The Towpath: a canal, an interurban, and a trail walk into Aboite

1832 - 2011

The canal: The Wabash and Erie Canal was the machine built to abolish the portage in the first article of this section, and it was begun at Fort Wayne: ground was broken on 22 February 1832 where the St. Joseph feeder canal was to meet the main channel. The feeder, which brought the St. Joseph River's water six and a half miles to the summit, was finished in 1834; the section from Fort Wayne to Huntington was celebrated on 4 July 1835; and the through route from Toledo to Lafayette was formally dedicated at Fort Wayne on 4 July 1843, with General Lewis Cass as the celebration's speaker. At 468 miles it was the longest canal in the western hemisphere. The towpath beside it, the dirt path where mules and horses walked to tow the boats, is the oldest engineered trail line in this record.

The second life: The canal's glory was brief. Its banks eroded, it never paid as its promoters promised, and by 1874 the canal was abandoned. In Fort Wayne the canal was filled in, and this part of its right of way saw new life as the route of interurban passenger rail service to Huntington: the same graded line, carrying a second generation of vehicles, before it carried a third.

The trail: The Towpath Trail, officially the Wabash and Erie Canal Towpath Trail, was the greenway system's deliberate act of historical reuse. Mayor Graham Richard led its groundbreaking on 9 October 2006, the project divided into four phases at an estimated cost of $2.5 million; right of way and land had been acquired through a grant from the English, Bonter, Mitchell Foundation with assistance from Aboite New Trails and the Greenway Consortium, and the Little River Wetlands Project donated right of way and land of its own. By November 2009 the city was putting finishing touches on a four-mile stretch from Rockhill Park southwest to the Eagle Marsh wetlands on Engle Road, with the last mile and a half, from Engle Road to the Lutheran Hospital campus, left to the county and Aboite New Trails to complete. The trail was completed in 2011: 5.5 miles from Rockhill Park to the Lutheran Hospital campus, where the 2006 plan had spoken of nearly seven. The plan's figure and the built figure are both printed; the trail that exists is 5.5 miles, and with its completion, the city records, trail users in southwest Fort Wayne were connected with more than 80 miles of interconnected trails across the county, including access to downtown. Its own deep entry stands in BIKE TRAILS.

Sources:

1. Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society, The Wabash and Erie Canal (1957), and the Wabash and Erie Canal historical marker (the 22 February 1832 groundbreaking, the 4 July 1843 opening, the 468 miles).
2. News-Sentinel, Cityscapes, "Time ran out on canal era," 12 September 1994 (the feeder canal, the summit, the abandonment by 1874).
3. TrailLink, Wabash and Erie Canal Towpath Trail guide (the filled canal, the interurban reuse, the 2011 opening).
4. The Waynedale News, 18 October 2006 and 18 November 2009 (the groundbreaking, the phases and the land, the four-mile stretch and the last mile and a half).
5. City of Fort Wayne, Rivergreenway page, as read November 2026 (the 5.5 miles; the 80 connected miles of 2011).