The Miami Canal in Ohio

I headed down the research rabbit hole last week. I’m looking at a family who lived in Ohio during the building of the Miami and Erie Canal. The romantic gondola-filled canals in Venice, Italy are nice. However, I’m fascinated by the hard-working (and often forgotten) canals that were part of the earliest transportation systems in the United States. It was perhaps my 5th grade music teacher who instilled my interest by having us sing rousing renditions of “Low Bridge Everybody Down (Fifteen Miles On the Erie Canal).”¹

While reading about the canals I expected to find that their downfall came with the introduction of the automobile. I was surprised to learn that muskrat were involved. The rodent would burrow into the banks of the canal causing costly collapses.²

An often-read childhood book in our family, portrays muskrats as watermelon thieves, not canal busters. Who knew! ³

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FEATURED IMAGE: "Miami Canal," postcard, 1906; Wikipedia (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Miami_Canal_(16095413107).jpg), "Miami Canal (16095413107).jpg," revised 10:00, 9 July 2024 2024; repository Miami University Libraries - Digital Collections.

1. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_Bridge_(song), revised 04:07, 7 December 2024.
2. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabash_and_Erie_Canal), “Wabash and Erie Canal,” revised 18:40, 5 December 2024.
3. Jean Bethell, Muskie and Friends (New York, New York: Terrytoons, a Division of CBS Films, Inc., 1963). Author’s collection.