When we started this morning, we were in Liverpool which is on the wrong side of Onondaga Lake. So, after our hotel breakfast and packing the car, we made our way south and west around the lake to Camillus and the rest of the canal towns we were going to visit today. The weather was mostly overcast today which was a welcome change from having the sun beating relentlessly down in 90+ degree heat.
We knew we were getting back on track when we saw an historical marker for the home of James Geddes, an Erie Canal surveyor in 1808 and the chief engineer in charge of building the canal. For the most part, we followed route 31 west today, and it took us in a parallel route to the canal and through several canal towns. As we drove through the towns yesterday and today, we were impressed with the 19th century architecture. So many of the old homes appeared to be in great shape and had the gingerbread, ornamentation and cupolas that give them so much personality. It makes sense that these towns are so rich in these kinds of houses, given that the money coming into the towns was concentrated in the mid- to late 1800s. We even saw an octagonal house museum as we passed through Camillus. Unfortunately, we didn't get much in our video of these houses because they passed so quickly, and there were so many of them it was hard to choose which we'd want.
Our first big stop of the day was the Old Erie Canal Heritage Park in Port Byron. This was the same place that Scott stopped at briefly to pick up some information on Monday. We had a chance to look around it once before back in 2019 on the day after "Transfer Day." You can get to this site directly from the NYS Thruway, but this time we came from the town of Port Byron's side. The main attraction here is the old canal's locks. This particular set of locks, Lock 52, was part of the original Erie Canal, but since that is no longer used, visitors can walk right through these. They are a newer version of expanded locks to allow larger vessels to use the canal. There's a nice visitors center there with many artifacts from the time, including some of the commemorative pieces of china that Scott liked yesterday. After browsing the exhibits here, we walked up past the locks to where the Erie House Tavern stands. It was built in the 1890s and it and the several buildings around it are largely original and have been lovingly restored. The floors, lights, bar, and even the cash register are original. The volunteer who was behind the bar at the tavern was an older woman who was very enthusiastic about telling us about both the tavern and the plans for bringing in a new boat. The Louis McClure was a sailing vessel on Lake Champlain that was built with removable masts to allow it to go on to the canal system as well. The people who had been running it in Vermont were going to scuttle the boat, but the people here in Port Byron managed to put a team together quickly to rescue the boat and pull it through the canals to Cayuga Lake. There are plans to move it here to Port Byron soon. We saw the blacksmith shop and admired how well they had recreated the sign to match the one in the original photographs. Across the canal from there was a dry dock area for boats to get repairs (like the one in Chittenango, we assume). Between the locks and the dry dock, the tavern and blacksmiths must have been busy places. When we were leaving the tavern area, one of the guides came by with a golf cart and gave us a ride back. He first drove us through the locks and pointed out the fish fossils that can be seen in its Onondaga limestone walls. Abby liked seeing those, but she seem to enjoy the ride in the golf cart even more. The guide took us all the way back to the visitors center, and we were ready to go on to the next stop.
Scott had noticed that the visitor center for the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge was just a short distance from our canal tour. It seemed like a logical stop. The girls would like it because of the chance to see animals. The swamps and wetlands in this area do have an important tie to the canal's history because it was in this area where most of the 1000 or so deaths from building the canal came. The diggers-- mostly Irish immigrants-- were killed by mosquitos carrying malaria. We went into the visitor center for an orientation, and Abby was greeted by a cocker spaniel named Penny. We thought that the golf cart ride was going to be the highlight of her day, but she couldn't stop talking about how much she loved that dog for the next hour or two at least. We were hoping to be able to see some animals in the sanctuary, but the main animals that live in the area appear to be birds. They were certainly the focus of the taxidermied specimens in the visitor center. We took the driving trail to see what we could see. There were some pretty pink flowers growing in large numbers and many white butterflies. Julie spotted what was probably an osprey in the top limbs of a bare tree. We saw a few geese and ducks too. The highlight of the trail was the giant eagle sculpture. We have seen this many times from the Thruway, but today we got to stand in front of it for a picture.
After the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge, we made our way back to Route 31 and the Erie Canal. We did a u-turn to get a better look at Lock 25 after we spotted it from the road. It was around 1:00 though and we were late for lunch. We went through the village of Clyde but by the time we got to Lyons we were ready to eat. Julie looked for a more interesting place for lunch, but we ended up settling for McDonald's. That was OK, but we didn't realize until after we ate that there were picnic tables outside that overlooked the canal right behind the McDonald's parking lot. We missed an opportunity there.
We were looking forward to getting to Palmyra because if we had been on the boat this summer, it was the town that was probably going to be one of our stops. Julie had hoped that it was going to be filled with cute little shops, but the main street through town was almost vacant. We stopped at the Palmyra Flea Market which was a shop that sold that sort of thing. We scanned the rest of the street and didn't see much else that intrigued us, and Julie was disappointed by that. Scott took some time to get some video and pictures at the corner of Main and Church. It is supposed to be the only intersection of two roads in the United States that has a church in each of the four corners and Palmyra is proud of that scene. Four miles south of this intersection is Cumorah, the hill where Joseph Smith was supposed to have found the tablets that were used to start the Mormon church. We didn't go see that, but we did notice the Mormon presence in Palmyra, where the Book of Mormon was first printed and where it is still distributed from. It still wasn't what Julie was hoping for.
Scott wanted us to go back to the part of Palmyra that we had stopped at when we were on the Haunted History Trail in 2021. There is a set of museums that we found then, but we were there first thing in the morning and they weren't open for us to visit. We did find them by the canal today and we were glad that we did. We started in the Palmyra Historical Museum. As one might expect, its displays focus on the history of the town of Palmyra. It is densely packed with artifacts from many eras in the towns history, but they are pretty much organized topically in the rooms of the converted house. Scott took a moment to take Abby through some of the first rooms so Julie could talk to the docent about the alleged ghosts there. After all, we had originally wanted to tour here when we were following the lists in the Haunted History booklet. They told her that most of the "activity" was in the building that we were in because it had been moved there from elsewhere and sat on the site where a fire tragically killed a family. They didn't specify what that activity was, though. They also said there was some activity in the upstairs of the last building, the general store. Scott found the most interest in the Civil War room and the featured artifacts from the 111th New York Infantry, which has a monument in Gettysburg we have often passed. Julie found a story about an unsolved death of a police officer that she thought was interesting. We were able to take ourselves through the museum, but needed to be guided through the next buildings. It was getting close to 3:00 and they closed at 4:00, so we didn't stay long in this one. Abby didn't like it much anyway, especially if there were mannequins in the room.
The next building was the Erie Canal Depot, linking well with the theme of our trip this week. The building had been built after the canal came through town and served the travelers on the canal in various ways, including acting as the ticketing office. A bench in the first room is one that was supposed to have been invented for the passengers on the roofs of packet boats. Its main feature is that the back of the bench can flip from one side to the other so that passengers didn't have to face into the sun (since the canal basically goes east-west). From that same room, we could look through a window in the floor to the area where the mules were stabled. We saw various models of bridges and features of the canal in the Palmyra area. The back room was set up like a captain's quarters on the packet boat. It had clothes that kids could try on, but Abby didn't want to do that. She said she was only five and the clothes were too big for her. The building was not air conditioned and no fans were running, so we were getting pretty sweaty anyway. Before we left, Abby was able to sound a whistle like those from a canal boat. It was roughly the size of a bicycle tire pump, but the plunger forced air through a whistle. Although it shocked her at first, she seemed to like it and asked to do it several times.
The docent then took us to the adjacent building which is set up like a print shop. Abby didn't like the smells in there, but the ink smells reminded Scott of typewriter ribbon. Many of the printing presses and machines on display there were made in Palmyra. The last of the buildings in the row was the William B. Phelps General Store. The tour here was as much about the eccentric family that owned it as it was about the general store. The building had several uses, but was made into a general store in the 1870s. What made it unusual is that the son of the original owner locked the doors in 1940 and left everything in the store untouched. There is some speculation that he was suffering from dementia and forgot that the store was there. Anyway, the inventory was basically left there. Even eggs were left from the time. (Apparently, they are now just dried out.) Abby was invited to ring the cash register, which opened its drawer with a loud "ka-ching!" The upstairs of the building is a Victorian era home that the Phelps family lived in. The daughter, Sibyl, lived there until 1976 and had continued to live in the Victorian fashion without running water or electricity. This is the second area where the museum staff says there is ghostly "activity" and they say that Sybil was involved in Spiritualism. They celebrate her birthday every year in October. Ghosts or no ghosts, Abby didn't like the place. We had to warn her when mannequins were coming up. The docent was great with us though, and since we were the only people on her tour, she was very patient with Abby. We declined to see the bedrooms on the third floor, partly because Julie didn't want to climb more stairs and partly because we learned that there was no air conditioning on that floor. We tipped the tour guide and thanked her for her time and patience.
We made one more stop before we left Palmyra. Scott and Abby walked down to the canal itself while Julie brought the car around. Scott wanted to walk out onto the bridge that went over the canal. Abby didn't want to do that, so she stayed with Mom. Cars are not allowed on the bridge anymore so it is only open for pedestrian traffic. Scott liked the site very much since you could look straight up and down the canal.
After the Palmyra museums, we drove through Macedon. That was where the Oneida had been docked when we were going to take a cruise back in July. We were ready to look for a place to stay tonight though. Julie found a place with a pool in nearby Farmington, just a short distance to the south, so we turned on the GPS again and headed for there. Once more we unloaded the car and rested for a bit in the room. Julie then found us a place for dinner called, "Fire on Main." It is an Italian place in nearby Victor. It has a big brick oven to make "artisanal pizzas." We shared a meatball pizza and Abby got spaghetti. Dad ate her large meatball and said it reminded him of the taste of the ones that his mom used to get. The pizza was ok, but not great, and we ended up taking half of it back to the hotel with us.
Once we were back at the hotel, Abby and Mom went to the pool. Scott considered several options, but finally decided to spend some time with Abby in the pool too. He was glad that he did because she giggled continuously for almost the entire time that they played together. It was nice that we had the pool to ourselves for most of the time we were there and it was quiet. (That was not the case last night!)
