In 1825, Robert Dunlap, a member of the Newberry bar and resident of the village, petitioned Colonel Abram Blanding of the state board of public works for information of the prospects of navigating the Saluda that season and requested information as to the expenses at each of the locks on the river. Dunlap had commenced building a boat at the Old Town ferry which was nearly completed and which measured fifty-six feet in length and six and one-half fee in width. He planned to operate this boat constantly from Indian Island ford to Columbia if navigation would permit. Dunlap thought the system of internal improvements would greatly benefit this part of the state; he said the sluice at Lee's Shoal needed work, that the sluice at Towle's mill just above Old Town ferry needed work, but that the canal and locks at Lorick's mill were all right. Whether this experiment succeeded, the history of the period is silent. It does show how eager the upcountry people were for a better method of transportation than the inland road system; the need was met by the railroad network which spread over South Carolina later in the antebellum period. By 1840 it was generally recognized that the system of internal improvements pursued by the state had failed to produce the benefits expected, that it was entirely useless to continue appropriations for canals and the rivers, and that the roads from the midland towns to the state's northern boundary should be improved as that part of the state must depend on overland transportation. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com