Seneca Chief canal boat makes return stop at Medina
Photos by Ginny Kropf: Rob Robinson, a busker, strolls the canal basin singing songs of the Erie Canal as the crew of the Seneca Chief prepares it for visitors this afternoon. The replica of the ship which opened the Erie Canal 199 years ago was back in Medina on its return to Buffalo from Rochester.
MEDINA – The Seneca Chief, the boat which opened the Erie Canal in 1825 with Governor Dewitt Clinton, continued to attract visitors in the canal basin this afternoon and evening, on its return to Buffalo after traveling to Rochester.
More than 320 people visited the boat last Monday during its first stop in Monday, said Kathy Blackburn, a member of Medina’s Tourism Committee.
Replicating Monday’s visit, the Seneca Chief was open for tourists, staff was on hand to talk about the boat and Medina and Orleans County Tourism agencies had an informational tent.
Local busker Rob Robinson strolled the grounds, playing his guitar and singing songs of the Erie Canal and old favorites.
“This is pretty cool,” he said of the Seneca Chief’s visit. “People need to know how history used to be. The canal carried hundreds, even thousands of boats up and down this canal, filled with barrels of apples and grain.’
Medina Mayor Marguerite Sherman talks to her in-laws, John and Sally Sherman, near the interpretive panels describing the Seneca Chief’s history.
Roger Allen was the master boat builder with Greg Dudley. Allen said he has been building wooden boats for museums since 1978, but this was the most amazing project he ever worked on.
“The reason it is so amazing to me is the size of the boat,” Allen said. “This is not a common occurrence in the United States any more. Only two of us were paid staff, and I point out the woodwork to visitors, because it was all done by volunteers.”
He explained the research which went into the project before they started building the boat.
“The Seneca Chief was a line boat we discovered in the original records,” Allen said. “It is 73 feet by 12 ½ feet.”
He explained a line boat is a specific type of boat which carries cargo and also has a passengers’ cabin. It would have carried lumber, wheat, apples or any goods manufactured or grown in the area, maybe even Medina sandstone, he said.
“A lot of early newspapers reported Dewitt Clinton got aboard a packet boat,” Allen said. “That is not true. A packet boat carried mail and passengers, not cargo.”
(Left) Sally Sherman of Buffalo, mother-in-law of Medina Mayor Marguerite Sherman, examines a display of tools which would have been used to build a boat like the Seneca Chief. There was a plane, auger, a lipped adze and a maul (the large club near the front). (Right) Master boat builder Roger Allen, right, chats with John Sherman, father-in-law of Medina Mayor Marguerite Sherman, as they stand in the front of the Seneca Chief. Sherman lives only 10 minutes from where the Seneca Chief was built in Buffalo and came to see the finished boat. They stand by the tiller, which was made from a piece of wood pulled from the Flight of Five Locks in Lockport.
Allen went on to say the boat is not yet finished. They still have to finish the crew’s quarters in the stern of the boat and the passengers’ cabin in the front.
Allen said Governor Clinton did a lot of promoting of the canal and he could have opened the cargo doors and shown people the tons of cargo, showcasing the many goods which could be carried on the canal.
This trip down the canal to Rochester and back is a sea trial for the Seneca Chief’s voyage next year, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the canal. The 2025 World Canals Conference will take place in Buffalo from Sept. 21 to 25, followed by the Seneca Chief’s departure from Buffalo and arrival in New York City on Oct. 26.
After departing from Medina about 8 a.m. Saturday, the Seneca Chief will return to Buffalo, where the crew’s quarters and passengers’ cabin will be finished by mid-October. Then the boat will be returned to Lockport’s Flight of Five Locks, where it will spend the winter.
