North American Canals

Consider these links a jumping-off place. You can find many more links by searching the web for particular canals.

Organizations

Canal Pages - National

Canal Pages - Local

The canals listed below are those I believe to be of interest for either pleasure boating or for historical reasons. I have not attempted to list any "large ship" canals.

I welcome any suggestions for additional entries.

NOTE: most canals will have a page on wikipedia. They are ordinarily good pages, but I have not tried to list them here.

The following are available for pleasure boating:

Rideau Canal- Ontario, Canada
Houseboat-style hire boats available.
Parks Canada page on the Rideau

Trent-Severn Waterway - Ontario, Canada:
Parks Canada page on the T-S.
Big Chute Marine Railway
Trent-Severn Cruising Guide
The Trent Severn Waterway, Trent Canal

New York State Canals Map
New York State Canal System
Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor
Camillus Erie Canal Park

Erie Canal- New York, USA
Travels of Tug 44 - on the Erie Canal, the Champlain Canal and the Hudson River; 2003 to the present

Paul Smith's 1999/2000 trip reports on the Erie, Cayuga-Seneca, and Oswego canals

Immortalized in song. See Low Bridge (song)

Boat hire firms:

Midlakes Hireboats, Ltd. in Scaneateles, NY. No longer has hireboats. Cruises on Skaneateles Lake only.

Transiting the Erie Canal - this is a google search; first 20 links may be useful

The Erie Canal, by Frank Sadowski - a plethora of historical material

The Engineering of the Erie Canal - No longer available - part of the Ohio University Online Master of Science in Civil Engineering program [Thanks to Kevin Powell for finding this one.]

Time lapse trip through the Erie Canal - video; 7 days in 8 minutes!

The following are of historical interest and/or for canoeing/kayaking or other non-boating recreation:

US - Northeast

Canal Path-Georges Highland Path
path along Georges River Canal, and historic information; Searsmont, Maine
Cumberland and Oxford Canal
Sebago Lake, Maine to Portland, Maine; only traces remain
Cumberland and Oxford Canal (Fore River Sanctuary) walking trail
As above
Bellows Falls Canal
Bellows Falls, VT
The Blackstone Canal
Worcester, MA to Providence, RI
Boston, Brockton, and New York Canal
- the canal that never was
South Hadley Canal
Massachusetts; wikipedia link, substituting for the orginal article, no longer available, by Ted Belsky of the South Hadley Canal Committee
Middlesex Canal Association
Massachusetts, Chelmsford to Charlestown
Farmington Canal Heritage Greenway
Connecticut
Champlain Canal
New York
The Genesee Valley Greenway in New York state.
Conversion of an abandoned canal and railway into a "Greenway".
Lowell National Historical Park - Lowell, MA
Canal tours
The Mighty Chain: A Guide to Canal Records in the New York State Archives.
Provides link to a pdf file
Canal Society of New York State
History of the Canal System of the State of New York
Only up to 1906!
Little Falls Canal
Quick overview with a few photos
Little Falls Canal
Canal history; the "first true canal for navigation in New York State" - Images
New York's Oldest Canal - "the Neck"
1730, but apparently just a channel cut in the river - no locks; upper Mohawk River Valley; by Phil Lord, originally written for the NYS Museum
Chenango Canal Association
Hamilton, New York

US - Mid-Atlantic

Morris Canal, New Jersey
Canal Society of New Jersey
Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park
Somerset, NJ
National Canals Museum - Easton, PA
No longer has pages on the Lehigh, Delaware, and Morris Canals!
Lehigh Canal
the National Park Service pages are gone!; can't find any good links
Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor
Delaware Canal State Park
Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, USA
Friends of the Delaware Canal
Delaware and Hudson Canal
from the National Park Service
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal- Washington, D.C. and Maryland, USA
184 miles long, mostly de-watered, except near Washington, DC. Towpath suitable for walking or cycling. National Park Service horse-drawn trip boat at D.C. end.
Patowmack Canal
(From the National Park Service); Great Falls, VA
Richmond's Canal Cruises & Walk - Richmond, VA
Virginia Canal & Navigations Society

US - Southeast

Augusta Canal
Augusta, GA
Muscle Shoals Canal
Tennessee River, Alabama - original page gone - this links to a copy from the Internet Archive
Old Santee Canal Park
Moncks Corner, South Carolina
Savannah - Ogeechee Canal Museum
museum; towpath trail - Savannah, GA

US - Midwest

Ohio's Historic Canals.
(Web pages by Larry Stevens.)
Protecting & Preserving the Ohio & Erie Canalway - Canalway Partners
Cleveland's First Infrastructure: The Ohio and Erie Canal
Ohio & Erie Canalway
A Comprehensive Listing of Ohio Canals and Their Feeders - original page gone - this links to a copy from the Internet Archive
Illinois & Michigan Canal Trail
(From the Illinois Department of Natural Resources)
Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor
(From the National Park Service.)
Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor
Canal Corridor Association
revitalizing the Illinois & Michigan Canal Corridor
Canal Society of Indiana
The Wabash & Erie Canal through Huntington County, Indiana
Very thorough. (Web pages by Terry Pepper.)
Wabash & Erie Canal Park
Delphi, Indiana
Canal Land Records for Northwest Indiana
Metamora, Indiana 1838 Canal Town
on the Whitewater Canal
Whitewater Canal Scenic Byway
Indiana
Hennepin Canal
Illinois - connects Illinois River with Mississippi
Friends of the Hennepin Canal
Portage Canal Society
Wisconsin - connects Great Lakes watershed with Mississippi watershed

US - Far West

Canals of Venice, California

Canada

Canadian Canal Society/Société des Canaux du Canada
Shut down in 2020
Shubenacadie Canal- Nova Scotia, Canada.
(Contributed by Joan Payzant.)
Lachine Canal
Monteal, Quebec (pages in English and en Francais)
Le Petit Navire - Lachine Canal trips in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Other Canadian Canals
(Web pages from Parks Canada.)
Link to main canals page.
Send questions and comments to .
Text, graphics, and photos Copyright © 1995-2023 by George Pearson.
This Page Last Modified: Sunday, 08-Oct-23 1:20 pm EDT
Page Links Manually Checked: Friday, 29-Sep-23 3:40 pm EDT