Keys to the Lock LbNA #11004
Map
Nearby Boxes
Add Note
Add Location| Owner: | Rabbit's Relations  |
|---|---|
| Plant date: | Sep 18, 2005 |
| Location: | |
| City: | High Falls |
| County: | Ulster |
| State: | New York |
| Boxes: | 1 |
| Found by: | TeamCheekychops |
|---|---|
| Last found: | Oct 20, 2022 |
| Status: | FOFFFFFFFFFFF |
| Last edited: | Sep 18, 2005 |
**********************************************************
9/05
NEW LOCATION!!
**********************************************************
The Delaware & Hudson Canal, completed in 1828, was built primarily to transport anthracite coal from mines in northeastern Pennsylvania to New York City. It is 108 miles long and needed 108 locks to accommodate the 1,073 ft. difference in elevation along the route. The D&H Canal Historical Society maintains a towpath along the remains of five locks, located in High Falls, which are designated a National Historical Landmark. Their museum houses many exhibits, including a working lock model, a recreated canal boat interior, numerous dioramas, and artifacts. The museum offers guided tours and activities for children of all ages, and is open from May to October. (Admission is $3/adults and $1/children) Just inside the doors (but before you need to pay) you can pick up a map of the D&H Towpath Trail. This map would enhance your appreciation of the locks, but is not absolutely necessary for either the walk or finding this letterbox. You can get more information about the D&H Canal Historical Society by calling (845) 687-9311 or visiting their website at www.canalmuseum.org.
**** We recently discovered that even when the museum itself is closed, the vestibule remains open, so that the maps are always accessable! ****
Begin your trip with a visit to the D&H Canal Museum, located at 23 Mohonk Road in High Falls, NY. Mohonk Road is also Ulster Co. Route 6A and connects up with Route 213 in High Falls. The Museum is located in a former Episcopal Church built in 1885 (originally to serve the bargemen, who didn’t travel on Sundays) and is easy to spot from the road. You may park here. The towpath trail begins one block further south along Rt 213 (You would be walking along westbound 213, but the compass tells you that this stretch is headed south). On the right side of 213 here you can see the remains of one of the four aqueducts built by John Roebling in 1849. It carried the canal over the Rondout Creek, and was destroyed by fire in 1917. The Depuy Canal House Restaurant is on the corner of Rt 213 and Second Street (on your left), and marks the beginning of the towpath trail.
The towpath trail begins at lock 16. (Very soon an old outhouse will be moved into position near the trail head which will contain extra copies of the map) As you follow the one mile trail, look for the snubbing posts used to tie up the barges as they waited in the locks (see the rope grooves?).
The barges were 14.5 ft wide, and the locks are 15 ft wide – not much wiggle room – but the rest of the canal was 32 feet wide to allow barges to pass. You can circle round a slip which allowed boats to pull in and load-up on Rosendale cement and locally-quarried bluestone, or carry on straight over one of the several new bridges. Between Locks 17 and 18 you can see the remains of a waste weir. At Lock 19, there is a bridge in the location of the original gear house. Here you can also see the blast marks where holes were drilled in to the rock and filled with black powder. Beyond Lock 20 are the remains of a warehouse foundation on the right.
Keep following the towpath after passing Lock 20. On the right side of the path is a newly-placed garden bench. (A good place to sit and wait for a clear window of opportunity!) Approximately 75 steps farther along the path you will see twin dead logs perpendicular to the trail. (If you come to a road, you have gone too far.) At the foot of a small tree near the root system of these twin fallen logs is "Keys to the Lock". Be careful of the small briars nearby. We've provided several small rocks to hide the box from view, and to prevent animals from wandering off with it... Return back along the towpath to your starting point.
Rabbit's Friends and Relation would like to offer our sincere thanks to the folks who rescued our box during trail renovations last Spring - the people who cut the tree down in which it was hidden, the asst. director of the museum for contacting us, and all the volunteers who kept it in the museum until we returned for it. When we re-planted it this weekend, one of the tour guides (the new director?) saw us with box in hand on the trail and teasingly offered to slow down the tour so we'd have a chance at privacy!
Please contact us and let us know what you thought!
9/05
NEW LOCATION!!
**********************************************************
The Delaware & Hudson Canal, completed in 1828, was built primarily to transport anthracite coal from mines in northeastern Pennsylvania to New York City. It is 108 miles long and needed 108 locks to accommodate the 1,073 ft. difference in elevation along the route. The D&H Canal Historical Society maintains a towpath along the remains of five locks, located in High Falls, which are designated a National Historical Landmark. Their museum houses many exhibits, including a working lock model, a recreated canal boat interior, numerous dioramas, and artifacts. The museum offers guided tours and activities for children of all ages, and is open from May to October. (Admission is $3/adults and $1/children) Just inside the doors (but before you need to pay) you can pick up a map of the D&H Towpath Trail. This map would enhance your appreciation of the locks, but is not absolutely necessary for either the walk or finding this letterbox. You can get more information about the D&H Canal Historical Society by calling (845) 687-9311 or visiting their website at www.canalmuseum.org.
**** We recently discovered that even when the museum itself is closed, the vestibule remains open, so that the maps are always accessable! ****
Begin your trip with a visit to the D&H Canal Museum, located at 23 Mohonk Road in High Falls, NY. Mohonk Road is also Ulster Co. Route 6A and connects up with Route 213 in High Falls. The Museum is located in a former Episcopal Church built in 1885 (originally to serve the bargemen, who didn’t travel on Sundays) and is easy to spot from the road. You may park here. The towpath trail begins one block further south along Rt 213 (You would be walking along westbound 213, but the compass tells you that this stretch is headed south). On the right side of 213 here you can see the remains of one of the four aqueducts built by John Roebling in 1849. It carried the canal over the Rondout Creek, and was destroyed by fire in 1917. The Depuy Canal House Restaurant is on the corner of Rt 213 and Second Street (on your left), and marks the beginning of the towpath trail.
The towpath trail begins at lock 16. (Very soon an old outhouse will be moved into position near the trail head which will contain extra copies of the map) As you follow the one mile trail, look for the snubbing posts used to tie up the barges as they waited in the locks (see the rope grooves?).
The barges were 14.5 ft wide, and the locks are 15 ft wide – not much wiggle room – but the rest of the canal was 32 feet wide to allow barges to pass. You can circle round a slip which allowed boats to pull in and load-up on Rosendale cement and locally-quarried bluestone, or carry on straight over one of the several new bridges. Between Locks 17 and 18 you can see the remains of a waste weir. At Lock 19, there is a bridge in the location of the original gear house. Here you can also see the blast marks where holes were drilled in to the rock and filled with black powder. Beyond Lock 20 are the remains of a warehouse foundation on the right.
Keep following the towpath after passing Lock 20. On the right side of the path is a newly-placed garden bench. (A good place to sit and wait for a clear window of opportunity!) Approximately 75 steps farther along the path you will see twin dead logs perpendicular to the trail. (If you come to a road, you have gone too far.) At the foot of a small tree near the root system of these twin fallen logs is "Keys to the Lock". Be careful of the small briars nearby. We've provided several small rocks to hide the box from view, and to prevent animals from wandering off with it... Return back along the towpath to your starting point.
Rabbit's Friends and Relation would like to offer our sincere thanks to the folks who rescued our box during trail renovations last Spring - the people who cut the tree down in which it was hidden, the asst. director of the museum for contacting us, and all the volunteers who kept it in the museum until we returned for it. When we re-planted it this weekend, one of the tour guides (the new director?) saw us with box in hand on the trail and teasingly offered to slow down the tour so we'd have a chance at privacy!
Please contact us and let us know what you thought!