soduscanal

History - Sodus

The Sodus Canal Company
A Corporation Chartered by the State of New York

Canal fever, caused by the success of the Erie, was contagious throughout the state. The people of Wayne County were not immune. Soon after its completion, they thought up the very possible idea of connecting the Erie with the best harbor on Lake Ontario, Sodus Bay.

After all, it was only 12 short miles to the Erie at Clyde, and a mere 140 feet of lockage would dispense with the difference of elevation between the Erie and Lake Ontario.

Whitford, in his History of New York Canals, lists 16 times that the Sodus Canal was recorded in the Senate or Assembly Journals, from a Commissioners report in 1827 to its final appearance in 1868. On March 19, 1829, it was incorporated with a capitalization of $200,000 to build a canal from the Seneca River or Canandaigua Outlet to Great Sodus Bay. Whitford's remarks sum the venture up nicely but sadly "partly constructed but never used - $100,000 expended - See Assembly documents No.'s 64 & 65 of 1851 for history."

The Wayne County Historical Society has some interesting material on this canal, including a $500.00 bond (with unclipped coupons), a wonderful 1852 prospectus of 37 pages, some early news clippings, an extensive historical article written in 1954 by Arch Merrill after he had visited the canal with Dr. David Ennis, and a final news item in 1960 when the idea was again brought up to Governor Rockefeller.

As in most cases of embryo canals, a state appropriation was immediately sought in 1829 and defeated. About every five years a new charter was obtained, but there was no real action. Then General Adams of Lyons re-vitalized the dream, land was bought, stock was sold, digging begun, and the 12 mile "Adams Ditch" by local nomenclature, with its 140 feet of proposed lockage, was under way. The General was a pusher, driven on by his dream of ships floating from Lake Ontario through the Wayne Hills to the Erie Canal of Clyde, with cargo passing in both directions over the great canal networks of New York and Pennsylvania.

But alas the dream was not to materialize, whether it was the so-called monied interests battling for the parallel Oswego Canal route, or the railroads that punctured the balloon, no one will ever be quite sure, but time ran out for the Sodus Canal.

Taken from Odds and Ends of Wayne County History in WCHS Archives.

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