The Erie Canal

After our shift yesterday we went to the Chill and Grill for lunch with D1 and her family who are in the pageant. They have been in rehearsals and we have been working so we haven’t seen them much. But yesterday we celebrated Luke’s seventh birthday a day early.

After we ate we went to Lock 29 on the Erie Canal. Shortly after we arrived, a packet boat came down the canal and we lined the fence to watch the lock lower the boat. As the Lock Operator came by he told us we could ask any question we wanted and so we started asking questions. Tom ended up spending the next hour with us explaining everything about the lock and showing us the old fuses and pulleys and gears and everything you can imagine. The Erie Canal has been moved twice and the current lock was opened in 1911 so this is the 100 year anniversary. I wish I’d had a recording going so I could remember all the fascinating things Tom told us. Besides being knowledgeable Tome was a lot of fun and kept everyone entertained.

Tom explained how the North would not have won the Civil War without the Erie Canal. But more significant to us was the fact that there would have been no printing press or enough paper in Palmyra to print the Book of Mormon if there had been no Erie Canal. Before the Erie Canal it cost farmers and others $100 a ton to ship their products, but as soon as the Canal opened that price dropped to $7.00 a ton. You can imagine what a boost that was to the economy. It is so interesting to see the hand of the Lord in not only the Church but in the history of this country.

After the packet boat went through, Tom filled the lock for us and answered more questions and then he got word that another boat was on its way. This one was a yacht on an excursion to the Florida Keys. So we got to see the lock do its job once again.