Location: Harper Rd. cul-de-sac, southeast of US 24, just beyond east interchange of I-469 bypass, New Haven (Allen County, Indiana).
Installed: 2003 Indiana Historical Bureau, Canal Society of Indiana, and New Haven Kiwanis
ID# : 02.2003.1
Marker Review Report: Learn more here.
Text
Side one:
Wabash and Erie Canal lock was discovered here June 1991 during excavation for highway construction. It was built 1838-1840 by Henry Lotz and named for lock keeper Joseph Gronauer. The rare, well-preserved timber-frame design lock measured 115 by 40 feet; lock chamber was 90 by 15 feet; two-thirds of total structure was excavated and removed.
Side two:
Numerous artifacts and 750 pieces of timber were recovered. After extensive preservation treatment, approximately 5 percent of total lock structure is included in an Indiana State Museum exhibit. Wabash and Erie Canal, America's longest at approximately 460 miles, linked Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio with Ohio River at Evansville 1853."
Keywords
Transportation, Business, Industry, and Labor
Annotated Text
Wabash and Erie Canal lock was discovered here June 1991 during excavation for highway construction.(1) It was built 1838-1840 by Henry Lotz and named for lock keeper Joseph Gronauer.(2) The rare, well-preserved timber-frame design lock measured 115 by 40 feet; lock chamber was 90 by 15 feet; two-thirds of total structure was excavated and removed.(3)
Numerous artifacts and 750 pieces of timber were recovered.(4) After extensive preservation treatment, approximately 5 percent of total lock structure is included in an Indiana State Museum exhibit.(5) Wabash and Erie Canal, America's longest at approximately 460 miles, linked Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio with Ohio River at Evansville 1853.(6)
(1) Indianapolis Star, June 6, 1991.
(2) Griswold, Pictorial History of Fort Wayne, 639-40; History of Allen County, 1880 [map]; Reports of Chief Engineer, 1845 and 1847; Tract Book: Gronauer purchase of W. & E. Canal land; New Haven News, January 2, 1896; Canal Society of Indiana, Gronauer Lock Site: Statement of the Historical Significance (July 18, 1991); Cindy Parish, Archeological Investigations at the Gronauer Lock #2 (1993); Craig Leonard, "Gronauer Lock Prospectus" (circa 1994), Appendix I, pp. 5-6 and Appendix III, pp. 9-10; Robert F. Schmidt to Paula Bongen, August 21, 2002.
(3) Terry K. Woods, American Canal Society, to Senator Patrick Moynihan, September 3, 1991; Schmidt to Bongen, August 21, 2002; Canal Society of Indiana Newsletter, September 1998, pp. 1-3; Canal Society of Indiana, Gronauer Lock Site, July 18, 1991; Parish, Archeological Investigations (1993); Leonard, "Gronauer Lock Prospectus, " Appendix I, p. 5 and Appendix III, p. 9.
(4) Leonard, "Gronauer Lock Prospectus, " Appendix III, p. 9 and Appendix IV, pp. 11-12.
(5) Schmidt to Bongen, August 21, 2002; Fort Wayne News Sentinal, June 11, 1997; Hoosierisms, Spring 1997, pp. 8.
(6) Standard statement for Wabash & Erie Canal markers.