The following photos were first posted on the Facebook Group Vintage Chesapeake Proctorville South Point by Jason Sloan. Permission was granted for The Lawrence Register.
He writes: “From the photo library of Captain Joe McKee, who I’m told was the first lockmaster at old Lock #28 in Sybene/Burlington. Joe passed away in June 2016 at age 95 and he wanted his photos to be available to all. I have a flash drive on its way to me with thousands of pictures from the area.”
Anyone living in or around Burlington remembers the Burlington Locks and Dams. I remember going there on a field trip while attending Burlington Elementary School in the 1960s. Please share your memories and photos so this history won’t be forgotten. Thank you to Jason Sloan who has kept much of the history of this area alive.
In 1914, an unknown newspaper article was found, “Ironton cement meets the test and is used by the Government to build the Ohio River Lock and Dams, and Bridges.”
It Happened in Another Century
A Story About How The Early Canal Locks Were Made
“Preservation of Canal Locks Sought”- Early in the nineteenth century a canal system of locks, originally used as connecting links between the Kanawha Canal and the James River in Virginia was built. The first locks, constructed of wood were built in 1810 by Ariel Cooley.
Later, in 1854 stone locks replaced the wooden ones. There were nine locks altogether. They once raised and lowered canal boats from the level of Richmond, Virginia turning basin to the level of the James River above the fall line. Their old locks, stretching about three and one half blocks are said to be the only existing ones on the East Coast.
The stone locks are one hundred feet long and fifteen feet wide, the size of most of the locks on the James and Kanawha system which once stretched nearly two hundred miles westward along the River.
These locks in downtown Richmond are in the pathway proposed for the new Downtown Expressway. The citizenry has made efforts to preserve these very old locks in toto, but apparently, the chances for saving more than two were rather remote. – From The Cooley Family in the Robert Willis Files
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