Get Involved: Grants Program Results
Investing in partnerships yields larger returns. In 2007, the Commission awarded $200,000 in small grants to thirteen organizations. The funds were matched dollar for dollar by grantees for projects and programs that build awareness of the region’s rich history and contribute to the Erie Canalway as a world class tourism destination.
 
1. Erie Canal Narrated Cruises
Corn Hill Navigation, Rochester
Corn Hill Navigation offers narrated cruises to 15,000 passengers each year, including the general public, school groups, and tour groups visiting Monroe County. This grant enabled Corn Hill to develop new interpretive scripts for its touring vessels to highlight the cultural heritage of the Erie Canal in the greater Rochester area.
 
2. Outdoor Interpretive Exhibits
Village of Fairport
Residents and visitors can learn the story of the Village of Fairport’s rich history as an Erie Canal village through 13 outdoor interpretive signs, placed throughout downtown in 2010. The signs juxtapose historic and present day sites, connecting past to present and people to place. The signs are an integral part of Fairport’s main street plan and will help draw visitors from the village’s port to its main street and downtown.
 
3. Lock Island Pedestrian Access Improvements
Village of Phoenix
The Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board and the Village of Phoenix together developed a brochure and map to Village recreational trails, installed welcome and interpretive signs, and improved pedestrian crosswalks to increase visitation to Lock Island on the Oswego Canal. Interpretive signs highlight both history and abundant wildlife along this section of the canal.
 
4. Guide to Ithaca Waterfront
Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce
This grant resulted in Ithaca’s Waterfront Guide & Map, which includes information about Ithaca’s waterfront trail and numerous waterfront destinations on both sides of the Cayuga Inlet. A new interpretive sign and kiosk on this busy trail help reinforce the canal history of this Finger Lakes community, which serves as a major southern gateway to the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor
 

5. Lock 7-12 Canalfest
Chamber of Schenectady County & Montgomery County Chamber
This two-day festival attracted 18,000 to 25,000 visitors and resulted in $1 million dollars for communities annually. Grant funds supported Canalfest in 2007 and 2008; the event showcases historic sites, recreational sites, and local artisans along a 32-mile stretch of the Erie Canal in Montgomery and Schenectady Counties.
 
6. Champlain Canal Waterfront Plan
Town and Village of Fort Ann
The village and town researched components and feasibility of waterfront improvements along the Champlain Canal in the Village and Town of Fort Ann and developed a waterfront map and plan. With plan in hand, the municipalities jointly secured $125,000 in funding for streetscape improvements and $225,000 for pedestrian access and a waterfront park on the Champlain Canal.
 
7. Visit Canalway Trail
Parks & Trails New York
Awarded "Best Travel and Tourism Site for Trails" by American Trails, this complete online guide to planning a visit to the Erie Canalway Trail substantially improves visitor services. The website includes interactive maps, detailed trail information, and attractions. www.ptny.org/bikecanal/
 
8. Enhancing the Visitor Experience Training
Landmark Society of Western New York
A series of hospitality workshops for businesses owners, managers, and frontline staff was targeted to small businesses and museums in the Western Erie Canal Heritage Corridor. Training sessions covered creating and delivering the “Canal Experience,” fundamentals of tourism, and how to interpret canal-related collections. The curriculum developed is applicable to other Corridor regions.
 
9. Heritage Walking Tour, New Museum Brochures
Historic Palmyra
Two new brochures with walking tours of the Village of Palmyra and its historic cemetery help residents and visitors better access and appreciate the historic architecture and canal heritage of this “Queen of Canal Towns.”
 
10. Interpretive Weighlock Exhibit
Erie Canal Museum, Syracuse
The Erie Canal Museum, located on the only remaining weighlock building on the Erie Canal, developed a new interactive exhibit to acquaint young visitors with how to weigh boats and collect tolls as they operate a weighlock.
 
11. Erie Canal Heritage Walking Tour
Village of Jordan
The Erie Canal was completed in 1819 through the Village of Jordan and opened across the state in 1825. Though construction of the Erie Barge Canal in 1918 bypassed the village, Jordan’s canal history continues to contribute to the village’s distinct character. A team of residents, village employees and mayor, and a consultant developed a walking tour with a brochure and signs to direct residents and visitors to prominent sites, including the 1840 aqueduct over Skaneateles Creek, locktender’s house, and former Clinton Hotel.
 
12. Digital Site Interpretation
Port Byron Old Erie Canal Heritage Park
Millions of travelers drive past old Erie Lock 52 in Port Byron each year as they travel east on the NYS Thruway I90. They may one day get more than a passing view, thanks to a unique partnership among the Canal Society of New York State, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and landscape architecture graduate student Nathan Ogdahl. The team developed a digital flyover of the site which shows the stone lock chambers, 1901 Erie House, mule barn, and black smith shop. The digital presentation is currently available for teachers to use in Erie Canal lesson plans. The partners are also using it as a tool to secure funding to one day open the site to visitors.
 
13. Interpretive Signs at River Fest Park
Buffalo
A formerly abandoned property along the Buffalo River was transformed into a beautiful new park, thanks to many years of work by the Valley Community Association. Opened in 2011, the park provides public access to the river with trails, boat docks, gardens, and an amphitheater. Funding provided by the Erie Canalway enabled the association to develop six outdoor exhibits that tell the story of Buffalo's industrial heritage as the grain milling capital of the world.