They've been kind of predictable -eriecanal.org for example-from an organization that promotes the canal as a tourist destination. They give a cursory history - dates etc. The National Parks service has a similar one - eriecanalways.org. Nuts and bolts information (assuming it's correct). Basic things that are necessary to know but pretty boring to read so I clicked on the link for the Albany to Buffalo Erie Canal Bike Ride and killed an afternoon on that...
But today I experienced my first Thrill of Discovery on the internet.
Someone named Paul Volpe, an American studies student at the University of Virginia, created an Erie Canal website for his MA thesis, and it's great. From the moment I read the first paragraph of his introduction I knew I was in the presence of a thoughtful writer, a careful researcher. It was just like opening a really good book, but I'll leave that thought for now.
Back to the Thrill of Discovery. In the history section, Mr. Volpe talks about a man named Jesse Hawley who is widely credited with the brainstorm that became the Erie Canal. While he was in jail for not being able to pay his debts (he was unlucky, apparently, in his chosen business as a flour trader) he wrote 14 articles under the pseudonym "Hercules" for a local newspaper in which he laid out in some detail his plans for a canal between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes.
That got my attention. I stopped reading Volpe's website and Googled Jesse Hawley. This is what I found:
The NYState Corrections history website entry on Hawley.
The address and opening hours of Hawley's home, now a museum, as well as information about him.
The Niagara County Historical Society's website entry on Hawley.
The address and photos of his gravesite and even more information about him.
Back to the Thrill of Discovery. In the history section, Mr. Volpe talks about a man named Jesse Hawley who is widely credited with the brainstorm that became the Erie Canal. While he was in jail for not being able to pay his debts (he was unlucky, apparently, in his chosen business as a flour trader) he wrote 14 articles under the pseudonym "Hercules" for a local newspaper in which he laid out in some detail his plans for a canal between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes.
That got my attention. I stopped reading Volpe's website and Googled Jesse Hawley. This is what I found:
The NYState Corrections history website entry on Hawley.
The address and opening hours of Hawley's home, now a museum, as well as information about him.
The Niagara County Historical Society's website entry on Hawley.
The address and photos of his gravesite and even more information about him.
An 1856 NYTimes article about a proposed monument for Hawley.
AND all 14 of his "Hercules" newspaper articles (Full disclosure. they were part of the appendices to DeWitt Clinton's memoir. A book. But still, I found it on the internet.)
Fabulous reading. Different points of view, different but surprisingly not contradictory information, interesting connections. Such a pleasure.
Not that there weren't distractions. Once I got on the Correctional website, there was no way I was going to miss the aerial tour of Riker's Island in 1948!
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