Once the Erie Canal was completed across upstate New York in the mid-1820s, it seemed like the rest of the state went crazy, wanting a canal in their areas to connect with the Erie. One effort in our region was successful in getting such a waterway built, the 97-mile long Chenango Canal, which linked Binghamton with the Erie Canal at Utica.

Another effort barely got off the drawing board in 1826. It was to build a Susquehanna Canal to connect the Erie Canal with the coalfields of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

A grand opening ceremony for the Erie Canal was a noisy one all across the state. On Oct. 26, 1826, cannons were placed every few miles along the canal from Buffalo to Albany, and then south along the Hudson to New York City. The cannons were fired to signal that Governor DeWitt Clinton had boarded a canal boat at the western end and was on his way to New York City.

Cooperstown took part in the day’s celebration, but with a different purpose. Gov. Clinton’s father, Gen. James Clinton, had built a dam at the southern end of Lake Otsego, so he and his men could easily navigate the Susquehanna during the well-known Clinton-Sullivan Expedition, just a few decades earlier.

A gathering at the dam, while observing the opening of the Erie Canal, was also to get the proposed Susquehanna Canal project under way.

Ceremonies began with a religious observance at Christ Church, and then many villagers went to a banquet at the Red Lion Inn. There were toasts and speeches, with one including, "A speedy union of the waters of Otsego Lake with the Erie Canal."

The ceremonies then moved to the riverbank near the site of today’s dam, near Council Rock. A group of men with shovels and wheelbarrows tore out the remaining portions of the dam. Once demolished, people celebrated the rest of the day knowing that the first step had been taken to make the Susquehanna "navigable for the purposes of commerce."

That was as far as the project ever got.

Jacob Dietz was an early Oneonta pioneer. When he arrived here around 1811, the area was still part of the town of Milford. Dietz was always concerned with the problems of transportation in our region.

Dietz was among several others who worked on the idea of a canal at Fort Plain to connect Pennsylvania, via the Susquehanna.

By 1826, there were a growing number of turnpikes in the area. Dietz became a director of the Charlotte Turnpike, which was chartered in 1830. He took an equal interest in the Franklin Turnpike, chartered in 1831.

Another new mode of transportation had arrived in the United States, the railroad. The first steam locomotive to operate here was built in 1829 in Honesdale, Pa. -- right in the heart of coal country.

Dietz also dreamed of building a railroad down the Susquehanna Valley. The idea finally came true in 1851, but Dietz missed out on seeing the work he had begun.

A new generation, led by E.R. Ford, Harvey Baker and Jared Goodyear carried on Dietz’s work. The railroad arrived in Oneonta in 1865.

Improvements in transportation is one reason why the Susquehanna Canal never got beyond the celebrated demolition of the dam in Cooperstown.

Another was the fact that the D&H Canal had broken ground in 1825, was completed in 1828, and connected Honesdale with the Hudson River.

In September 1901, another generation of villagers gathered at the same outlet of Lake Otsego to witness the unveiling of a tablet, still visible today, to mark the site and to commemorate the fame of Clinton’s dam.

On Monday: A small part of the Japanese surge of investments of the late 1980s touched our region.

City Historian Mark Simonson’s column appears twice weekly. On Saturdays, his column focuses on the area during the Depression and before. His Monday columns address local history after the Depression. If you have feedback or ideas about the column, write to him at The Daily Star, or e-mail him at simmark@stny.rr.com. His website is www.oneontahistorian.com.