This year marks the 20th anniversary of the logo, I Love NY.

"But, Do WE Know It By Heart?" Do we know the importance of the Erie Canal in the past? Are we excited about the future of the Erie Canal?

The genesis of any work, great or small, lies in its vision. From earliest times, water routes were the most expedient avenues of travel over great distances, particularly in wooded wilderness areas. In 1724, 50 years before the American Revolutionary War, surveyor Cadwallader Colden realized how beneficial a direct waterway connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie would be. In 1805 Jesse Hawley, a Geneva businessman and miller tried to get his flour to the market in the east, in spite of the vagaries of wilderness land and natural waterways. While imprisoned for indebtedness, he wrote 14 essays lobbying for such a canal. In 1808 Judge James Geddes of Syracuse proved that such a canal could be built.

DeWitt Clinton while mayor of New York City championed the plan. He was elected governor of NYS in 1817 and the state legislature appropriated a sum of $7,000,000 for the canal project. Thomas Jefferson called it sheer folly. The federal government was not interested in investing, even though such a canal would encourage growth of the whole country into the west beyond the Appalachian barrier.

Digging began, at the canal's summit in Rome, NY on July 4, 1817. This offered an 80-mile stretch with light soil and no lock requirements. Contracts were issued, distance by distance, across the state. After a multitude of excavating and maintaining problems were solved all the parts added up to the four feet deep, 40 feet wide, 363 mile Erie Canal that had 83 locks, 18 aqueducts, 93 continuance bridges, with a rise of 568 feet from the Hudson River to Lake Erie.

The pick, shovel, wheelbarrel, horse and mule were the tools. There were no engineers, power tools or skilled laborers. Mammoth trees were cut and stubborn roots dug out. Many workers in the Montezuma Swamp segment fell ill and died of malaria. The bones of 26 canawlers (who works on a canal) who died of smallpox lie in a small cemetery north of Wayneport. The foreboding rock beds were blasted with gun powder. Men were maimed and Bled while working with the sharp jagged broken rock. There were many unmarked graves.

No records were kept about the workers, or the man-hours expended to accomplish the goal. The going wage was 50 cents a day. One third of the laborers were Irish immigrants from New York City.

The Erie Canal, once called Clinton's Folly, took eight years to complete. The cost over-run was $700,000.

In October 1825, Governor and Mrs. DeWitt Clinton and other dignitaries marked the opening of the full length of the Erie Canal. They left Buffalo traveling on a packet called the Seneca Chief . There was a relay of cannon fire eastward along their route to Albany and New York City proclaiming the start of the historic voyage. There were celebrations along the way and it took days to accomplish the journey at the unmatched speed of three miles per hour. Clinton dumped Erie Lake water into the Hudson River, symbolically Wedding the Waters.

The Erie Canal paid for itself in ten years. The cost of getting products to market was reduced to 10 percent of the pre-canal-day prices. The Grand Canal was enlarged three times, the latest of which was from 1913 to 1918. The Barge Canal then became as today, at least 12 feet deep and 70 feet wide in all places.

The achievement, once scorned as impossible, was described by William Stone, who said, "They have built the longest canal, in the least time, with the least experience, for the least money, and to the greatest public benefit."

Railroads, steam, gasoline and diesel power, trucks and improved highways evolved. The Barge Canal that now used natural waterways, no aqueducts and included the Cayuga-Seneca, Oswego, and Champlain canals became a white elephant. The fate of the great New York State canal was sealed in 1959. The St. Lawrence Seaway was jointly constructed by the United States and Canada and gave ocean going ships connection with the Great Lakes.

By the 1970's, shipping in the NYS Barge Canal System was insignificant. But the canals hung in there!

In October 1991, there was a 14-day re-enactment of the Wedding of the Waters voyage of 1825. It was done by the group called E.R.I.E - Erie's Restoration Interests Everyone. Concerned about the condition of the canal, and also, its potential, Mark DeCracker of Lyons founded the group in 1988. A tug boat ^minus the hoggee (muleskinner) alongside on a towpath_ pulled a museum raft which served as a stage for entertaining and educating. DeCracker dressed in period costume and alternately portrayed DeWitt Clinton and Jesse Hawley. The history of the Erie Canal was shared with many canalside visitors, particularly children in school groups, on the 27 stops the tug made.

Once again Lake Erie water was carried and dumped into New York Harbor.

This 20th Century Wedding of the Waters publicized the pending fate of the canal.

Eleven days after the completion of the re-enactment, on November 5, 1991, the NYS voters passed an amendment to SAVE the canal. The amendment authorized the State (1) to grant leases of canal lands; (2) use all funds derived, for maintenance, construction, reconstruction, development or promotion of the canal; (3) to allow tolls on persons or property transported; (4) to establish certain provisions with respect to contracts for work or materials.

The following year the entire NYS Barge Canal System of which the Erie is the major part, was transferred from the jurisdiction of the State Department of Transportation to the NYS Thruway Authority.

As we approach the 21st Century, last year, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $131 million in grants and loans to counties and communities for canal-related projects in the Canal Corridor Initiative.

Tourism is second only to agriculture in NYS. Every community seeks its share of the tourism dollar. Presently, the Spiritualists are in Newark to observe the 150th anniversary of the rise of Modern Spiritualism. Annually, the Mormon Pageant draws thousands to the largest outdoor drama, in the world. One has but to read newspapers, magazines, watch TV and/or check Internet web sites to learn of attractions and opportunities.

Water lures tourists. It is exciting to live in Wayne County which has the Erie Canal's most diverse stretch. There is a rise of 82.4 feet from Clyde to Macedon. There are parks and wilderness areas. Industries along the canal are changing. Plans for restoration of buildings, aqueducts, and locks are exciting. Lake Ontario has the St. Lawrence Seaways Trail. We will have also the Towpath Trail that already extends from Medina to Palmyra. We can adventure on the Erie Canal - canoeing, boating, fishing, hiking, biking, picnicking, cruising, learning.

We have much for which to love New York. The Erie Canal is our gold mine, rediscovered.