1832-1874
(468 Miles – Longest Canal Built in North America )
The Wabash and Erie Canal was a canal built from Lake Erie to the Ohio River, thus linking New York City (via the Erie Canal) to New Orleans via a combination of rivers, lake and canals; ultimately creating one of the first “interstates” in the United States.
The original Wabash & Erie Canal was designed to have Toledo OH as its northern terminus with a southern terminus of Lafayette IN, with an extension to Terre Haute, IN in 1842. By the time the first packet boat made the complete journey in September of 1853, the Wabash and Erie Canal was actually a combination of four canals:
- Miami and Erie Canal from the Maumee River near Toledo, OH to Junction, OH (Originally the Wabash & Erie Canal but later renamed)
- Wabash and Erie Canal from Junction, OH to Lafayette, IN (extended to Terre Haute, Indiana),
- Cross Cut Canal from Terre Haute, Indiana, to Point Commerce, IN (Worthington),
- Central Canal from Worthington to Evansville, IN
Counties of the Wabash & Erie Canal
Click on the county name to the left of the screen to explore the canal in that county
Ohio Counties
TOUR GUIDES
THE TUMBLE
HOOSIER PACKET
INDIANA CANALS
NEWSLETTER
INDIANA WATERWAYS
CANAL STRUCTURES
Volume 1 (1981)
- MRS. SPOONAUGLE TELLS OF HER HARROWING JOURNEY
- PROCEEDINGS OF THE MOBOCRACY ON THE WABASH AND ERIE CANAL (BIRCH CREEK RESERVOIR)
- MRS. SPOONAUGLE TELLS OF HER HARROWING JOURNEY (Conclusion)
- MORE ON CLAY COUNTY RESERVOIR WAR
Volume 2 (1982)
- A Dangerous Proposition
- Wabash & Erie Canal Map (Southwest Indiana)
- Canal Dredging Machines Wanted
- Canal Structure Inventory Sheet (Patoka River Aqueduct)
Volume 3 (1983)
- The St. Joseph’s Feeder at Fort Wayne
- John Stopher: Canal Builder
- Portrait of a Canal Boat Captain
- “The Wabash and Erie Canal, A Beautiful Dream”
- Samuel Mahoon vs. Daniel Poole
- Census Records as a Canal Information Source
- Distressing Occurrence
- Fort Wayne Times 1845
Volume 4 (1985)
- “An Irishman Dead for Every Six Feet of the Wabash & Erie Canal”
- A Partial Listing of Boats Passing To or Through Fort Wayne on the Wabash & Erie Canal, June – Sept. 1845
- Miscellaneous Canal Mishaps, As Reported by the Evansville Daily Journal
- The Six-Mile Reservoir
- Rates of Toll
- Table of Distance on the Wabash & Erie Canal