Lock Tending Positions

Lock Tender training occurs in April and May. Between 20 and 30 lock tenders are needed to aid in passage of whitewater rafts as part of the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust's Concord River whitewater rafting program. Visit the Trust's web site for more details.

Just mention in a conversation that you have experience working as a Lock Tender and watch jaws drop as you explain the job. List your experience on your resume helping to lift boats weighing tons as much as ten feet in the water and you will induce much curiosity, wonderment and quite a distraction at the personnel office.

Consider that lock tending is a very rare position in the United States. It is performed in a few state parks and at the C&O Canal National Historical Park in Maryland and Washington, D.C. Very few people ever get a chance to do or even see this activity. Yet, the Lowell canals are in your backyard and here is your chance.

If you are physically able to move a very heavy canal gate arm mounted on a pivot, use your back properly, follow safety procedures, and work consistently 4 or 5 hours per week in the summer and early fall, you too could learn the archaic skills of being a Lock Tender. This job is available on a daily basis from late June through early September and on weekends in early June and from September through Columbus Day.

Reflect on what your career may have been if you were working in 18th, 19th, and early 20th century America. Give the Volunteer Office a call at 978-275-1740. We would like to talk to you about this almost bygone position that once employed many individuals and families living in special lock houses along America’s thousands of miles of canal ways.