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The Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Center
The CanalWays Educational Program
May 11th, 14th - 18th, 2012

CanalWays is a unique hands-on outdoors history experience, based on New York State Social Studies Standards for the fourth grade. The New York State Canal Corporation, the Waterford Canal and Towpath Society and the Waterford Harbor Visitors Center join the Museum in an all day, multiple location, hands-on program for fourth grade classes. This program is geared to enhance the students’ understanding of the history of canals, its impact on society and the canal today. CanalWays creates a memorable learning environment for students so that they may retain more of what they learn and inspire them to see history in a new way. Each year we use evaluations from the teachers and students to help improve the program for the following year. 
The program runs for 5-7 days depending on Urger availability. We serve up to 100 students per day. The day long program includes visits to five stations where the students learn about canal history in different learning environments.

CanalWays has been recognized as a worthy model for other museums around the state by the Museum Association of New York (MANY) and the Museumwise (formerly the Upstate History Alliance). We were selected to give a presentation about CanalWays as part of a workshop for other museum professionals at the MANY/UHA annual conference in March of 2008. We have also given versions of the program to teachers’ hostels and the entire staff of the Waterford-Halfmoon School.



Waterford Historical Museum

The Waterford Historical Museum is located at 2 Museum Lane in Waterford, NY. The Museum features a permanent exhibition about the history of Waterford, temporary exhibitions related to local history, a Victorian period room, and the George & Annabel O’Connor Library for local history.

Brad Utter, Director of the Waterford Museum, manages the Museum station at the Waterford Harbor Visitor Center.   The students analyze historical objects and make connections about evolving transportation technologies.  Some of the objects for analysis are from the Museum’s collection and other represent natural resources.  Also included is a demonstration of a working scale model of Old Champlain Canal Lock #4. 



Old Champlain Canal Towpath

The CanalWays Program utilizes the Old Champlain Canal Towpath as a teaching instrument for students attending the program and is one of the reasons that Waterford is an excellent location to study and reflect on canal history. Towpaths were where draft animals, usually mules, walked as they pulled boats along the canal. Today, the Old Champlain Canal Towpath is maintained as a recreational path for walkers and bicyclists. 

In addition to a short walk along the old towpath, the students are engaged in pulling a wagon containing a set amount of weight in sandbags.  After this they are asked to pull a scale-model canal boat (roughly the size of a canoe) bearing the same weight along a small length of the Old Champlain Canal.  This is designed to show the students how much easier water travel is when compared to travel along a road.  In between this demonstration the students are asked questions designed to teach them about mules, the towpath, the construction of canal boats, and life on the canal, with a special focus on the role of children.



Waterford Harbor Visitor Center

The Waterford Harbor Visitor Center is a resource for local community members and visitors traveling on or visiting the canal systems. Located within walking distance of key features in canal history such as the Hudson River, the Old Side-Cut Lock (which brought early boats from the Hudson River to the Old Champlain Canal), and Lock #2 on the Erie Barge Canal (opened in 1915), the Waterford Visitor Center is an ideal location to talk about how New York State canals have changed over the years. 

This activity is based on the imprint of the canal that is on the brick walkway at the Waterford Visitor Center. The activity is led by CanalWays volunteers; large groups are divided into smaller groups and are led along the walkway to the activity’s stations. The general theme of the Visitor’s Center Activity is to get the students actively participating in learning about traveling on the canal. It is a place to reinforce what they have learned in their classrooms and on the field trip as they make the trek from Buffalo to Albany. Common points about the canal are emphasized, such as moving goods west to east, why locks were built, living on the canal, and some of the economics associated with conducting business on the canal (such as tolls or terminal charges). The activity incorporates different skills, such as reading comprehension, image analysis, map identification, and group cooperation. 




The Grand Erie Boat Ride through Lock 2

CanalWays offers the unique opportunity for students to learn through experience- and what better way is there to learn about how a lock works than going through one? The New York State Canal Corporation and the captain and crew of the Grand Erie boat are key to making this boat ride possible for the students.  This station has limited instruction and is all about the experience of going through a lock (Lock 2).

The Tugboat Urger's Educational Program

The tugboat “Urger” is the flagship of the fleet of vessels operated by the New York State Canal Corporation on the 524-mile Canal System. Built in 1901 in Ferrysburg, Michigan, the “Urger” is one of the oldest working vessels in the country that is still afloat. The “Urger” spent more than 60 years stationed in Waterford, hauling machinery, dredges, and scows on the Erie and Champlain Canals until she was retired from service in the 1980s. In 1991, the “Urger” became the focal point of a program to educate school children and adults about the importance of New York’s historic Canal System.

After lunch at Lock 2 Park all of the students go through the Tugboat "Urger" program.  The "Urger" crew has 3-4 stations that cover the boat itself, caring for the environment, canal history and a tour of Lock 

Video - Down the old Potomac / Thomas A. Edison, Inc.

To watch this video from the Library of Congress, please click on the photo below:

Sponsored by the Waterford Historical Museum and Cultural Center

Our sincere thanks and gratitude go to our corporate sponsor - Janney Montgomery Scott LLC.  We could not have done it without you.

In collaboration with:

For more information, please Contact the Waterford Museum