Museums

Boonville Black River Canal Museum

www.blackrivercanalmuseum.com

502 Water Street, P.O. Box 122
Boonville, NY 13309
Phone: 315-942-6763

For more than half a century, the Black River Canal played a central role in the life of the North Country. Appreciating the rich historical legacy on the canal, a group of interested Boonville residents secured a charter from the NYS Board of Regents to construct a museum that will preserve, house and display artifacts from the canal era.

The first building is the Hemlock Mercantile that houses a gift shop, a diorama of the Black River Canal, a pictorial of the canal and surrounding communities and other static displays.

An original one-of-a-kind canal warehouse was restored. This warehouse was used for mules and storage during the active years of the Black River Canal. This building now houses a working mini-canal for children of all ages to run model canal boats through the locks and the canal. The warehouse also houses a stable complete with the handmade mile, “Chloe.” New for summer 2010 is an interactive pulley system that shows how different pulley set-ups distribute weight and there will also be two miniature crane systems that will be hands-on to allow the visitors to put supplies on a canal boat. 

There is a full size replica of a canal boat that has been christened the “Walter C. Pratt.” This boat was built using original construction plans. Inside the boat are displays showing what life was like living and working on the canal with static and picture displays.

Our newest addition to the museum complex is our Archives Building. This building will house a climate controlled archives room, meeting/conference room, a gallery for displays and two handicapped accessible bathrooms.

A handsome canal walkway, lined with early 20^th century street lamps, now extends South from Main Street and State Rt. 12 junction. Volunteers relocated an original bowstring cast-iron “Whipple Bridge,” one of only seven such bridges still in existence, to the walkway. The walkway extends to Pixley Falls State Park. The 10-mile long towpath between Boonville and Forestport has also been improved. The towpath starts across from the museum complex at the Covered Bridge.

The museum’s hours of operation are weekends starting Memorial Day weekend through the last week in June and weekends the month of September through Columbus Day. The museum is open seven days a week starting the last weekend in June through Labor Day. The hours are 10:00am to 4:00pm. We are closed in the winter.

For information on guided group tours and school group tours, contact Ed Fynmore, Board President at (315) 942-4049 or Dale Ferris, Curator at (315)392-46290. Be sure to check our website www.boonvilleblackrivercanalmuseum.com for updated news and events concerning the BLACK RIVER CANAL Museum.