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Camping on the Original Erie Canal: The History Most Guests Walk Past

Oct 21
6 min read

Erie Canal camping usually means a site near today's canal. At Rivers Crossing Campground & Marina, you get something rarer: a preserved stretch of Clinton's Ditch, the original hand-dug Erie Canal finished in 1825, runs right through the property. It's easy to miss, and it's one of the best stories on the property.


If you're comparing campgrounds on the Erie Canal, here's what that history actually is, where to find it, and how it connects to the canal you can boat on today.


Is the Original Erie Canal Really on the Property?


Yes. A preserved section of the original Erie Canal, known as Clinton's Ditch, runs through our grounds. It isn't a reconstruction or a marker on a roadside. It's the actual channel workers dug by hand two centuries ago.


Local history places the original canal in this corner of town. A 2025 Finger Lakes Times history column notes that Clinton's Ditch crossed the southwest corner of the Town of Savannah for about half a mile, near Route 89, the road our entrance is on.


What Was Clinton's Ditch, and Why Does It Matter?


Clinton's Ditch was the nickname for the original Erie Canal, built between 1817 and 1825. The name was meant as an insult: critics of Governor DeWitt Clinton called the project "Clinton's Folly" and "Clinton's Ditch," sure it would be a waste of money.


They were wrong. The finished canal ran 363 miles from Albany to Buffalo, linking the Hudson River to the Great Lakes. It was just 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, dug largely by hand with horse-drawn help, with 83 locks to handle a rise of 568 feet between the Hudson and Lake Erie. Boats were pulled by mules and horses walking a towpath alongside.


It mattered most right around here. The first stretch of Clinton's Ditch opened in 1820 between Rome and the Seneca River, and nearby Montezuma became a busy terminus of that middle section. Two of the first canal boats were built in Montezuma, and in December 1819, one of the first trial runs set out from the Seneca River before ice stopped it at Jordan.


The canal cut freight costs and travel times across New York so sharply that it helped turn New York City into the country's leading port, and it opened the Midwest to settlement. The stretch on our property was part of the route that made that happen.


How Is the Preserved Ditch Different From the Canal at the Marina?


They're two different canals, about a century apart. The Erie Canal has been rebuilt twice, and each version took a different path through this area:



Clinton's Ditch (original)

Enlarged Erie Canal

Today's canal (Barge Canal)

Built

1817–1825

1836–1862

1903–1918

Size

40 feet wide, 4 feet deep

70 feet wide, 7 feet deep

120–200 feet wide, 12–14 feet deep

Route here

A hand-dug channel across the Savannah corner, including our property

Close to the original line; crossed the Seneca River on the Richmond Aqueduct

Follows the Clyde River, past our marina

Today

Preserved, not navigable

Remains in Montezuma Heritage Park

Open to boats every season


The big change came with the Barge Canal. Instead of digging a separate channel, engineers "canalized" rivers like the Clyde, dredging them deeper and adding dams and locks. That's why the water at our marina is the Clyde River and the Erie Canal at the same time.


Is the canal I can launch on the same as the original?


No. You launch onto today's canal, the 20th-century Barge Canal that runs in the Clyde River channel. The original Clinton's Ditch is a separate, much smaller channel nearby, and it hasn't carried a boat in well over a century. If you want to get on the water, see our page on how to launch on today's canal.


Can I Walk It, and Is It Kid and Dog Friendly?


For kids, it's a great way to make history real: stand in a channel that men dug with shovels and picture a mule pulling a boat along the bank. Keep an eye on them near any steep banks or standing water. 


Dogs are welcome on a leash, as everywhere on the property. See our pet policy for the details.


Can I Boat or Paddle the Canal?


You can boat and paddle today's canal, but not the original ditch. The preserved section of Clinton's Ditch isn't navigable; it's a piece of history to walk beside, not a waterway.


Can I paddle to the lakes from the campground?


In theory, yes. The Erie Canal connects to the Cayuga-Seneca Canal a short distance east of our marina, and that leads to Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. In practice, it's a long trip on open, shared water with motorboat traffic and locks, so it's better suited to a powerboat than a canoe. For a paddle with history built in, the trip to the Richmond Aqueduct (below) is a better fit. 


Is It Really Something Most Guests Walk Past?


It's easy to miss. After two centuries, an abandoned canal doesn't look like much at a glance: little or no water, no locks, no sign of boats, just a long, straight dip in the ground. Most people expect a canal to have water in it, so they walk right by. 

Now that you know what you're looking for, you won't miss it.


What Else Ties In Nearby?


The ditch on our property is one piece of a bigger canal story you can see within a short drive.


Montezuma Heritage Park


Just across the Seneca River in Montezuma, this 165-acre town park is part of the Seneca River Crossing Canals Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its eleven trails pass remains of all three canal eras:


  • Clinton's Ditch Lock 62: the remains of a lock from the original canal, the same era as the stretch on our property.

  • The Richmond Aqueduct: work began in 1849 on this 31-arch "water bridge" that carried the Enlarged Erie Canal over the Seneca River. It was the second-largest aqueduct on the Enlarged Canal, nearly 900 feet long, and was dismantled in 1917 to make way for the Barge Canal. Seven arches still stand on the east side of the river and three on the west.

  • Paddle trail: the park describes a leisurely paddle of about 30 minutes to the aqueduct, entering at the spot where Clinton's Ditch crossed the Seneca River.


Lock E-25 at Mays Point


Today's canal has its own landmark next door. Lock E-25 sits at Mays Point, close to the Route 89 bridge by our entrance. It's a nice contrast with the hand-dug ditch on the property: the same canal, two centuries apart. 


Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and the Erie Canal Museum


The refuge borders the canal corridor and is one of the region's best birding spots. For the full canal story, the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse is housed in a restored 19th-century weighlock building. See our local attractions page for more.


Frequently Asked Questions

Is the original Erie Canal on the Rivers Crossing property?

Yes. A preserved section of Clinton's Ditch, the original hand-dug Erie Canal finished in 1825, runs through the campground.

It was the nickname critics gave the original Erie Canal, built between 1817 and 1825. It was 363 miles long, 40 feet wide and 4 feet deep, with 83 locks.

No. The original ditch isn't navigable. Boats use today's canal, which runs in the Clyde River channel past our marina.

Many campgrounds sit along today's canal. Having a preserved stretch of the original 1820s channel on the property is much less common, and it's one of the things that makes Erie Canal camping here different.

Montezuma Heritage Park, just across the Seneca River, has the remains of Clinton's Ditch Lock 62 and the Richmond Aqueduct from the Enlarged Erie Canal.


Come Camp on a Piece of History


Book a stay at our riverfront campground, take a walk along the original Erie Canal, and spend the rest of the day on today's canal. You'll be camping between two centuries of New York history.



 
 
 

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