I read the Wikipedia entry on the canal. There was new (to me) information about construction innovations that seemed like they would be interesting if better explained and more detail about the workers. The stonemasons were German, apparently, and the laborers Irish. They settled down, creating towns along the canal route. The map looked like it would be really interesting if it weren't the size of a postage stamp.
Each section of the Wiki site had a box saying,"this section does not cite any references or sources" which may not mean anything but awakened my suspicions about the accuracy.
The outside links at the end of the piece led me into the world of Erie Canal afficionados-who knew? They tromp around in the wilderness looking for traces of the original canal and post pictures of what they find, or think they've found. I even joined a Yahoo group Erie_Canal. I think I'm supposed to be alerted whenever someone in the group says something, but so far nothing.
Yesterday I told a couple of hundred fourth and third graders that I was working on a book about the Erie Canal. To my surprise and delight, they'd heard of it! Unless they were thinking of the song. . .