Medina welcomes Seneca Chief boat for bicentennial commemoration of Erie Canal
Replica of maiden canal boat recreating historic voyage from 200 years ago
Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Mayor Marguerite Sherman of Medina pours water from the canal in Medina into a barrel that will collect water from each stop the Seneca Chief makes along the canal as part of a 33-day trip to New York City.
The “Gathering of the Waters” differs from the original “Wedding of the Waters” when Gov. DeWitt Clinton poured water from Lake Erie into New York Harbor in 1825, following the maiden journey along the completed canal.
Sherman is joined on the deck of the Seneca Chief by Paul Winnie of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, Medina Deputy Mayor Jess Marciano, and Terry Abrams, a Tonawanda Seneca and the curator of the Niagara County Historical Society.
Terry Abrams, a Tonawanda Seneca and the curator of the Niagara County Historical Society, collects water from the Erie Canal in Medina after the replica Seneca Chief tied up in the Canal Basin. That water was then added to the barrel that will gather more water along its bicentennial commemoration of the Erie Canal.
Water will be collected at each port in the commemorative trip and it will be poured on a freshly planted Eastern White Pine tree in NYC. As part of the commemorative trip along the canal, an Eastern White Pine is being given to each port stop.
Medina next week will plant its Eastern White Pine at State Street Park close to the Erie Canal.
Mayor Marguerite Sherman stands on the deck of the Seneca Chief and welcomes about 200 people who were at the Basin to welcome the replica boat.
About 200 volunteers with the Buffalo Maritime Center handcrafted the boat over four years. The replica boat is 73 feet long and weighs 44 tons.
It left Buffalo on Wednesday and is headed to New York City on Oct. 26, which is exactly 200 years from when DeWitt Clinton commenced the inaugural voyage.
The Seneca Chief will leave Medina in the morning and head east through Orleans County with its final destination for the day in Brockport.
It is expected to stop in Albion around 11:30 a.m. and in Holley at 1:30 p.m.
Terry Abrams shares how the Erie Canal opened up the state and the west, fueling Manifest Destiny. However, it displaced many Native Americans.
As part of the commemorative voyage, the Buffalo Maritime Center is acknowledging the impact on the Indigenous residents. It also is giving an Eastern White Pine to each port site. Those trees are the Great Tree of Peace in the Haudenosaunee culture.
Roger Allen, the master boatbuilder at the Buffalo maritime Center, talks with crew members as they get close to the Canal Basin in Medina.
The bow of the boat is shown after the replica Seneca Chief left Middleport and headed to Medina. The lift bridge in Middleport is shown in the distance.
The Seneca Chief is shown in the countryside between Middleport and Medina. The replica packet boat is pulled by the tugboat, C.L. Churchill.
The Churchill and Seneca Chief’s location can be tracked by clicking here.
Paul Winnie was grateful for the opportunity to be on the Seneca Chief from Middleport to Medina. He stands on the deck of the Seneca Chief as it passes by the Glenwood Avenue canal bridge. Winnie spoke at the Medina commemoration and highlighted the planting of the tree as a sign of peace.
“The message is we all need to bury our quarrels and bad language under this tree so we can make this place better for the next generation,” he said.
About 200 people greeted the Seneca Chief as it pulled up at the Canal Basin. Orly the Ox, the county’s bicentennial mascot, was aboard as a special guest. Orleans County also is celebrating its bicentennial this year.
The Orleans County Sheriff’s Marine Patrol provided an escort for the Seneca Chief as it approached Medina and the Canal Basin.
