After a winter’s arrival, Lois McClure was properly dedicated yesterday in Port Byron as spring bloomed around the Old Erie Canal Heritage Park. Folks came from far and wide to witness the event.

Years leading up to this event are memorialized in banners.

A few of the attendees included retired Director of the NYS Canal Corporation Brian Stratton and long-time canal enthusiast Bob Stopper.

Current Director of the NYS Canal Corporation Ben Walsh spoke, .

Members of the Bartley family were there. They are descendants of Theodore Bartley, the canal boat captain who left diaries that the late Barbara Bartley (and McClure volunteer!) transcribed and made into the book Life on a Canal Boat. The Canal Society has just reprinted it, the bicentennial edition.

Wendy Beach, board member of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM), spoke and held up a copy of Life on a Canal Boat.

And here is the moment, flanked by a group of supporters, Canal Society of New York President Captain Tammee Poinan Grimes cuts the ribbon.

Pieter Smeenk is Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Commission. Wendy Beach is a board member of LCMM. Bob Beach is co-founder and board member of LCMM. Art Cohn is director emeritus of LCMM. Tammee Poinan Grimes is current president of CSNY. Tom
Prindle represents SCOW. Jim McClure is the son of Lois and Mac McClure. Kevin Wisely is Chief Maintenance and Operations Officer for the Thruway Authority(NYSTA). Ben Walsh is Director of the NYS Canal Corporation.

Further reports will be posted. If you were there, please share your thoughts in the comments section below, and any additional photos of the day’s events to this address: canalsocietyofnysphotos@gmail.com

Photos here credited to Steve Boerner, Tammee Poinan Grimes, and John Callaghan.