Old Canal, The

DESCRIPTION: "There's a little silver ribbon runs across the Buckeye State, 'Tis the dearest place of all this earth to me." "Cleveland is the northern end and Portsmouth is the south." The singer describes the places along his "pal," the Ohio-Erie canal
AUTHOR: probably Pearl R. Nye
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (OHS)
KEYWORDS: ship travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "The Old Canal" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye)
NOTES [161 words]: According to the notes in the Ohio Historical Society booklet, Pearl R. Nye had about 80 verses of this song describing points along the Ohio-Erie Canal (not to be confused with the Erie Canal; it ran from Cleveland on Lake Erie to Columbus, Ohio and on down to the Ohio River at Portsmouth). They cut it down to six, and even that is probably more than a non-canaller would want to sing. One wonders if Nye's version was related to a piloting song, giving navigation hints for the canal.
Although called a "canal," much of the distance was actually along rivers, with canals connecting them. Based on various online maps, it appears it started in Cleveland running down the Cuyahoga River. A true canal took it generally south to the Tuscarawas. From there it wanders mostly west and a little south, partly by river, partly by various creeks, until it reached the Scioto River near Columbus. Then it went down the Scioto to reach the Ohio River at Portsmouth. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OHSOldCa

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