We braved a rainy day to visit the D&H Canal Museum which is in High Falls, only a few miles from the B&B where we were staying. The museum is nicely done and has some models and reproductions of newspaper articles about events in history regarding the canal. The canal was built to transport coal from the anthracite region east of Scranton, Pennsylvania to the Hudson River near Kingston, NY, and thence down the Hudson to New York City.

Across from the museum is the Five Locks Walk, a short trail using the old towpath which takes the walker past the remaining stonework for five locks in less than a half mile. At one time there was also a Roebling aqueduct across the Rondout Creek just past the locks. Alas, there is not much left but the foundations and cable anchors. (You can see an extant Roebling aqueduct that takes this same canal across the Delaware River near Lackawaxen.)

The five locks were built in 1847 as part of a project to increase the capacity of the canal. They were 90 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 15 feet deep with an average lift of 12.6 feet. The museum is housed in an 1885 vintage former Episcopal Church.

This gallery is part of the 2014 tour!