TANOWANDA AND THE END OF THE ERIE CANAL

Like its sister town, Waterford, New York, Tanowanda, New York is the western gateway to the Erie Canal.  We spent a day and a half there putting things back together and having a day of wind down time. 

You can see the railroad lift bridge in the background?  Well, it was built around the turn of the last century.  Someone had the idea that there should be lift bridges to allow taller vessels in.  Well, the idea was not popular.  Nevertheless, the lift bridge was built, it was operated one time, and has never been opened since (like, over a hundred years ago).

Tonawanda means "swift waters," and is the name given to the area by Neuter and Erie Indians and probably refers to the Niagara River current.  Tonawanda sits at the intersection of the Erie Canal and the Niagara River.  The area, because of its location at a confluence was an important crossroads in terms of America’s westward expansion. Construction of the Erie Canal in the 1820s brought a wave of people, and with the opening of the canal and the resulting increase in trade and traffic, the area developed swiftly.

Today, there are few historical reminders.  Most of the early structures are gone, although there is a newly formed Tonawanda Historical Museum Group putting together museum with items donated by long time area residents.  At the moment, it sort of has the feel of a consignment shop, but I suspect that with a good museum director, the bits and pieces can be brought together to tell an interesting story.

The waterfront area is very popular with boaters.  Not only is Tonawanda a gateway to the Erie Canal, it is also a very popular place to bring the boat and the family for weekends and holidays.  The city runs the docks on both sides of the canal.  There is probably room for a couple hundred boats to tie up, rafted or otherwise, and to have easy access to the north and south sides of town.  You pull up wherever there is space and plug in.  Then you walk over the the harbormaster's office and pay.  It's really inexpensive (compared to where we are now in Buffalo). There are many restaurants and bars within short walking distance, all of which offer live music almost every weekend, and several during the week.  We enjoyed walking the streets and poking our heads into interesting little stores.

Perhaps the highlight of the stop, however, was discovering the Herschell Carousel Factory Museum.  The Allan Herschell Company, the most prolific maker of carousels, specialized in producing portable machines which could be used by traveling carnival operators. The Company produced over 3,000 hand carved wooden carousels and out-produced all of its rivals in the carousel industry. Each hand-carved wooden carousel featured striking yet simple horses.



All of the original animals would have been made of wood.  Today, some are cast from fibreglass.



The Allan Herschell Company had a worldwide reputation for quality rides. Carousels from this company were shipped throughout the United States and Canada, as well as to all parts of the world.  In fact, one such carousel is in Santa Barbara at the Chase Palm Park.

There is actually a practical story concerning the idea of grabbing the brass ring.  During midievil times, knights were trained to fight on horseback with a brass ring which hung from an arm mounted on a rolling platform.  The ring swung back and forth, and the knight had to aim his lance accurately in order to put the point through the ring.  In the early days of carousels, however, most of the outside row horses were "standers" meanind they did not go up and down, but rather, remained fixed.  Most people preferred to ride the "jumpers" on the inside rows - they were considered more fun.  Carousel owners needed a way to get riders on the outside rows, so they came up with a variation of the old brass training ring.

This is the carving room at the Herschell Museum.  Volunteer carvers come in to this day and work on wooden carousel horses.

This is a Wirlitzer Band Machine.  You cannot see the labels, but this machine plays for 16 violins, several trombones, several trumpets, as well as the two drums seen on either side. 

This is actually a "copy machine".  It is used to make copies of original Wirlitzer Music Rolls.

Ride operators thus devised a game whereby outside row riders would make attempts at stretching out and grabbing metal rings from a long armed dispenser positioned just far enough away to make it challenging.  Most of the rings snatched in this way were steel.  However, every so often, a brass ring would be caught.  The brass ring could be traded for a free ride on the carousel or kept as a good luch charm.  Today, however, insurance companies have put the whammy on this old school game and it is no longer done. 

There's Brenda pretending she's reaching for the brass ring.

So, after a day and a half in Tonawanda, we headed out of the Erie Canal, and onto the Niagara River, into the Black Rock Canal, and tied to a wall in the Erie Basin Marina in Buffalo, New York.  We are waiting for the wind on Lake Erie to settle down and let us out.  We have been buried under one passing storm after another, and the wind the follows has whipped the lake up into something of a frenzie making it no place for man or beast.  So, we'll wait.  In the mean time, we plan to rent a car and go see Niagara Falls.  The place we are tied up sucks.  It is beyond rolly when the wind is blowing on Lake Erie which it seems to be doing incessently.  Our fenders and lines are taking a horrid beating.  Oh well.  All part of the game.  At least the sunsets are pretty.

More later.

Brenda took this picture of all the tourists in Lockport taking pictures of us as we locked through Locks 34 and 35, the final locks of the Erie Canal - a combined 50 foot lift.