THE Canal Society of Ohio
Click on each photo to enlarge.
After a review of coming events on Thursday Evening, the tour began Friday morning with the tour members enjoying a day filled with a tour of local Marietta Industries and visiting local Historic site Marietta Grindstone Quarry along with Lock 2 at Devola, Ohio.
Topping off our day was a sumptuous banquet held at the Betsey Mills Club established in 1911 and offering an expansive array of services to the community. The excellent food and companionship was perfect and our speaker of the evening Mr. Scott Britton, Executive Director of the Castle Museum of Marietta, Ohio, presented a very informative overview of early Marietta history.
Saturday's events began at 9am with breakfast served aboard the Valley Gem Stearnwheeler and we were off up the Muskingum River toward locks 2 and 3 at Devola and Lowell respectively where we would experience a lock through both up and downstream at each lock. The Muskingum River Lock System dates from the 1840's and connected the commerce of the Ohio and Erie Canal via a sidecut canal at Dresden, Ohio and the Muskingum River to the Ohio River
at Marietta. (See Canal Site #25). A photo sequence of the lock through at
Devola follows.
SPRING TOUR 2023 MEMORIES
May 12-14, 2023
CANAL SOCIETY OF OHIO SPRING TOUR
MARIETTA, OHIO
The Valley Gem Stern Wheeler
Click on each photo to enlarge.
The cruise then continued North toward the Town of Lowell and our second lock through. Lunch was delivered aboard and we enjoyed the repast while resting in the lock at Lowell. Travel continued Northerly for another couple of hours and after an overcast morning, we finally began to see some sun!
Our turnaround point was just short of Lock 3 at Beverly, Ohio and the downriver sequence of locking through Locks 3 and 2 were accomplished with perfection by the experienced Captain and the ODNR lock operators! We arrived slightly ahead of schedule at Marietta and, as a result, were treated to a short tour in the Ohio River before docking at the Valley Gem dock location near the Ohio River Museum at 5pm. All in all, a grand day on the Muskingum River was had by all!
An after cruise stop for snacks and drinks was enjoyed at the TLV Mediterranean Restaurant not far from the docking area in Marietta.
Sunday's events concluded the weekend with a tour of Mound Cemetery along with two other mound sites. Many thanks to CSO Tour Chair Ron Petrie for planning and executing a memorable tour!
Canal Society of Ohio Inc.
Marietta's Mound Cemetery contains the graves of more Revolutionary War officers than any other cemetery anywhere.