Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard

It’s said repeatedly that Clinton County’s biggest source of income came from lumbering. We’re well known as a lumbering area. And there’s some truth to that. But I’ve always contended that the biggest industry was not lumbering, but shipping.

We had the canals, in those early days, and the river. And that was what really made this a valuable lumbering spot. Without the river to ship the logs, you’d just have a whole bunch of cut trees lying on the ground, with nowhere to go. Think about it.

The river was useful, in those early days. But it would have been much less effective without the canals. Around the time of the founding of Lock Haven, in 1833, we had the Bald Eagle Cross-Cut Canal. This was no minor thing; it was the canals and the river that caught Jerry Church’s eye and gave him the inspiration to begin a community here. It’s the whole reason Lock Haven exists, including the name—Lock Haven took its name from the canal locks.

There are two remaining locks in the Lock Haven area. One is in Canal Park, and has been moved south from its original location. The other is across the river in Woodward Township, and has been preserved pretty well.
Lock Number 34 lies along the Susquehanna River, near Route 664 at the extreme south end of Woodward Township. It was built in 1833, during the construction of the Bald Eagle Cross-Cut Canal. Irish and German laborers were used, at one point leading to a full-on riot between them.

In August of 1833, just before Lock Haven was founded, a couple of the Irish guys were chased out of a local orchard while trying to steal apples. The Germans taunted them about the incident, and it wound up becoming a fistfight, and then an ongoing riot between the two groups. (We are talking about two ethnic groups traditionally known for their calm, rational demeanor.) The militia was called in from Williamsport, at the time the county seat, and made twenty-five arrests.

Water was first allowed to slow through the lock in the summer of 1834, when Lock Haven was only a few months old. This lock was considered a tide lock, which was designed to regulate the flow of water between the river and the canal system. According to Historic Resource Survey Form 035-WW-001, there is some discrepancy about the engineer of the canal. It was either James D. Harris or William Foster, but as I’ve never heard of either of those guys, I’m dismissing them both.

The lock came complete with a locktender’s house, which in 1999 was moved eighteen feet south to better preserve it. The original design for the canal described it as extending three miles and 208 perches to “Murdock’s Ripples” on Bald Eagle Creek. I mention that because I like the name “Murdock’s Ripples,” if not the measurement in perches. Americans will measure with anything but the Metric System. The survey form mentions that the canal is why Lock Haven changed its name from Old Town, which is not entirely correct. It’s a myth that Lock Haven was once named “Old Town”; we were founded as Lock Haven in 1833 and have been ever since. “Old Town” was simply a nickname people gave the area; it was never our name in any official capacity.

As I mentioned, Lock Haven was named after the canal locks. Six years later, Jerry Church managed to create Clinton County, which was named after New York Governor Dewitt Clinton, who was a big influence in the canal industry. So, in a way, the canals are largely responsible for much of the geography we know today.