What's For Dinner? @ Cushwa Basin

What’s for Dinner? 

It took five to seven days for the typical canal freight boat to navigate from Cumberland, MD, downstream to Georgetown in Washington, D.C. What did the crew members prepare and serve for meals along the way?   

Join us at Cushwa Basin Visitor Center and Volunteer Lowell recreates boatman's soup!

Several people who worked on canal freight boats in their younger years were interviewed for “Home on the Canal,” by Elizabeth Kytle (1983). Others were interviewed by Mike Mastrangelo who authored a 1987 historical pamphlet about Four Locks. Here are some memories the boaters shared: 

One person who served as crew on canal boats remembered eating “fried chicken, fish, coffee…anything at all.” Another remembers his brother being able to cook almost anything like “biscuits and whatever was in season by way of vegetables.”  Another recalls her family would start in Williamsport and head for Cumberland to get a load of coal. They would stop in Hancock where her dad would walk up to a meat market to get a piece of meat to fry and also bananas because his daughters (his crew) “were crazy about bananas.” She also remembers her mother’s slippery pot pie. Still another crew member recollects fishing in the canal for carp and bass and netting snapping turtle to fry the meat or make turtle soup.  Another boater remembers that the cured hams from a store at Four Locks were “the best around.”  Cured ham was popular with boaters because it didn’t have to be refrigerated. Most of these people mentioned boatman’s bean soup!   

Where did people who spent most of the boating season on board a freight boat get their food?  

There were a few stores built right over the bypass flume at canal locks; boat crew could step off their boat and be in the store while their boat was being “locked through.” Many lockkeeper families grew extra vegetables; made baked goods; or had extra eggs which could be sold to boat crew passing by. Of course, there were stores in Canal towns like Williamsport, where canallers could stock up. When starting out, many boaters would take a basket of food to their boat from home.

Fees

This event is free to attend.

Location

This program will take place at Cushwa Basin Visitor Center Picnic Area. Due to weather conditions, we may change locations to inside the Trolley Barn. Please check day of at visitor center for exact location.

Latitude and Longitude 39.600562, -77.826263

Schedule

Contact Information

Cushwa Basin Visitor Center

Event Type

• Cultural/Craft Demonstration
• Exhibition/Show
• Talk
• Volunteer Event