(The greater Niagara region is rich with canal and marine history, with the Welland Canal system in Niagara, Ontario and the western-most lengths of the Erie Canal system running through Erie and Niagara Counties, New York. Niagara At Large is pleased to run this piece by an avid buff of canal history in Niagara, Ontario and would look forward to a comparable piece from our American neighbours on the Erie Canal.)
By F. Rene Ressler
The Merritt Trail through St. Catharines and Thorold, Ontario offers a tranquil hiking experience that parallels the same route that schooners, barkentines and early steamboats of the 19th century Great Lakes fleet used to transit the First and Second Welland Canals.
Remnants of a lock from one of the earlier Welland Canal channels along the Merritt Trail.
The trail is named after William Hamilton Merritt who built the first Welland Canal, which opened in 1829 and follows the route of the first two incarnations of the Welland Canal.
The Merritt Trail runs predominantly north and south and includes a climb up the Niagara Escarpment at Merritton. The trail itself was incorporated along the same canal bank towpaths that teams of oxen and horses used to pull ships between Lakes Ontario through to Lake Erie.
From its opening in 1829 until today, the Welland Canal enables ships to traverse the barriers of Niagara Falls and the Niagara Escarpment and freely navigate between the two great lakes. The difference in elevation of the two lakes is about 330 feet! From the trail’s jump-off point in northwest St. Catharines at the corner of Martindale and Erion Roads, this spectacular urban path winds its way south along the Twelve Mile Creek portion of the old canal.
The Merritt Trail continues south through the former town of Merritton (St. Catharines) before ascending the escarpment and continuing through the City of Thorold before ending at Allanburg. The entire trail is approximately 21 kilometers (about 13 miles) long and for the most part, wheelchair and scooter accessible. The trail is compressed gravel and mostly level. Any grades in the walkway are actually quite gentle. Even the climb up the Niagara escarpment along Bradley Street in St. Catharines seems effortless. The best part of the trail, besides the spectacular scenery, which includes stretches through lush Carolinian Forest mixed with portions of sprawling wetlands along the lower portion of Twelve Mile Creek, is the tangible history that remains along its route.
No less than 20 remaining locks are visible and available to explore along the Merritt Trail. From Lock 2 at Wellandvale to the west wall of a control lock at the Deep Cut in Allanburg, the locks remain in situ in various states of repair. For example, Lock 3 of the second Welland Canal is almost completely buried under Highway 406 in midtown St. Catharines though a snippet of the Lock is still visible. Lock 5, located a kilometer east of Lock 3, is completely hidden under Westchester Avenue at Oakdale Avenue and requires a short sojourn down the canal bank to the waters edge to view the lock in its entirety.
The majority of the massive Queenston Limestone locks are not only intact but also true to plumb as the day that they were constructed. The Second Welland Canal opened to navigation in 1847 and was in use for only forty years before great advances in late Nineteenth Century shipbuilding, both in size and vessel propulsion, necessitated an even larger Third Welland Canal that was built much further to the east of present day St. Catharines.
I could go on and on about the wonders of the Old Welland Canal along the Merritt Trail but it is best that you go out and see the old locks for yourself. The Merritt Trail is virtually a 21-kilometer long museum that both celebrates and showcases the very heart of Niagara’s storied maritime legacy.
For more about the Merritt Trail, “The Welland Canals Advocate” at www.thewellandcanalsadvocate.ca is publishing a complete and comprehensive online hiking guide of the entire Merritt Trail.
The WCA is a non profit web magazine that promotes and celebrates all four Welland Canals. The WCA also conducts free monthly hikes along portions of the Old Welland Canals. Over the summer of 2010, a detailed and comprehensive Merritt Trail Hiking guide will be published and made available for download from the homepage of the Welland Canals Advocate.
On June 1, 2010 the guide for the first of four legs of the Merritt Trail Hike, from Martindale Road to St. Catharines Centennial Gardens was published online. The guide is easy to download as a pdf file. The first leg of the hike culminates in an interesting “Treasure Hunt” excursion through Centennial Gardens where one must locate about a dozen historical and whimsical points of interest located within the Gardens. I will leave you to explore and immerse yourself in Niagara’s rich maritime history along the Merritt Trail.
Happy Trails
(Click on Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region.)
This is a very intersting and useful story. I am having company from Germany this summer and am very excited about showing him the canal. Thank you for this valuable information. Our area is so wonderful and it is great to know more about it.