The story of the canal is a story of people. Prominent individuals who envisioned a gateway west. Immigrants who performed backbreaking work digging the canal. Families who lived and worked on the canal.  Everyone who helped engineer, build, operate, or maintain the canal contributed to its history.  Hundreds of Irish laborers died during contruction. Building a canal was extremely difficult work.  Many boat families lost children to drowning, accident, or disease.  

Phyical evidence of the struggle of making a living on the canal are still visible today.  Imagine you are a member of a boat family working seven days a week, up to eighteen hours a day. Your canal boat is your business, home, and barn.   You walk 184.5 miles one way every week.  It takes you two weeks to make a round trip from Georgetown to Cumberland and back again.  If your family is lucky, you might clear $15.00 to $20.00 dollars a trip.  That averages about five cents per mile. 

Questions to Consider:

Do you work as a family unit to earn a living?

Do you live and work in the same location?

Do you stable livestock in your house?

How is your life different from those who worked on the canal?

How is it the same?