Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail - Historic Mile Marker 85
Lawrence Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio
Marker Inscription
Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail - Historic Mile Marker 85
The Story
This mile marker stands along the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, tracing the route where mules once plodded the packed-earth path, hauling canal boats laden with grain, coal, and passengers. Begun in the 1820s and completed in the early 1830s, the Ohio & Erie Canal linked Lake Erie to the Ohio River, opening the young state's interior to national markets and transforming isolated farm country into thriving commercial towns. Marker 85 measures one increment of that long artificial waterway, a reminder of the era before railroads when canals were the highways of American commerce.
Why it matters
The Ohio & Erie Canal helped bind the frontier interior to the Atlantic economy, fueling Ohio's rapid growth and demonstrating how transportation infrastructure could remake a region in a single generation.
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