I have been meaning to chime in. The Erie Canal boats just got the traveller from Lake Ontario to the UPPER Great Lakes (in particular Lake Erie). Once on Lake Erie, they would take the Steamships from Buffalo to go to: Crystal Beach ?? Dunkirk Erie ?? Cleveland, OH Toledo, OH Detroit, MI Mackinac, MI (possibly Port Huron, MI too) Milwaukee, WI Chicago, IL and Duluth, MN (via Sault St Marie locks to get to Lake Superior) They would not take canal boats, they would take Steamships. There is a nice map from one of the recent map links (Erie County) posted here that shows a map entitled 1904 NYCRR Buffalo that shows the railroad lines (and steam lines) and where in Buffalo the steamships embarked from. I am not a native Buffalonian, I am a Michigander (in Philadelphia) whose ancestors used the Railroads and Steamships to get to Toledo, OH and Detroit, MI from Buffalo, NY. --mike

----- Original Message ----- From: "C. Michael Eliasz" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 10:57 AM Subject: [NYERIE] Erie Canal to Buffalo / Steamships to the rest of theGreat Lakes > > The Erie Canal boats just got the traveller from Lake Ontario to the > UPPER Great Lakes (in particular Lake Erie). > If I remember correctly, not having lived in Buffalo/New York State for 25+years, the Erie Canal ran the length of the state. I believe that it's point of origin is somewhere around Albany but I'm not positive. I'm pretty sure that it ran from the Hudson River to Buffalo/Lake Erie. Perhaps you are thinking of the Welland Canal in Ontario, Canada. This canal bypasses Niagara Falls enabling ships to come from the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes. The Welland Canal and the St. Lawrence Seaway were a major reason Buffalo declined as a port, and a railroad center, since merchandise/consumables/etc no longer had to be changed from lake freighters to trains or vice-versa. I remember back in the 50's and 60's the grain elevators along the Buffalo (??) River were heavily used but the trans-shipping started to decline in the 60's when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened. I will admit that, at the time, I thought this combination was wonderful, especially when a British Frigate visited Buffalo in the late 50's. We were on our way to see it and dad picked up a couple of the British sailors somewhere along Main Street and gave them a lift back to their ship. At the time, the US Navy had destroyers and destroyer escorts and I had a hard time understanding what a Frigate was. (Not to say anything about hearing the cockney accent for the first time!! LOL). Had I known what would transpire in Buffalo since, I have to wish that the St. Lawrence Seaway had never been built. But then isn't hindsight always 20-20? Bob Hoover a-Buffalo-expatriate-but-still-a-Bills-fan!!!! ps. my keyboard is very happy to see the end of the threads about beef on weck and sponge candy. It thought I was drooling too much as I read them!!! LOL pps. Horatio Hornblower has taught me about Frigates! LOL