel and Olean was to be furnished from Oil and Ischua Creek feeders and reservoirs, the estimated cost for which was $133,400.   These were the most important and expensive works yet to be constructed and it was necessary that they should be started soon, as their completion was essential to the opening of the last thirty miles of the canal.

In 1853, $100,000 was appropriated towards the completion of the Genesee Valley Canal.   In the following year, an additional sum of $65,000 was allotted to this canal.   In 1854, in response to petitions for a navigable feeder for the Genesee Valley Canal from the Genesee River at Wellsville to intersect the canal at or near Belfast, the Legislature instructed the canal board to prepare maps, plans and estimates for this feeder.   In March, 1855, the canal board reported unfavorably on this project.   In the spring of 1856, an act was passed directing "the state engineer and surveyor and canal commissioners . . . to cause surveys to be made for extending the Genesee Valley Canal, from or near the first lock northeast of the village of Olean, across and through the bottom lands lying between said lock and the Alleghany river, to the pond in said river known as the Millgrove pond, and to make the necessary plans and estimates of the cost of the construction of said canal, by the route and to the point aforesaid."   At this session of the Legislature, only $32,000 was appropriated for the Genesee Valley Canal.   At the next session, April, 1857, an act was passed authorizing the extension of the canal as contemplated by the act of 1856, provided the total cost could be kept under $109,000.   Also, there was appropriated $63,142.36 towards the completion and extension of this canal, and in 1858 the $40,000 was apportioned for the canal proper, and $61,212.36 for the extension.

In the spring of 1856, all work on the main canal was under contract and rapidly nearing completion and the contract for the Oil Creek reservoir, which was to supply the deficiency of water experienced during the dry part of the season, had at last been let, and was in a fair state of progress. Two miles of canal from Oramel to Belfast had been opened in 1853, and in 1854 three miles more, extending from Belfast to Rockville, were completed and brought into use, making 93 miles of completed canal.   The 24-mile section from Rockville to Olean was completed in 1857, thus making 117 miles of completed canal.   At this time, the only sources of water supply for that portion of the canal south of Rockville were the natural flow of Black, Oil, Chamberlain and Ischua Creeks, as the Oil Creek reservoir was not completed until 1858.   In consequence of the leaky condition of the banks and the scarcity of water, the canal below Hinsdale could not be filled and it was found necessary to construct a feeder five rods in length from Olean Creek to the canal.

In November, 1857, the work for the construction of the extension of the Genesee Valley Canal from Olean nearly seven miles up the Allegheny River valley to Millgrove Pond was put under contract.   6.70 miles of this canal was completed and brought into use in August, 1859.   The rest of this work was so situated that it could not be done advantageously except in time of low water. This extension would, when completed, connect the Genesee Valley Canal with the Allegheny River.   By a navigation of 12 miles on that river, and a projected railroad of about 20 miles, it would connect with coal mines said to be of great value and of almost inexhaustible supply, and also with very extensive timber tracts.   Although one of the objects of constructing the Genesee Valley canal was to connect with the Allegheny river at Olean, that object was never accomplished.   To connect with the river at this point would involve the construction of two locks, originally estimated to cost $23,220.   At this time, it was thought that the construction of these locks was desirable, but neither Pennsylvania nor the United States Government carried out their plans of improving the Allegheny River, so that the original scheme of drawing trade from the Ohio and the other western rivers, never occurred.   Pennsylvania did not wish to further New York’s interests in this way, for she now had means of transporting goods from Pittsburg to the coast without permitting any other State to reap the advantages of their transportation.   In 1859, $17,700 was appropriated for the completion of the canal and extension.   This was followed in 1860 and 1862 by appropriations of $56,840 and $8,000, respectively.   The Buffalo, Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad was planned to be used.   This railroad was to cross the Allegheny River about 15 miles below Olean for transshipment to the river and then to the canal, coal and lumber in sufficient quantities to warrant the expenditure necessary for the construction of the locks and the improvement of the river.   This project never happened.

In December, 1861, the extension of the Genesee Valley Canal was completed and brought into use on the opening of navigation in 1862.   This completed the construction of the canal and the accounts were closed.   The lockage from Rochester to the summit level in Allegany County was all ascending, as was also that by the branch to Dansville in Livingston County.   The summit extended from New Hudson to North Hinsdale, a distance of about 12 miles, then the canal descended to the Allegheny River.

The provisions made for supplying the canal with water were as follows: proceeding southerly from the Erie Canal, there were: first, a feeder from Allen’s Creek at Scottsville; second, the Genesee River, one mile north of Mount Morris; third, a feeder from Wiscoy Creek at Mixville Landing; fourth, a feeder from the Genesee River at Oramel; fifth, Rockville reservoir at Rockville; sixth, a feeder from Oil Creek reservoir, two miles north of Cuba; seventh and eighth, Champlain and Chamberlain’s Creeks, in the village of Cuba; and ninth, a feeder from Ischua Creek near Hinsdale.   The last four feeders entered the canal on the summit level.   South of the summit at Smith Mills there was a short feeder from Olean Creek.   The Dansville Branch was supplied by a feeder from Mill Creek at Dansville and one from the Canaseraga, two miles north of that place.   The supply for the branch was not quite sufficient during the dry season, but that of the main line was ample for the needs of that time if properly husbanded.   Of all these feeders and reservoirs, the Oil Creek reservoir was by far the most important.   Its flow line, when full, covered about 470 acres and its average depth was estimated at 25 feet.   At the dam, it was 46 feet in depth.   The embankment forming the dam was 2,000 feet in length, 56 feet in height and 290 feet in breadth at the base where it crossed the channel of the creek.   The locks of the canal were of three kinds: wooden, composite and stone.   The wooden locks were used on account of the poor quality of the stone of that region and the great expense of bringing stone there before the canal was opened.   It was intended to rebuild these with stone as soon as the canal could be used as the means of transporting the material.   That would never happen.

In April, 1863, an act was passed authorizing the canal commissioners to raise the water in Oil Creek reservoir three feet, also to build a dam across Ischua Creek at Ischua feeder at such elevation as might be determined by the canal board and to raise and maintain, at an elevation of five feet above the bottom of the canal, the dams across the streams that supplied with water that part of the canal designated as the extension of the Genesee Valley Canal.   It was difficult to meet the ever increasing demand for more reservoirs, caused by the growing business of the canal, and in 1864 the Legislature appropriated $85,000 towards making a reservoir of Lime Lake and towards rebuilding with rubble masonry five locks.   In 1866, the balance of the 1864 allowance was reappropriated and the further sum of $6,936.26 was added to it for the original purpose of the act of 1864.   The locks were completed and brought into use during the following season.

Owing to the nature of the country, either with its many streams flowing into the canal or with the canal following their winding courses through the narrow valleys, the Genesee Valley Canal was bound to require large expenditures for maintenance and repair.   It was a country of floods; the outlets of the valleys could not take care of their great drainage areas and the floods frequently washed out canal embankments and carried away dams, locks and aqueducts.   On May 7, 1868, an act was passed appropriating the sum of $242,000 for furnishing additional water to the summit level of the Genesee Valley Canal, improving Ischua feeder, changing the plan of rebuilding Ischua feeder aqueduct, removing Mud Lock, deepening and widening the channel of the Genesee Valley Canal, from the guard lock at the rapids to the junction with the Erie Canal, for protecting the canal at the "slide banks" and for improving the canal in general.   After careful investigation it was decided that the best way of increasing the supply of water for the summit level was to raise the surface of Oil Creek reservoir six feet, which would cover an area of about 525 acres, and to construct a new reservoir on the Ischua Creek by raising a dam about 25 feet in height, and thus flooding some 200 hundred acres. It was estimated that these improvements would furnish a supply of water sufficient for the lockage of 27 boats per day in each direction through the entire season and that this would meet all demands for many years to come.   However, in 1869, the canal commissioners decided that, as the proposed reservoir of Ischua Creek would flood the best farming lands of that section, it would be cheaper to raise the State dam across the Ischua Creek about 6½ feet and to increase the capacity of Oil Creek reservoir by raising the dam there an additional two feet.

On May 12, 1869 , the Legislature set aside $50,000 for protecting the slide banks and otherwise improving the Genesee Valley Canal.   In the following year, $100,000 was allotted to the Genesee Valley Canal for improvements and for completing work already under contract.   In 1871, the Legislature appropriated $13,000 for constructing a stone abutment and docking at the east end of the dam across the Genesee River at Mount Morris and $12,000 to pay for work at that time under contract and for protecting the Genesee Valley Canal against the encroachments of the Genesee River. On May 23, 1872, the Legislature made provision for increasing the water supply at the Dansville end of the Dansville side cut.   An appropriation of $10,000 was made for conveying the water from Loon Lake into the canal at Dansville by discharging it through Mill Creek.   Loon Lake is about 10 miles from Dansville.   It was about one mile long and 1/3 mile wide, and by opening a channel about ¼ mile in length the water would pass down natural watercourses to Mill Creek above the point where that stream entered the side cut.   The contracts for deepening the summit level and for raising the dam of Oil Creek reservoir were completed 1872.   In 1873, the Legislature appropriated $18,537.94 for the canal and in the following year $2,000 was set aside for raising the towpath bank on the four and six-mile levels to prevent flood waters of the Genesee River from overflowing.

There was considerable delay in the opening of navigation in the spring of 1874 caused by an extraordinarily high freshet.   At first it was supposed that the damage that the canal sustained was so great that the State would not be justified repairing it.   The dam was carried out at Shaker’s, together with much embankment both there and along the Cuba level.   It was finally decided to make temporary repairs and navigation was opened about the first of June.   Shortly before this time, the public mind began to be agitated on the subject of abandoning some of the lateral canals.   Here are a few of the facts related to the Genesee Valley Canal:   According to the report of the canal board the Genesee Valley Canal had cost in the aggregate $6,723,625.23, with some claims against the State on file in the appraisers’ office.   They recommended that the State should lease the canal for a term of years or should sell it outright on condition that it should be maintained in good condition by its new owner for four or five months each year.   If it were impossible to either sell or lease the canal, they advised that the State should abandon the canal at the end of three or five years.

In May, 1876, a commission of three citizens of the State was appointed by the Legislature to further investigate the advisability of abandoning the lateral canals.   An appropriation of $40,000 was made at the same time to defray the expenses of collecting tolls, superintendence and maintenance for the year.   These commissioners reported in January, 1877 that many of the structures on this canal were in a condition to last for two or three years with slight repairs, but some of them would need extensive repairing to fit them for another season’s service; that the amount of tolls collected during the season of 1876 was $14,668.50, the amount of tolls contributed to the Erie canal was only $513 and the expenditures for repairs and employees amounted to $23,264.10; that the expenses for operating the canal during a season of three or four months in 1877, if no unusual break occurred, need not exceed those of 1876; that the reservoirs and feeders along the line of the canal were not required to supply the Erie; that ample facilities for transportation were furnished by the adjoining railroads and that these roads had already superseded the canal in the carrying of nearly all the trade and tonnage of the country, except in the article of lumber. Therefore, they advised that it should be opened for at least a part of the season of 1877, that the lumber products stored along the route might be shipped, and that then the canal should be abandoned. They recommended that the Dansville branch should be closed immediately.

By an act of June 4, 1877, the Legislature directed that the Genesee Valley Canal should be abandoned and discontinued as a canal and be no longer subject to the control or authority of any of the canal boards or officers of the State on or after September 30, 1878.   The act also directed that it should be the duty of the canal commissioners or Superintendent of Public Works, subject to the approval of the Canal Board, as soon as practical after the close of navigation in the year 1878, to advertise for sale and to sell the Genesee Valley Canal, its feeders, branches, appurtenances and water privileges.   On June 18, 1879, this act was amended and the date for selling the canal was changed to January 1, 1880.

In 1880 the division engineer of the western division reported the need of retaining the Cuba and other reservoirs of the abandoned Genesee Valley Canal as feeders for the Erie canal.   That year, the Legislature authorized the commissioners of the land office to sell the banks and prism of the Genesee Valley Canal for $100 per mile to any railroad corporation that would give bonds as a guarantee that it would, within two years, begin the construction of a standard gauge railroad substantially following the line of the Genesee Valley canal.   This act reserved two sections of the canal property from Allen’s creek feeder to Rochester and from Cuba reservoir to Rockville reservoir.   On November 6, 1880, the Governor deeded the main line of the Genesee Valley Canal to the Genesee Valley Canal Railway Company, so that, with the exception of the Cuba reservoir, its feeder of about ¾ of a mile between the reservoir and the Genesee Valley Canal, about 7½ miles of canal below the mouth of the feeder and about 10 miles between the dam across Allen’s Creek and the City of Rochester, the Genesee Valley Canal was no longer under the control of the State.   These portions were retained for the purpose of feeding the eastern end of the "long level" of the Erie Canal in the City of Rochester.   By an act of 1882, the State sold the Dansville side cut and the Wiscoy and Ischua reservoirs and feeders to farmers whose lands abutted on these sections of the canal and feeders.

The Genesee Valley Canal, with its numerous structures, costly in their original construction and not less so in their maintenance, was built after the era of canal building had substantially ended.   The locomotive, and consequently the method of transportation by railway, had just come into use and was practically tested when the construction of this canal was entered upon.   The Erie Railroad was completed and in operation when the last section of the canal was brought into use at Olean.   The expectations of the projectors of this canal, as they related to its business and its pecuniary importance to the country, were never realized.   The Genesee Valley Canal, like the other laterals, probably did not, in the way of tolls received, pay more than ¼ the cost of repairs, but it saved over $150,000 annually to the people of the City of Rochester in the reduced price of lumber.   The measure of its utility was out of all proportions to its cost, but there is reason to wonder whether the agricultural wealth it created, the industries it stimulated, encouraged and established, the thousands of benefits and conveniences which it yearly conferred, directly and indirectly, on the country through which it passed and at its termini, were not so vast in the aggregate as to counterbalance to a large extent the expenditures that the State had made.