Canastota and Chittenango: Two Historic Canal Towns

By Lionel D. Wyld

Canastota and Chittenango share a growth spawned by the building of the Erie Canal, the longest continuous canal in the world. These two upstate New York communities also share much in addition to their canal related background, for both have a history of early settlement and townsfolk who were leaders in manufacturing, agriculture, industry, and state politics. Join author and historian Lionel D. Wyld in this exploration of the past through carefully preserved historic images. Canastota and Chittenango: Two Historic Canal Towns reveals the important link between these towns and a canal once
hailed as the eighth wonder of the world. Both villages have canal related museums and parks today, in honor of the many ways in which the waterway influenced the communities. In a more popular realm, Chittenango boasts a unique annual Oz festival each May honoring native writer L. Frank Baum, author
of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Canastota is home to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, founded in 1984.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Nov 10, 1998
• ISBN: 9781439621912

Lionel D. Wyld

Dr. Lionel D. Wyld is an educator, historian, and author. In The Navy in Newport, he explores the navy's presence in this City by the sea and provides a pictorial record of its enduring history that is sure to be enjoyed by resident and historian alike.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION

Canastota and Chittenango share a growth spawned by the building of the Erie Canal, which opened in 1825 joining Buffalo on Lake Erie with Albany, the state capital, and the Hudson River. The canal provided an artificial inland waterway—the longest continuous canal in the world—across upstate New York. Canastota became an overnight canal town, situated on the Erie’s original route. Chittenango, while not directly on the waterway, became a virtual canal town also, as canal boats for the Erie were built and repaired on the canal just a short distance north, where the Chittenango Canal Boat Landing featured a three-bay dry dock. Just a few miles apart and a short distance east of Syracuse, roughly the half-way point across upstate New York, both villages today have canal-related museums and parks, and are joined by New York State Routes 5 and 13.

They also share much in addition to their canal-related background, for both have a history of early settlement and town folk who were or became leaders in manufacturing, agriculture, industry, and public service. In a more popular realm, Chittenango boasts a unique annual Oz festival each May honoring native writer L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and other books; Canastota is also home to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, founded there in 1984. Both villages are close to Interstate 90, the Gov. Thomas E. Dewey New York State Thruway. Canastota’s Boxing Hall of Fame has an annual Induction Weekend in June, with a Breakfast of Champions, collectors card show, parade, golf tournament, and the induction ceremony. A few miles away, in July, the Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum Canal Fest features craft shows, horse-drawn wagon rides, blacksmithing, tinsmithing, stonecutting, and other events.

Canastota and Chittenango: Two Historic Canal Towns offers an insight into two upstate communities that will provide readers with a rewarding look at an important region of eastern America. The history and development of Chittenango and Canastota represent in many ways that of many other villages and towns whose growth—and often their very origins—were linked to the famous Erie Canal, once hailed as the eighth wonder of the world, and to the transportation revolution and westward movement it brought about.

One

ALONG THE ERIE CANAL

The Erie Canal belongs as much to folklore as to history. Opened in 1825, the Erie was the longest continuous artificial inland waterway in the world, hailed as an engineering accomplishment of unprecedented proportions. It drew visitors from far and near, home and abroad. Historically, the Erie opened the American Midwest to settlement, and served as a commercial waterway transporting farm goods and other freight from the Great Lakes ports and towns across the state. In folklore it was referred to as The Roaring Giddap and The Horse Ocean—the eighth wonder of the world, memorialized in song and story.

For the villages of Canastota and Chittenango, the canal brought prosperity, growth, and expansion. The Erie passed just north of Chittenango village, and Chittenango Landing provided an important dry-dock complex for building and repairing boats. In Canastota, thanks to a hometown canal surveyor-engineer, the canal went right through town. In both villages, the Erie Canal created a need for inns, hotels, and restaurants; marine and associated businesses grew up; and area farms and factories found an easy and inexpensive way to ship their goods to markets further along the canal or beyond, connecting to Hudson River boats bound for downriver cities and the metropolis of Manhattan.

THE DRY DOCKS AT CHITTENANGO LANDING IN ITS HEYDAY. This is now a