Scottsville and Genesee River Canal Blog

Access to this blog is your reward for visiting the three points of this geocache. As you discovered these points and viewed the scenes at these places, you were walking in an area which was once bustling with the early day commerce of old Scottsville.

The Town of Wheatland was an area of early wheat production among other agricultural products which needed to be transported by the most efficient means. Use of horse or mule drawn carts or wagons was impractical beyond small quantities or loads and thus more efficient means were developed. An early demand for a canal linking Scottsville with the Genesee River was one step in commercial transportation improvement. The canal was begun in 1836 for a capital sum of $30,000.

The major stock holders in this venture were Powel Carpenter, Abraham Hanford, and Isaac Cox. They formed the board of directors for the project.

The contract for the canal construction was awarded to Joseph Cox and Thomas Halstead.

The canal was short lived and operated between 1838 and 1839 at which time it was partially used in the local construction of the Genesee Valley Canal which superseded it. The parts of the Scottsville and Genesee River Canal which were combined with the Genesee Valley Canal were the dam and feeder gates on Oatka Creek which provided feed water to the new canal and a stretch of canal ditch approximately 1650 feet long from the feeder gates to the point where the old canal used to turn right and head toward the Genesee River. At that point the new canal continued northward heading toward Rochester.

The Genesee Valley Canal began operation in 1840 and continued to operate until 1878. Although it never completely recovered its original construction costs, the stimulus which it provided for development of the region and western New York is monumental.

Eventually the tow path of the Genesee Valley Canal became the right of way of the Genesee Valley Canal Railroad and then later the Pennsylvania Railroad. This railroad right of way is now the Genesee Valley Greenway Trail.

NAVIGATION NOTE: As you scroll down in this blog you can click on the various photographs to see a larger view of them with better detail. When you scroll to the bottom of a page you can click on "Older Posts" to see the entire blog in the logical order of the way you discovered the points in the geocaching process. You can also view any particular page by clicking on its title at the right- hand side of each blog page.