Delphi Wabash & Erie Canal Park (#0213)

The process of getting funding to build the original Wabash & Erie canal were seemingly like just about every other major project in history, the outcome of a variety of political dynamics – these are well-described on the link below.

In a much abbreviated form, the canal was built because New York had been successful with building the Erie canal. The aim was for the canal to link from Lake Erie at Toledo, Ohio to the Ohio River at Evansville, Indiana. Once completed, it would be possible to ship items from New York City to Buffalo via the Erie Canal, then across Lake Erie to Toledo, then down the Wabash & Erie to Evansville, and then via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to St. Louis and New Orleans. The green map in the picture shows the planned Wabash & Erie.

Construction of the canal began in 1832 and in 1843 there was a grand opening for the stretch from Toledo to Lafayette, Indiana, which is about 20 miles southwest of Delphi. Since Lafayette was the northernmost point on the Wabash River that was navigable by steam boats, that in itself was a success (the Wabash connects to the Ohio west of Evansville) The portion from Lafayette to Evansville was completed 10 years later, in 1853. Most of the canal ran along the Wabash river but not as part of it, except near Delphi. The map on the left side of this picture shows the canal in the Delphi area.

The canal was important in bringing new commerce to the relatively new state of Indiana (granted statehood in 1816) but due to how it was constructed (mostly wood, where canals in other states used stone) and due to damage from floods and freezes, the canal was very expensive to maintain. Just thirty years after the opening of the section from Toledo to Lafayette, the efficiency of the expanding railroad networks made the canal no longer supportable, and it closed in 1874.

Source: www.wabashanderiecanal.org/history-of-the-canal