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When a stagecoach brought the news in 1834 that Evansville
was to be the southern most end of the Wabash and Erie
Canal, there was much excitement and speculation. The canal
would through Gibson County connecting the Ohio River with Lake
Erie and it promised to establish Southwest Indiana as a great
commercial trading center.
People rushed to this area for jobs or to purchase public
land at $1.25 an acre. Others borrowed money to finance
businesses and inflated get-rich schemes. The canal would
not turn out as promised, and it would take many years, many
fortunes and many lives before the outcome was known.
Digging began in 1836. It was a slow, cumbersome process.
A publication entitled "History of Gibson County" described
the work of the canal gangs. "The embankments were made by
hauling the dirt in one-horse carts . . .. The work was so
timed that the loaded carts were ready to pull out as soon
as an empty one was ready to be loaded.
"The shovelers were nearly all Irish; there were few
Americans . . .. About a half gill (two ounces) of raw
whiskey was given the men four times daily . . ."
"Men working on the canal had little respect for rules of
sanitation. Such living conditions subjected them to many
diseases, the most dreaded of which was cholera. It is
estimated that not less than 1,000 people died of cholera
along the canal from Patoka to Pigeon Summits during the
summer of 1850. A person, when once stricken with this
deadly disease, would succumb within three or four hours."
Work on the canal stopped in 1837 when financial failures
paralyzed cities and banks across the nation. Indiana went
bankrupt, property and investments were lost, and the value
of real estate hit a devastating low.
The canal went untouched for several years, but digging
finally resumed and the 450-mile waterway was completed in 1853.
The canal crossed the Patoka River into Gibson County on an
aqueduct at the old town of Dengola, and followed, the lowlands .
of the Patoka River to Francisco, thence southwest through the
highlands of the Pigeon Summit that divides the watershed between
the Patoka river and the Pigeon creek country.
At Port Gibson, a town located on the canal in Gibson County, a
reservoir was located, which flooded as much as two thousand acres
from five to twenty feet deep. This was the greatest fishing resort
that was ever in Gibson County, as it was well stocked with fine lake
fish.
After the canal was abandoned the water was let out of the
reservoir, and today some of the best farms in Gibson County are
situated on these famous fishing grounds. The canal followed the
lowlands of Pigeon creek until it passed into Warrick County, and
thence to Evansville.
Its passages entered Evansville from the
northeast on Canal Street, and then moved along Fifth Street
to a basin where the Old Courthouse now stands. Loading docks
were built on either side of the basin.
With much grandeur, the first boat - The Pennsylvania -
arrived in Evansville from Toledo in September 1853. But
already the Wabash and Erie Canal was obsolete and
structurally defective.
Muskrats dug holes that allowed water to leak. Heavy rains
caused erosion, flooding and landslides. The water froze in
the winter. In the summer, teams of oxen often had to drag
boats, their frames scraping bottom, when water levels
dwindled from ongoing drought. What's more, tolls for use of
the canal were not paying expenses.
But the greatest blow to the fate of the canal was the
construction and commercial success of the country's
railroad system. Trains were cheaper, faster and more
reliable.
By the late 1860s the Wabash and Erie Canal was abandoned
for good. Only two boats ever completed the entire voyage
from Toledo to Evansville. The southern portion of the canal
was quickly filled in and eventually forgotten. Some remains
still can be seen running along the Southern Railroad tracks
next to Wesselman Park.
Today, the canal is remembered as a dismal financial
failure, but also as a government project that brought many
people - and many new skills and trades - to the Ohio
Valley. The events of the Wabash and Erie Canal kicked off a
new era of growth for Southwest Indiana.
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