Courtesy of Pennsylvania Canal Society

The canal has been part of Catasauqua's landscape since 1829. In the past 167 years, the canal has been many things to Catasauqua: a highway, a communications link, a source of revenue, a recreation area. Now, in the 1990's, the stretch of the Lehigh Canal that runs through Catasauqua represents a challenge. If we are ever going to see the canal again as it was, we have to understand its significance to our local history, and its future promise as part of our environment.

Navigation on the Lehigh River began about 1790, using rafts called arks. These were platforms of pine boards, 3 inches thick and 12-18 inches wide. Arks were used to float grain and coal down the Lehigh and Delaware rivers to Philadelphia. Once there, the arks were broken up and the lumber sold along with the cargo.

There were several drawbacks to this form of water transport, not least of which was that it flowed in only one direction. Also, the Lehigh was treacherous and unpredictable, ice-choked in winter and too shallow in summer. Arks often got hung up on the rocks and in the rapids. When that happened, they were broken up on the spot and the cargo sold locally, if not stolen or lost. The boards were often salvaged by nearby residents. One house in Catasauqua, on Union Street, was originally built from wrecked river rafts, though only a few vestiges of these origins now remain.

The story of the canal begins with two Philadelphians, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard. These two men owned and operated a wire mill and nail works industry at the Falls of the Schuykill River, north of Philadelphia. During the War of 1812, the government placed large orders for their goods. Fuel supplies to run the furnaces were scarce. (Philadelphians were mainly dependent on wood and coke for fuel, both of which were scarce and expensive.) Bituminous coal was available, but it was very sooty and proved unsuitable for domestic fuel.

The Lehigh Coal Mine Company, formed in 1792, owned anthracite coal fields in the vicinity of Mauch Chunk. The company lacked capital, a sound market and a means of shipping to exploit the mines. However, an occasional raft of anthracite coal would reach Philadelphia. Desperate for fuel, Hazard and White purchased some anthracite. After repeated failed attempts to light the coal, a workman slammed the door of the furnace and left the factory. Within one hour, the furnace was glowing brightly and Hazard and White discovered the secret of anthracite: use it in a closed furnace with a carefully controlled bottom draft.

Eager to pursue a new endeavor, Hazard and White persuaded several Philadelphia financiers to invest in their enterprise. They leased and later purchased the Lehigh Coal Mine Company holdings. They formed the Lehigh Coal Company and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LC&N). The prejudice against anthracite coal diminished by 1824, and by 1825 the success of LC&N's coal trade produced a handsome profit.

In 1818 White, Hazard and another partner, Hauts, received permission from the Pennsylvania State Legislature to improve navigation on the Lehigh River by means of a series of locks, dams, channels and slack water pools from Easton to Mauch Chunk. Because the Lehigh River did not contain sufficient water for a channel 18" deep by 20' wide, Josiah White developed an invention known as the "Bear Trap." This was a river dam with a lock operated by a water-valve arrangement. Hydrostatic pressure allowed a surge of water to carry the boat in the lock down a flume to the next lower slack water pool.

Josiah White had plans as early as 1819 for the construction of a canal navigation system for ascending as well as descending traffic, if the coal market was established successfully. In 1827, the LC&N Company was ready. White's plans called for use of both slack water and canal navigation from Mauch Chunk to Easton. At Easton it would connect with the proposed Pennsylvania Canal along the Delaware River. Josiah White employed Canvass White (no relation) as civil engineer. Canvass White had worked on the Erie Canal project and also had extensive knowledge of British Canal practices.

Work began on the canal in the summer of 1827. The canal was dug 60 feet wide at the top and 45 wide at the bottom and was 5 feet deep. Of the total distance of 46 miles, 36 miles was canal and 10 miles was slack water navigation with a tow path along the entire length. There was a total of 56 locks (48 lift locks and 8 guard locks). The locks were 22 x 100 feet except the four near Mauch Chunk which were 30 x 130 feet. Lifts varied from 6 to 9 feet. The drop in elevation from Mauch Chunk to Easton is 354.7 feet. There are 9 dams, 4 aqueducts and 22 culverts.

Using the simplest of earth moving tools, large scoops pulled horses or mules, hand shovels and wheel barrows, the complete canal system was built in 2 years. A large percentage of the workmen were Irish, but Germans and Yankees were also employed.

Water was let into the canal at Mauch Chunk on Friday, June 26, 1829, and on Saturday afternoon June 27, water reached the outlet at Easton. On Monday, June 29, 10 boats of coal, each carrying 60 tons, arrived at Easton. In 1835, the Upper Grand Section of the Canal was built with Edwin A. Douglas as Chief Engineer. This portion of the Canal went from Mauch Chunk to White Haven for a total mileage of 26.06 miles. There were only 5.52 miles of canal and 20.54 miles of slack water navigation in this section. Completed in 1836, the Upper Grand Section contained 20 dams and 29 locks. The #8 dam at Barn Door was 58 feet high and the highest lift -- 30 feet -- was at Lock #27.

During the years 1827-1839 the canal affected Catasauqua, or Biery's Port, very little. A cluster of houses and farms dotted its banks, a grist mill and saw mill used water from the Catasauqua Creek. The only noticeable change was the name, from Biery's Bridge, a chain bridge spanning the Lehigh River near the present day Race Street Bridge, to Biery's Port, or Lock 36, located behind the present Fuller Company Yard.

The primary purpose of the canal was to transport anthracite and to this end the LC&N provided incentives to any industry experimenting with their coal. Word had reached the United States that David Thomas, a Welshman, had succeeded in devising a method by which iron could be made using anthracite coal. Erskine Hazard, accompanied by his 12 year old son, Alexander, traveled by ship to Wales and secured an agreement with Mr. Thomas to build and operate a furnace for LC&N Company. The contract was for a period of five years.

In 1839, LC&N brought David Thomas from Wales to Biery's Port. Biery's Port was selected as the site of Thomas' venture because the canal dropped eight feet from Guard Lock 6 to Lock 36 at Biery's Port. This meant that the canal could provide water power for the bellows needed by the blast furnace. Mr. Thomas built his first furnace near Lock 36. The water was taken in through two 4-foot iron pipes, which carried it to a 4-foot turbine wheel and a 7-foot undershot wheel. Moving 188 cubic feet of water per second, the blast furnace was provided with an average of 13 horsepower, twenty-four hours a day. A divider of earth was built in the canal between the dam and the lock to deliver the water without interfering with navigation. This divider remained until about 1900, when it was dug out, and the debris piled on the Catasauqua bank.

Mr. Thomas completed his furnace, and on July 4, 1840, blew in the first commercially successful anthracite iron furnace in the United States. By 1849 there were five furnaces in Catasauqua, and for 30 years the Lehigh Crane Iron Company fueled Catasauqua's growth and assured her a dominant role in the development of the Lehigh Valley. Mr. White and Mr. Hazard were delighted, for Mr. Thomas' success dramatically increased the demand for their coal and for shipments on their canal.

On June 4, 1862, it began to rain. The following day the flood caused by the heavy rains destroyed much of the upper division of the canal. It was the most destructive flood ever to have reached the Lehigh Valley. In Catasauqua, flood waters rose 4.5 feet higher than they had 20 years earlier (1841) and carried away all the bridges crossing the Lehigh River. Lehigh Crane Iron Company employees rescued several citizens from the churning waters.

Although not dependent on anthracite coal and canal navigation, the Mauser and Cressman Mill on Lehigh and Race Streets needed a steady water supply to move its grinding wheels. Frank Mauser and Allen Cressman had purchased this mill (built in 1760) in 1898. Its source of power was a mill race from a pond couth of Race Street. A fire destroyed the mill shortly after they purchased it. When it was rebuilt Mauser and Cressman installed the latest milling machinery and drew water from the canal. The water was drawn in through a 6 by 8 intake pipe, driving a 44 inch McCormack turbine which provided 71 horsepower.

The canal remained the principal means of transporting coal, iron ore and limestone to the iron mills until 1868 when LC&N completed the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad to Catasauqua. However, the canal carried some coal until its final days as a commercial enterprise in the 1930's. In May, 1934, William Fernanda Haintz, a civil war veteran and the last lock tender in Catasauqua, died. He had tended Guard Lock 6 at the Hokendauqua Dam for forty-five years, retiring in 1924. The structure from which he operated was a single-story stone building. Years later two stories were added, and this building is now a residence -- 1344 Third Street, North Catasauqua.

At least two other Catasauqua enterprises depended on the canal until a time well within the memory of older residents. These were the coal yards of George B. F. Deily, and Daniel Milson. Deily's yard was at the foot of Union Street and Milson's was on the canal road across Lehigh Street from the George Taylor Home.

Canal boats carrying coal usually arrived in the late afternoon. These were the double boats, hinged so they could be divided. Once split, they were turned upstream, and left until 4 a.m., when the unloading began. Derricks with hanging buckets were swung out and lowered to the coal, which was shoveled in by two men. Then the buckets were raised and swung over the piles of coal in the yard. The contents were discharged by pulling a rope which tripped a catch under the bucket. The contents poured down, accompanied by much yelling in Pennsylvania Dutch and the creaking of ropes and cranes. It was to this noise that many residents of lower Catasauqua awoke most mornings. It was a comforting noise, for it meant that the house would be warm on a winter morning, since every house in Catasauqua was heated by the black diamonds piled up in the cellar. George Deily delivered coal to his customers by horse-drawn wagons, while the younger Dan Milson used the more modern truck.

The canal was not strictly a business route. Louis Tiffany, later of stained glass fame, organized and led this photographic tour for aristocratic friends and associates. They traveled along the Deleware and Lehigh Canals from Bristol to Mauch Chunk.

Photo Courtesy of PA Canal Museum

Floods impacted the Catasauqua section of the canal dramatically. In 1942 the canal was nearly destroyed. In 1955, the flood waters changed the course of the Catasauqua Creek, the waters of the Lehigh River forcing the creek to run north instead of south, and depositing tons of silt into the canal.

During the late 1950's, the canal in Catasauqua was maintained by a group of local men who restored part of Lock 36 and kept the area around Guard Lock 6, North Catasauqua, clear of debris. This maintenance kept water in Catasauqua's stretch of the canal until the mid-60's, a time when borough residents over thirty years of age remember fishing and skating on the canal. In 1962, the Catasauqua Chamber of Commerce cleared the banks along the Race Street area of the canal, erected benches and installed lights for evening iceskating. In 1964 a Catasauqua businessman purchased the canal for $800.00 and it fell into disuse.

During the severe winter of 1979-80 there was a great build-up of ice on the Lehigh River. The Army Corps of Engineers dynamited the ice above Weissport and the subsequent rush of ice and water destroyed the Hokendauqua Dam, a wing dam which directed water into Guard Lock 6. Through the 1980's the breach in the dam widened, and silt and debris built up in front of the lock. This now prevents any water from the Lehigh reaching the canal bed. The small amount of water in the Catasauqua section are run-off and rain water only. In fact, only a few stretches of the Lehigh Canal are watered. These include the area above Weissport, at Walnutport, the stretch from Allentown to Sand Island in Bethlehem, Freemansburg and the Hugh Moore Park in Easton. The rest are either obliterated, as in Northampton, or visible but devastated, as in Catasauqua.

During the summer of 1979, a team of ten students and professional historians, architects, archaeologists and planners from the Federal Government studied the recreation and rehabilitation potential of the then 150 year old canal. The team's goal was to develop recommendations regarding the canal as a cultural and recreation trail. They proposed several possibilities for the Catasauqua Canal area: develop the Sportsman's Lake, Lehigh Street, as an historical, natural and recreational area; locate a trail on the east side of the canal, along the back of residences and industries facing the canal intersection and add it to the National Register of Historic Places; clear and widen the tow paths in North Catasauqua for use as a bicycle trail; and explore the possibilities of restoring the Hokendauqua Dam in order to rewater the canal in Catasauqua.

In 1980 Lehigh County purchased the entire canal in Lehigh County. The Catasauqua portion was offered to the Borough, but no funds were available for rehabilitation. To repair and maintain the canal is a fairly daunting task, for a canal is a man-made structure and subject to the whims of nature. To undertake such a project requires both money and effort.

In 1988 a National Heritage Corridor, including the Delaware and Lehigh Canals, was proposed by the Federal Government. Study and evaluation of the canal's past, present, and future have begun, but designation as an Heritage Corridor, let alone restoration, appears to be years away.

The above article appears on pages 41-46: "A Profile of the Boroughs", copyright 1993, Historic Catasauqua Preservation Association.