On a hazy afternoon I found myself in Port Colborne so I took some time to do some exploring. Just off one of the main roads I found the remains of what may have been locks, though I am not certain of that. Several walls have collapsed into the water but much remains, there is also an old lift bridge here which is still in operation.

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This feeder canal once ran all the way from Welland to Dunnville and brought extra water into the Welland Canal. Eventually most of it was buried due to domestic development and only a few stretches of it remained hidden in back yards and it was all but forgotten about. A few years back money was raised to dig up the last stretch of it before it entered the canal. A small section now lies unburied next to the trail with a small plaque identifying it and a few benches to rest upon. Most will probably never stop to notice it.

When I stopped to check it out the canal was flooded and had a great deal of vegetation growing from it. I returned a few weeks later to find it completely dried up. I prefer how it looked when filled with rain water.

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Found this old feeder canal hiding in some heavy growth next to the canal right by the Woodlawn Road bridge. You can see on Google Maps that it goes on for about 250m then just fades away.

Don’t have a clue how old it is, but it appears to have been forgotten about long ago.

Finally got around to back logging some old photos. These are a few pics I snapped near where the old 2nd canal emerges from under the 406 and connects with 12 Mile Creek. The original canal would’ve followed this same path.

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After stopping on my way home from work to check out the old Knifeworks Factory I found myself wandering further down the trail it resides on only to discover old canal locks which I now know to be part of the 2nd Canal system. This is another case of having driven by something every day for years and having no idea that it was there. This section is found just to the east of the 406 as it enters St. Catharines and winds west.

I walked for about half an hour down the trail, there was one lock just past the Knifeworks Factory and another one quite a hike past that. You can keep going until it eventually crosses the Via Rail line, in that distance you find a total of 7 locks. After which you will immediately find one more and then the canal will start to vanish and reappear again as parts have been buried. The majority of it from that point on is underground but you will find certain parts such as Mountain Locks Park next to The Keg (formerly the Rubber Factory), beyond that you’ll find a few scattered remains in backyards but almost everything has been covered over.

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After exploring Locks 11 & 12 near the Welland Canal Parklands I had to venture further upstream and check out the series of locks that leads up to the Thorold pondage area. There’s quite a few locks to check out and most are in pretty poor shape, much worse shape than even the 2nd Welland Canal remains. The locks are slightly wider (13.7m) than the 2nd Welland canal locks (8.1m) and appear to have retained none of the depth they once had. Many cars and other interesting objects can be seen looming just below the water’s surface. After traveling far enough up the canal you’ll find an old switch-blade style bridge that the CN Railway still runs over (though the bridge no longer changes positions). Should you venture far enough up you would eventually reach the area where the Blue Ghost Tunnel resides.

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People who grew up in the Niagara Region take the Welland Canal for granted. Some even see it as an eye-sore. Personally, I find it to be a cache of forgotten treasures waiting to be rediscovered. It amazes me how I can drive by a spot every day for a year and not notice an ancient treasure hiding in the trees as I pass it by, all it takes is the one day where you catch something out of the corner of your eye and do a double take. And that is exactly how I discovered this gem.

As I passed what I had always thought was just a river I noticed that a couple hundred meters from the bridge there was an old stone wall crumbling into the river. So I pulled over and found a path way that took me down to the water. From there I was able to see that this was not just a river, but an abandoned section of the canal.

After taking a few pictures from water level I managed to find a path up through the bush which took me to the top of the wall. From there I was able to follow a path down to the other end of the lock, which had collapsed due to errosion. Despite the unbelievable craftsmanship of the lock walls they could not hold up to the relentless force of water, in less than 100 years the walls were being consumed by nature.

From this point the canal openned up into a larger body of water that is known as the Welland Canal Parklands. When this section of the canal was in use the land looked much different, where as now it has been flooded by the lake. Off in the distance to the north-west I could see another lock which appeared to be between what is now an island and another thin strip of land. This is Lock 11 of the third Welland Canal, and beside it is an old weir. Unfortunately my camera failed to capture this beautiful view.

After climbing my way back out to the main road I peered over the other side of the bridge and was happy to see that much more of the canal was still intact, however I decided to save that section for another day. After returning home and doing some research to determine the history of what I had discovered, I found that not only were there several more sections of the old canals to explore but also a few old tunnels. Plans have already been made to explore them this summer.

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