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Old Welland Canals and Merritton

"There are sixteen locks of the Second Welland Canal within Merritton alone."

If we as Niagarans can undertake the monumental task of restoring and utilizing our Old Welland Canals to a level which will be economically and culturally self sustaining, the ideal of drawing upon our past maritime legacy will be realized. With the Niagara Region’s pending application for a Parks Canada National Historic Site designation for the Old Welland Canals, that early WCA slogan, “Our past is Prelude” resonates more urgently with each passing year.

The surviving remnants of the Old Welland Canals are deteriorating rapidly. Sadly, several lock remnants are already too far gone to even attempt restoration or rehabilitation. We must focus on the old canal remnants that we have left. The vast majority of surviving Second Welland Canal remnants and locks are in Merritton.

The project that I think should be a first in the way of request for funding from Parks Canada
is a concentrated rehabilitation of Second Welland Canal lands in Merritton. As I stated earlier, Merritton is where the majority of Second Welland Canal remnants are located. Any large scale public efforts to revitalize the Old Welland Canals must begin in Merritton.

I will ask you now to indulge me by allowing me to describe to you what I personally see is needed for a particular portion of Old Welland Canal lands in Merritton. The canal lands that we will look at are the lands of the Glendale/Merritt neighborhood in St. Catharines. More specifically we will look at remnants of the Second Welland Canal between Locks 14 -16. The three locks in question are situated just north and south of Glendale Avenue. Locks 15 and 16 are visible and lie south of Glendale while Lock 14 is buried mere inches below the surface right next to the new Sobeys, just north of Glendale Avenue......

read more at http://www.thewellandcanalsadvocate.ca