by Capt. Bill McKelvey
The Greater Byram Morris Canal Day, Formerly Waterloo Canal Day, weather prediction for Saturday, June 24, 2023 was not good – much rain. Indeed, it did rain heavily on my way to Waterloo from Berkeley Heights. But, the weather at Waterloo turned out to be excellent, and we had a good volume of visitors. My assigned location was to be a docent at the Canal Society of NJ Morris Canal Boat Exhibit. It was my first visit since the primary exhibit was delivered.
This exhibit had its origins in Hurricane Sandy which struck on October 29, 2012. Heavy surf and high tides pummeled the Jersey Shore. In the aftermath low-lying flood damaged buildings were ordered to be raised out of the range of future storms. One long, narrow building in Highlands, NJ was being raised in 2016 when it was discovered to have been built on the forward section of a Morris Canal hinge boat. It was soon documented and the word went out to the historic community. Joe Macasek, President of the Canal Society of NJ spread the word, and the action part was the need for preservation. I took a look at the site and though that we might save a part of the bow section, but not the entire boat. We got permission to from the owner, Eileen Scanlon, who donated the parts of the boat we wanted to save. The streets in the area were very narrow and the corners sharp – not at all tractor-trailer friendly. However, I immediately thought of my good friend Capt. Phil Francis of the Ridgewood Fire Dept. Phil had a Kenworth tractor and Landoll trailer, plus a big fork lift with balloon tires. On his days off from the fire dept. he frequently hauled lumber in from Pennsylvania to a dealer in Bergen County.
I called Capt. Phil I explained the road layout to him and asked if he might be able to park his tractor-trailer nearby and go in with the fork lift to retrieve the boat section. Phil made a reconnaissance visit a few days later and relayed that he could do the job. Shortly thereafter we set up the retrieval day in the Fall of 2016 (after Summer traffic abated) and Phil arrived with his rig and the fork lift. It was a long day, but we finally got the load of history delivered to Waterloo while there was still daylight. However, we ran out of time as we tried to get the large hull section through the small doorway of the Samuel T. Smith Carriage House at Waterloo with the fork lift. It was successfully accomplished the following day with a large team of volunteers and mechanical help.
In the many months following a wonderfully comprehensive, Canal Boat Exhibit was designed and put into place by Joe Macasek and a cadre of Canal Society volunteer workers. The circumstances of the boat discovery, movement, and preservation are excellently documented by photos, diagrams, models, artifacts, and even maps showing the discovery location of the boat and the route Capt. Phil’s fork lift took from the site through driveways and back yards to his parked tractor-trailer several blocks away. There is on display a full-size mock-up of a Morris Canal boat rudder, bilge pumps, a mule feed box, night hawkers, ship knees, stoves, conch horns, samples of coal and iron cargoes, etc.
In the nearby Canal Society of NJ Museum building there are many more superb exhibits: side by side models of the several canalboat types which visited NJ’s Delaware & Raritan Canal and a Morris Canal boat; a model of a Morris Canal inclined plane; carvings of canal workers performing various duties; and much, much more. There is also Smith’s Canal Store, a Canal Lock, A Blacksmith Shop, a Gristmill, and scheduled Canal Boat Rides - more than enough to keep a visitor fully engaged for a day… Visit and enjoy!
The day was made complete by the timely visit of the lady who donated the boat sections, Mrs. Eileen Scanlon and her granddaughter. Many photos were taken of her to document the occasion for posterity.
Reference: (Canal Society of NJ, On the Level, No. 125, Jan., 2017)
Photos below courtesy of CSNJ member, Ken Roser.
