Bill Lawton was mentioned in the April 2026 Study Tour post, which is understandable because he generously took the time to point out this vestige of the Enlarged Erie Canal Lock no. 60, used in its original form and then its enlarged form between 1841 and 1914. This vestige, he pointed out, was once cow pasture.

Generations of cattle no doubt enjoyed the shade between these walls, i.e., after the mules left the scene.

It wasn’t until more than 20 years ago when Bill moved to Macedon to be close to work that he first became aware of the iterations of the canal and its significance to the town. This Dispatches post from January 2026 shows Steven Talbot’s efforts to map and document what once lay along the path of the current canal.

Bill admitted that he “didn’t have a clue about canal history before that,” and added how shocking it is that some folks, born and raised and active in Macedon today still don’t know about the ditch.

Bill, lower right, became involved in this project when he “saw an article in a local paper about volunteers needed for a group [now disbanded] called the Macedon Trails Committee. We cut trails here and there in the town and then started planting benches along the canal trail, eight of them eventually.”

He continued, “It was obvious the other volunteers knew much more about the canal and its local historic sites. Besides lock 60, there was Enlarged Erie Canal Change Bridge No. 39, also known as Gallup’s Bridge.”

The Trails Committee volunteer activities included clearing brush so that Canal Corporation would later come to haul it away. When a tree comes down that is to large for me to handle, Macedon Town Parks lends a hand. Bill is holding the chainsaw to the right.

Greg Stearns, a Rochester firefighter from Walworth NY, and Bill pose here with their 2013 award. Bill writes, “Greg mowed the three or four acres of the lock 60 site and adjoining bridge # 39 site with his own mowers and gas for 32 years. The main reason we won the Erie Canalway Heritage Award for Excellence in 2013.

As I reported above, Bill first learned of the canal by volunteering in his community. And clearly, the stretch of land between Macedon and Palmyra alongside the current canal is his favorite section of the waterway.

He wishes more folks knew how much heritage might lie overgrown and forgotten by time and local residents. To quote Greg Stearns, “This is a place where you can really go and touch history.”

Maybe someone reading this can add the story of the canal director visiting lock 60 by boat some years back and one of the volunteers showing the director around without a clue that this visitor was Canals Director Brian Stratton. “Is that who that was?” said the volunteer; “I thought he was just a curious and friendly guy.”

I’d love to interview other winners of the Canalway award for future installments of “Faces and Voices.” I’d also love to talk to future awardees, individuals and groups.

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