After getting the boat ready for our next leg on Saturday, we left Blain’s Marina and headed west on the Mohawk River section of the Erie Canal.
The river has many bends with woods and a scattering of homes on the shore. Must be good fishing, as the locals were out in force.
We locked thru #7 with a 27 foot lift. The river then continues its winding path, but the shores are more rock walls that vary in height from 4-25 feet.
We passed an aqueduct from the old Erie Canal on our to cruise thru the city of Schenectady, NY. Schenectady was settled in 1661 by Dutch settlers and established a trading center in the fur trade. In 1690, a fire destroyed much of the older structures. The historic district in Schenectady still has over one hundred homes dating 1690-1900’s. Along the Mohawk River, the city created many parks. General Electric has a large presence in the city which continues today.
At lock 8 in Scotia which is on the north side of the Mohawk River just past Schenectady and we rose 14 feet. After this lock, the hills surrounding the river grow from 500-800 feet with little to no development and forested right down to the water.
We tackled Lock 9, rising 15 feet; then Lock 10 rising 15 feet; and Lock 11 at the town of Amsterdam rising 12 feet. Today we were lifted 83 feet total through the lock system. All the locks we went thru today had dams associated with the lock and many had small hydroelectric plants.
We pulled up to the lock wall just past the lock and plugged in and had dinner. This lock wall, like many wall tie ups on the Erie are free.
Amsterdam was originally settled in 1773 at the juncture of the trade routes with the Iroquois Indians. The limestone manor home of Guy Johnson is the oldest home in Amsterdam, built in 1774. Guy Johnson was a loyalist to the Crown and his job as Supervisor of Indian Affairs required him to keep peace with the native Iroquois Indians. He persuaded the Iroquois Indians to side with the British, and when found out escaped with friends and relatives to Canada in 1766. After the Revolutionary War, the property was confiscated and sold. Later the manor home was used as a headquarters and museum for the Erie Canal until 2011, when it was damaged severely by hurricane. Repair to the building is still ongoing today.
After dinner we walked thru Amsterdam and visited the 1774 manor house which is adjacent to Lock 11. We also saw many old Victorian homes. Was sad to see the remnants of the warehouses and mills which made clothing, buttons, and carpet (Mohawk carpet) during the hey days of this town.
