Locks on Sunday, with a side of Art

We headed out on Sunday morning to find Lock 17 on Moss Island.  It was only a few miles from our hotel, but it was down a road that looked more like a hiking path - old and broken up.  This lock is the tallest one on the Erie Canal.  It raises or lowers a vessel 40 feet!  We walked around and looked at the lock and the surrounding area and were going to head out on our next adventure when two boats showed up heading downstream.  They pulled into the lock and hung onto the handholds on the wall of the lock (I don't know the real name for those handholds).  We began chatting with the woman in the first boat.  She and her partner were from Michigan.  They lived in Clarkston and kept their boat in Algonac.  Small world!  She said they were traveling the whole canal.  They were heading for Florida and expected to reach that state by the beginning of December.  This sounded like a wonderful trip to me!  Then the the gate closed and the water began to rush out of the lock and her boat began to move down into the lock (40 feet down).  I moved down to the end of the lock so I could see both boats coming out of the empty lock.

 Lock 17

 

 Boats entering at upstream level

 Forty feet down

 

 Leaving the lock

Watching the lift lock was fascinating.  The counterweight was huge and the boats drove under it - quickly.  We saw two other locks on Sunday; one lifted boats 8 feet, in contrast to Lock 17, and the other was an old, decaying lock that was part of the original canal, Lock 33, and was put out of commission when the route of the canal changed and the locks were expanded.

It is still an impressive structure and the engineering it took to produce the original locks is truly remarkable.

After we visited Lock 17 we drove to Canajoharie to visit the Arkell Museum and the Canajoharie Library, harmoniously housed in the same building. Most of the artwork was donated by Bartlett Arkell, the first president of Beech-Nut Foods Company founded in Canajoharie.  Mr. Arkell was a philanthropist who founded the library for his town and decorated it with several of his own paintings.  He believed in the wellbeing of his workers and had a pianist playing in the workplace.  His employees (primarily women) could also have a manicure every week - nice benefit.  Mr. Arkell also understood the power of marketing.  One of the displays shows the many print ads that appeared in the journals of the time promoting the health benefits of Beech-Nut products.  I particularly like the display of all the product labels - small work of art themselves.

 It's all in the packaging!

We wandered around the museum admiring the paintings and sculptures.  The variety was interesting and colorful.  The museum and library also had three areas for new artists to display their work.  I especially admired the many landscapes.  Mr. Arkell loved the Mohawk Valley and collected many paintings of that beautiful place.  The museum, which is fairly new, includes the beautiful original library.  I sat in one of the large leather chairs in the Reading Room for a few minutes.  I could easily have stayed there with a good book for the rest of the day!

Monday's adventure is finding and visiting the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse.