In days gone by, the Conhocton and Canisteo Rivers were the heads of one of the nation’s great trade routes.
*Charles Williamson commissioned a study on clearing the rivers to make them navigable by arks of 75 by 16 feet. George McClure built the first ark, and made the first experimental voyage, loaded with lumber, staves, and wooden pipe. It took a half hour to get five miles from Bath, where they grounded… then about six days to get from there to Painted Post, where they waited another four or five days for the river to rise. “We made a fresh start, and in four days ran 200 miles.” Aiming for Baltimore he got grounded near Harrisburg and negotiated a decent deal for his cargo there, having established that the thing could be done.
*Doing business in Bath and Dansville with his brother Charles, McClure took in 4000 bushels of wheat and 200 barrels of pork. He built four arks at Arkport, and these were the first to navigate the Canisteo, running all the way down to Baltimore. One winter he built eight arks at Bath and four on the Canisteo, shipping flour to Baltimore and wheat to Columbia. “The river was in fine order and he made a prosperous voyage and a profitable sale.”
*He also bought fur, pelts, and deer hams, shipping them downriver. One year he boarded 40 head of “the best and largest cattle” onto arks, shipped them to Columbia, Pennsylvania, and drove them overland to Philadelphia, “where they sold to good advantage.”
*On April 4, 1800, Friedrich Barthles sent out two arks from the outlet of Mud Lake (Bradford): one built by Colonel Williamson, 72’ x 15’; the other by Nathan Harvey, 71’ x 15’. When he needed water, Mr. Barthles opened a gate at the mill pond. “Thus it was ascertained to a certainty, that, by improving those streams, we could transport our produce to Baltimore – a distance of 300 miles – in the spring of the year, for a mere trifle.”
*Christopher Hurlbut built an ark in Arkport in 1800, sending it to Baltimore laden with wheat. He built a storehouse on the east bank of the Canisteo, to which came farmers from Genesee Valley with butter, cheese, wheat, corn, etc., “waiting only for the ‘Moving of the Waters.’” Thousands of bushels were shipped annually, as many as 11 arks a year.
*Hurlbut also “Obtained the passage of an act by the Legislature of this State making the Canisteo river a ‘public highway,’ and made it a channel of commerce down whose waters were borne much of the products of the ‘Genesee Country.’”
*Storehouses went up in Bath, including three at the foot of Ark Street. Sleighs crowded in from Geneva and the Genesee. In spring arks were floated to the storehouses, grain was poured into them in bulk, and the pilots, “with their jolly helpers,” began their returnless journey. About 1 in 10 “emptied its contents into the river.” “When Bath was on the eve of realizing Williamson’s expectations, the canals were constructed; and lo! its glory departed. The ark of the Conhocton passed into history; the rats took possession of the storehouses; the roofs caved in; the beams rotted away, and what was left of them tumbled into ruins.” And so an age came to an end.
*At 7:00 on Thursday, October 17 I’ll be at Finger Lakes Boating Museum, giving a talk on the arks and the arkers from those early days of our region’s history. We hope you’ll join us.