(water hissing) (melancholy, piano music) - [Narrator] Lock number one of the Ohio Erie Canal, in Akron, is virtually lost and forgotten, but in 1827, when the first canal boat headed north, it was the ditch that changed Ohio.

- My great, great, great, great grandfather, Joe Snyder, came in around 1820 to Green, Ohio, and he was a farmer, he had a log cabin, he had 14 children.

The biggest thing that occurred was, seven years later, they were building the canal, and so, on July 3rd, 1827, the first canal boat was going to pass through that canal, and so, he and his family walked all the way from Green to Akron, Ohio, to see that canal boat go through those locks.

- Basically, it opened up Ohio to immigration, good times for economies, agriculture made Ohio rich, where before, we were dirt poor, and I'm talkin' about dirt poor.

Between the aqueducts, the lock system, the weirs, the water source, it is our, probably, version of the pyramids, to be honest with ya.

- This was a big moment, there were celebrations, (laughing) there were celebrities and dignitaries there for this big event, and so, he turned out for it, with all his children.

It's a lot to get 14 children to walk all the way from Green to Akron, Ohio.

So, it was momentous.

(water hissing) (melancholy, piano music) (birds chirping) - [Narrator] When General Simon Perkins, along with settler, Paul Williams, in 1825, stood looking down from the highest point on what was to become the city of Akron.

They knew what needed to be done to make the city and Ohio prosperous.

Simon Perkins was a astute enough, visionary enough to see the potential of the Ohio and Erie Canal, and he is the very reason why the Ohio and Erie Canal came through Akron today.

- [Narrator] He knew he needed to be able to get products to Cleveland and the rest of what was America The canal was the answer.

- So it was a sales job, I'm pretty sure, but he basically said, "If you bring the route of the Ohio and Erie Canal through Akron, I'll give you the land.

Made it an easy decision for the canal commissioners.

- The American Indians first came up with this idea they give George Washington the credit though because he was important, but the explorers, they were usually French and British explorers, thought it would be a good idea to make a canal here.

- The Ohio and Erie Canal and the canal system is absolutely an engineering marvel.

I still am in awe, every time I go out there and I see a lock, I see an aqueduct, I really give credit to our predecessors because they had the vision, they just persevered, they had the fortitude and the stick-to-it-ive-ness.

And then, once that deal was made, you know, Captain Richard Howe had to figure out how to engineer it.

- Very influential, it was the School of Hard Knocks engineering.

There were no engineering colleges then.

- Finding a reliable water source was the challenge for Captain Richard Howe.

I mean, obviously, when you've got the canal paralleling the Cuyahoga River, when you have it paralleling the lower Cuyahoga River, when you have it paralleling the Tuscarawas River, you're all set, you don't need to worry about, you know, water source, but then, what do you do in that six mile difference there?

How do you make it happen?

And in addition to the fact that Akron is at the very top, the highest level, between the Ohio River and Lake Erie, we're at the top, how do you make that happen?

- [Narrator] That is why Summit Lake is so important.

- A glacial-fed lake, and he basically said, "Okay, fine, we got, at least a water supply source, "now how do we connect it?"

And he did it.

- [Narrator] Maintaining the water level in the canal was a challenge.

Engineers built three feeders between Akron and Cleveland, water was diverted from the Cuyahoga River to the canal by a feeder channel.

- It's an amazing, you know, engineering feat, you know, without question.

And when I tell people about the elevation changes, you and I can walk north a mile and we'll hit lock 15, you know, maybe through lock 20.

You don't hit lock 20 south until about 45 miles south of where we sit, and that's how the elevation doesn't change very much, going south, and that's why Summit Lake was so important.

It was a reliable water source, which is pretty unusual, at the highest elevation point.

- [Narrator] When the first canal boat made the 37 mile trip to Cleveland, arriving on July 4th, a new era was about to begin in Ohio.

The Ohio Erie Canal cost the state about $10,000 a mile to complete.

It nearly bankrupt the state government.

- [Man] "The Old Skipper."

♪ I'm a cold canal boat skipper ♪ ♪ With black snake in hands ♪ So fare you well darling, my mules will not stand ♪ ♪ The lines on the deadeye, for Portsmouth, I'm bound ♪ ♪ And I love thee, old Towpath, best place I have found ♪ - [Narrator] Captain Pearl R. Nye was born on the Ohio and Erie Canal, on a family canal boat, The Reform, the 15th of 21 children.

Like most children born on the canal, he received little, formal education.

His parents kept working on the boat until the 1913 flood shut down the canal.

♪ Gray coal-brick and lumber cord wood stone and eyes ♪ - I've read stories of where families had to tie their kids with literally rope so they wouldn't just fall off the cabins that were just incredibly small, probably no bigger than a small closet.

♪ My horse is not hungry and won't eat your hay ♪ ♪ So fare you will, Molly, I'll be on my way ♪ - [Narrator] The family entertainment was singing.

Many songs were passed down.

Nye memorized many of them as his love for the big ditch never ended.

Old songs with roots in English tradition, mixed with newer songs, passed along at canaler's gatherings, up and down the length of the canal.

He's sometimes called, "The Last Canal-Boat Captain."

Folklorist, John A. Lomax, heard about him, and recorded many of his songs in 1937 and arranged for them to be performed in public.

Nye contributed a manuscript of about 400 song lyrics to the Library of Congress and to the Ohio Historical Society.

- In Akron, there were a lot of excursions on the canal boats, there were parties, there was entertainment.

So the canal was significant to the life of people, the social life to people in the area.

♪ Did you ever hear the story, then listen what I say ♪ ♪ She was walking at South Howard Street ♪ ♪ Who but the tailor did she chance for to meet ♪ ♪ Tumma rally tally dally, tumma rally tally day ♪ - My grandfather told me that one of his great uncles had a canal boat on the canal and that his wife, when he got married, said, "I am not gonna raise a family on the canal."

So, she forced him to retire his canal boat and they became land lubbers or farmers.

In the canal jargon they would say, "Town Jakes."

♪ I will tell you a story as I was it told ♪ ♪ About the-- - They dug it and the guys are unsung heroes.

They say there's one dead Irishman buried on this side of the canal for every mile of canal, and there were 1,000 miles in Ohio.

♪ And I plainly could see ♪ That a time sure would come where a scrap there would be ♪ - Just basic tools, shovels, picks, mules, basic surveying, you know, transoms, chain for surveys and so that's actually the building the canal, building the locks and then same thing, how do you lift those big, heavy stones and put 'em in place and make sure that they're actually in the right places?

That's why, again, I had this utmost respect for the canal-era workers, but then also, just life on the canal.

♪ She laughed and she joked and a rich, Irish bloke ♪ ♪ She'd cheer up her callers as bit of a rope ♪ (melancholy, piano music) - The canal was hugely important to this area and to Ohio, in general, the canal is what brought industry to Ohio, from the East coast, the canal is what connected us, monetarily, to the East Coast.

It allowed farmers and quarrymen and whoever, in Ohio to ship their goods out to the East Coast and beyond.

- [Narrator] One group that prospered were stone cutters because of the Ohio Sandstone.

- So we're here, at Deep Lock Quarry Metro Park and behind me are the main quarry steps, and just a small portion of the greater quarry that is here, and you can still see the marks of the tools that were used here and really appreciate what this quarry once was.

And this relates to the canal because we are right on top of the canal.

It's just a few hundred yards that way.

Deep Lock Quarry gets it's name from the deepest lock, lock number 28, where stone used to be loaded up onto canal boats and shipped up to Cleveland and beyond.

- [Narrator] Lock 28 raised and lowered canal boats 14 feet.

That's more change in elevation than any other lock along the canal.

Though it may look enormous, in reality, these locks were built to be an exact fit for the boats of the day, with just a foot of leeway on each side.

- A canal boat could carry the equivalent of a modern-day semi truck.

So it was amazingly efficient for the time, to be able to move that stone.

Untold tons of stone were quarried from this area and shipped all around.

So you can find stone from Deep Lock Quarry and several other local peninsula quarries all throughout Downtown Akron, all throughout Downtown Cleveland, and beyond.

(melancholy, piano music) - [Narrator] In 1879, Ferdinand Schumacher, purchased part of the quarry.

- He would utilize the stone quarried here, down at Cascade Mills, way down in Downtown Akron, and he would use these grindstones to remove the hulls from oats in order to create oatmeal.

- [Narrator] He's credited with introducing oatmeal to America, supplying much of it to the Union troops during the Civil War.

He later became one of the founders of Akron's American Cereal Works, later, Quaker Oats.

- The quarry records here show that stone was shipped far and wide, all across the United States, to many states, all the way west of the Rockies and even overseas to Russia, Japan and Germany.

So the stone that was here was really prized.

It was high quality.

- [Narrator] Mason marks can still be seen in the Berea Sandstone at lock 29.

The masons did this to identify their work.

It showed how much work they had done and it determined their pay.

The founder of Peninsula, Herrand Bronson, built the first gristmill in 1832.

Farmers in the area came to have their grain ground and shipped on the canal to distant markets.

Peninsula was a thriving village, home of several mills, stone quarries and boatyards, five hotels and 14 bars, until 1887.

In 1902, channeler Moody and Charles Thomas bought the Bronson mill and enlarged it.

It continued to operate until 1931 when a fire consumed the mill.

- Peninsula, I think, had a reputation, you know, maybe rightfully, or not deservedly so, but as a very, kind of a rough and tumble.

Canal workers were, again, Irish and German heritage, and sometimes that didn't always mix well.

The literature is abundant with stories, counterfeiters, bootleggers, you know, not really overly surprised, I mean, it's probably not too different than today's society where you've got the transient folks, you've got transportation, you know, when you combine those factors, maybe with people who don't have families, are independent, you know, all sorts of things can happen.

But if anything, it adds to the colorful heritage of our communities.

(gentle, quiet music) - So down in the town of Boston, really close to here, there was a boat-building yard, and they would build these really, beautiful, wonderful canal boats in order to be used on the Ohio and Erie Canal.

- [Narrator] If you're in the village of Boston and walking along the Towpath, you can still see the remnants of the canal boat dry dock and the area where many of the builders lived in this once prosperous village.

- It makes logical sense, there was a lot of available wood and timber in the surrounding area.

You know, there was a constant need for craftsmen and skilled carpenters, actually, to build the boats.

So that was one of the areas where it was built.

We actually had a boat building site here, at lock two, as well.

(hissing water) - [Narrator] Next to lock 15, along the Towpath Trail in Akron, you can still visit the Mustill Store, believed to have been built in the 1850's, by Anna Mustill and her family.

Three generations of Mustills serviced canal users until the late 1880's.

- So you have the Mustill house, you have the store, you know, we talked earlier about the elevation.

Well, that's why the Mustill store was the destination, shopping area, because, in order to get through Akron, it took you all day because it took 20 minutes to negotiate 15 locks, and you know, do the math, it just takes all day to do Akron.

So rather than stay on a canal boat and going up and down those different locks, people got off at the Mustill store.

They got something to eat, they purchased supplies, they did all sorts of activities in there,some of which we don’t necessarily talk about today,but there’s all sorts of business that was transacted there.

(water hissing) - [Narrator] Lock one, north from Akron, was also lock one south to Barberton.

- From that lock, lock one, there were 44 locks stepping up from lock one to Cleveland, Ohio, and there were 55 locks, stepping up from lock one to Portsmouth.

Now O.C.

Barber located his community here, partly because there was a canal, there were railroads, and he used the canals to float blocks of wood, down from Canada, Lake Erie to Cleveland to Akron, and then to Barberton, to supply the matchsticks for his matchmaking industry.

And so he saw it as an opportunity to relocate his match factory from Akron over to here.

So Barber would take the matches and he would sell them out of a back of a wagon.

Now he's kind of a celebrity because people wanted to keep their distance because the white phosphorus could ignite at any time, (laughs) and burn down their property, and the way he had to ship the matches was, he had to ship them on a canal boat because the railroads were too afraid to haul those matches on their trains because they might spontaneously combust and cause a big problem.

- Last call for the 1:00 boat ride!

Last call!

- Now folks, we're gonna start in 1808-- - We talked about rough and tumble canal towns, Canal Fulton had it's reputation.

There was a corner called Brimstone Corner.

It's supposedly where all disputes were resolved.

- [Narrator] Canal Fulton, 56 miles south of Cleveland, was surrounded by agriculture and minerals and it became an important port along the canal.

- We became number one in agriculture, number two in pig iron, if you're on a small crossroads, in the country, when the canal went through it, you became a port in the waterway that extended about 5,000 miles, across the northern part of the United States before 1845.

146 locks, 14 aqueducts, hundreds of low bridges-- - [Man] Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa bridge.

- It can be a lot of fun.

It's always a fun experience to have so many different people come through and just ride the boat.

I've seen people ride the boat from all over the world.

We've had people from as far away as China and Japan, and even our cousins across the pond, from England, come and visit.

It's been a lot of fun, mostly for the people that you're exposed to, although, the boat itself, has its merits.

On a good day, this job is a lot of fun in the summer.

- I have a particular fondness for Canal Fulton because it's the only place, today, that still has the word, canal, in it's name, and it has the only operating canal boat, the Saint Helena III.

- [Narrator] The Saint Helena III was built in the McLaughlin dry dock.

- And the McLaughlin dry dock is appropriately named Ann McLaughlin was an incorporator of the Ohio and Erie Canal-Way Coalition.

Her family operated the dry dock back in the canal-way era.

- [Narrator] Ed J. McLaughlin and his father, James, purchased it in 1860.

They built and repaired canal boats at that dry dock for many years.

It's still used today to repair and store the Saint Helena III, during off-season.

- Here, at Canal Fulton, we're very fortunate to still have a section that you can see, go back in time, hear the clip-clop of the horses on the old Towpath.

- Being on the boat and being able to see things firsthand, was a lot.

It really put in perspective some of the hardships, the struggles, and of course, some of the good experiences that people actually had in the 1800s.

♪ Hey hey, skip to my Lou, hey hey-- ♪ - The canal was one of the most important things for early Ohio.

- But it was the ditch that brought the world to the wilderness, truly, it truly was.

♪ Ah ha ha, you and me, little brown jug, don't I love thee ♪ (thunder rumbling) - March 23rd, 1913, right after Easter, or right on Easter, five days of rain, nine inches of rain.

The lowest part of this area was the community where my family was living and they called it Snyder Town.

And Snyder Town had the water rise to the very eves of the houses.

My grandfather was there during the flood.

He was 10 years old.

He said he looked out over the back and it was just a flood of water, as far as you could see, and then he said all of a sudden he heard a boom, and they blew up the locks of the canal, and that was the end of the canal.

The water drained out of it like a bathtub.

- [Narrator] And the heyday of the canal was over.

- And over the years, after the big flood of 1913, they went back to nature.

(gentle, quiet music) (birds chirping) - The aspects that I found interesting were growing up as a child, it seemed to be the industrial dumping ground of the factories in Barberton.

And so I always thought of them as polluted and terrible places to be.

They smelled.

When I grew up and I was in junior high, they would have us do science projects and one of my science projects was displaying the pollution that went on in the canals.

And now I'm just fascinated by the fact that now they're turning them into recreational paths.

It's coming back to life, the trees and wildlife, and it's becoming a nature zone instead of a dumping ground for pollution.

- [Narrator] Much of the credit goes to Congressman Ralph Regula who had the vision for a national park.

- So I had that opportunity to create a legacy for future generations.

Our lack of appreciation for our heritage is frustrating.

- [Narrator] During the hearings on establishing the park, Congressman Regula said, "We could be the architects "in preserving this heritage for future generations.

"It goes far beyond today in terms of potential."

(horn wailing) (train rumbling) The park was created by a bill, signed by Gerald Ford, in 1974.

- We've documented $409,000,000 of economic impact, on an annual basis, that the Ohio and Erie Canal-way generates.

That's significant.

3,200 jobs it supports.

$37,000,000 in tax revenue is generated.

So what we're doing is not just a great, resource development project or some people like to call it a tree-hugging project, it's not just a nature project, we are talking about real dollars and cents.

- [Narrator] The Ohio and Erie Canal Way Coalition, established in 1989, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to developing the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail.

When completed, the Towpath Trail will be 101 miles long.

- The thing I love about this project is that something that was built, literally by hand, by German and Irish workers, almost 200 years ago, and if we do it right, and I think that we are doing it right, this incredible resource will be here another 200 years.

(gentle, peaceful music) (hammer tapping) - This building was a hallmark of Akron, really.

It's the canal engineer's home.

We're setting up a two foot by two foot grid on all the faces of the building.

- Document in smaller pieces, to be able to note clues that are on the building that will actually note the history so that it will accompany its restoration.

- We're putting together film for each side of the building to see if there's any shift in the building whenever it's moved.

(humming machinery) - [Narrator] In 2008, they were able to move and restore the Captain Richard Howe house.

It was a 1836 high-style federal structure.

- Captain Richard Howe is the reason why the canal exists, it's the reason why Akron exists, we wouldn't have a project if it wasn't for Captain Richard Howe and (mutters) and, Mr. Regula.

Our original plan was restore the building on site.

And about the time we raised all the money, to restore the building, I got a call from the city and they basically said, "We're gonna move your building."

But I'll be honest with you, it's probably the best thing for this resource.

Because, if we were down at the corner of Main and High, people would probably wonder, well, why is the building here because the canal's over there.

There's really good reasons for why, because the canal, in the 1830s and 40s, was our version of an interstate highway system.

It was dirty, it was industrial, it was busy.

You wouldn't wanna build your house right on the canal, that would not have been a good decision.

But now where it is, it actually fits perfectly.

You can tell the story and you actually, physically see the canal.

- [Narrator] There were many forward-thinking people then, and now, who see the importance of remembering our history.

- We stand on the shoulders of giants who came before us, you just can't stand on their shoulders, you've gotta recognize it, you've got to honor that.

And with that, comes a responsibility to preserve and interpret and educate that next generation because if you don't, you're not doing your job.

(gentle, peaceful music)