History
Proposed route of the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal through lower Michigan showing completed section between Mt. Clemens and Rochester.
The former Territory of Michigan became a state in January 1837. Almost immediately the new state legislature passed acts to improve internal transportation like building canals, turnpikes and railroads. It borrowed $5 million for this purpose. One of the first improvement projects was the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal which would cut across approx. 216 miles of Lower Michigan and connect Lake St. Clair with Lake Michigan. Ships from Detroit and the eastern Great Lakes wouldn’t have to make the long journey up and around the Lower Peninsula to get to western cities like Milwaukee and Chicago.
Canal workers in Wisconsin, c. 1890
In 1838, digging for the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal commenced amidst great fanfare at Mt. Clemens. On July 20, 1838 there was a grand celebration marking the start of this exciting project. Many distinguished state officials, judges, and businessmen attended the event including the 20-year-old “boy governor” of Michigan, Stevens T. Mason, who turned the first shovel full of dirt near Cass Avenue.
Even though Mt. Clemens was designated to be the entrance of the canal from Lake St. Clair, it was in Clinton Twp. at the town of Frederick where work on the canal started and then moved north westward. For some reason canal work between Mt. Clemens and Frederick was postponed. Even so, a stone lock was built along the proposed route in the city of Mt. Clemens. A section of the Clinton River between Frederick and Mt. Clemens was to be used in the meantime.
Painting of barges on the Erie Canal, c. 1830, by John W. Hill
The proposed success of the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal was based on the success of the Erie Canal which opened in 1825 across upstate New York. The Erie Canal was and still is a successful and prosperous canal that connected eastern ports with Lakes Erie and Ontario. The money from tolls collected along the canal repaid the initial investment in the first year of operation while the rest became profit, minus maintenance and improvements.
Shipping via the Erie Canal was a huge cost improvement over moving goods overland by wagon. The Erie Canal also facilitated the western migration of settlers from the east who sought new opportunities in Michigan and other western territories. Before the canal opened, it took 4 weeks to get from eastern NY to Detroit. With the canal the journey was cut by more than half.
Unfortunately, the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal project was doomed from the start. In 1837, there was a national financial panic that caused an economic depression across the nation that lasted about 6 years. The main financial institution that was based in New York that backed the canal went bankrupt during this 6-year depression. By 1841 the Clinton and Kalamazoo canal project began to run out of money. Workers weren’t getting paid and sections of the canal were left half finished. Two years later construction of the canal stopped altogether at Rochester.
All in all, just under $400,000 had been spent to build the 16 miles of canal between Rochester and Frederick before the project ran out of money. Around 1844, a year after work on the canal stopped in Rochester, the state Board of Commissioners for Internal Improvements declared the canal project a failure. No more funds were allocated for further canal building or for maintenance of the finished portion of the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal.
Old stone lock along the Erie Canal in New York.
Many parts of the completed canal became unusable soon after completion. The locks had been built with log walls, unlike those in the Erie Canal which had stone walls. The log walls of the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal began to fail soon after they were installed. In many places along the completed canal, the banks started caving in soon after the canal began to carry moving water. This was helped in part by burrowing animals.
Aqueduct carrying the canal over the Clinton River near Yates Mill, c. 1917.
When the canal builders got to the Clinton River near Yates Mill in Rochester, they built an aqueduct to carry the canal over the river. But like the locks, the aqueduct was built of wood. With no money to maintain it, the aqueduct started leaking shortly after completion.
The Turning Basin in Utica, c. 1904. Note the horse-drawn ice cutter on the right. Photo by Burt Harvey
One section of the finished canal was usable. After the state declared the canal project a failure, the section of canal between Utica and Mt. Clemens was used for a couple of years to ferry goods by barge. Only $96 in tolls was collected for those two years of barge service.
A widened section of the canal, known as the Turning Basin, was used to turn barges around for the Utica to Mt. Clemens run. After the barge runs ceased, the basin was used for recreation, to generate electricity, and as a source of ice.
Double exposure, c. 1904, of children swimming in the canal mill race and the Crissman Canal Roller Mill which was powered by canal water. Photo by Burt Harvey
The section of canal from Rochester through Shelby Township and into Utica was never used for barges. Instead it was leased by the Crissman family and used as a mill race to power one of their mills, the Canal Roller Mill, in Utica.
A section, c. 1947, of the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal between 22 Mile Road and Ryan Road in Shelby Twp.
Today there are places where sections of the Clinton And Kalamazoo Canal are still visible:
1. Canal Park in Clinton Twp.
2. Along Canal Road in Clinton Twp.
3. Holland Ponds and River Bends Park in Shelby Twp.
4. Yates Cider Mill in Rochester Hills
5. Bloomer Park in Rochester