Canal Boat Stern

This reproduction was created in 1996 by a cooperative agreement between Harpers Ferry Center of the National Park Service and the Western Reserve Historical Society. The artist was the former carpenter at Hale Farm & Village, William Collins. Two full ribs, part of a third. Side planking on all, with caulk. White painted top planking on half. Green and white painted tiller with metal reinforcement. Open/cutaway section so that interior is visible. Stern plate painted "Sterling/Peninsula" with image of horse and rider.

The story of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park can be told through its people and landscapes. The Cuyahoga Valley is a 22-mile river valley in Northeast Ohio, nestled between Akron and Cleveland, on land once known as the Connecticut Western Reserve. The valley's landscape has evolved greatly over time. Starting as a wilderness inhabited by nomadic people, the valley transformed into scattered agrarian townships and hamlets during the 1800s. Starting in 1805, when the lands west were opened up for expansion, settlers had "Ohio Fever"� and traveled many miles from their well-established homes in the northeast to this dense wilderness to build new lives. Although these farmers progressed, they faced three economic problems: the scarcity of labor, the lack of capital, and isolation to the eastern markets. To get goods from this interior, a transportation system was needed to link it to the outside world. In 1825, the Ohio Legislature authorized the construction of the Ohio & Erie Canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth and today it is one of our most important cultural resources. As the rural landscape adopted a more"suburban" atmosphere, the valley became a center for recreational activities and was preserved as a National Park.

This item sits in Boston Visitor Center, linking the suburban and recreational uses of the area today with the wilderness and early settlers of the past. It is also a reminder that during the mid-1800s the canal boat-building industry thrived in Boston. It has been said that the villages of Boston and Peninsula monopolized the canal boat building trade in the state of Ohio.