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History

 

     The Lackawaxen River has played a pivotal role in American History and the Industrial Revolution. Its name came from an Indian word “Swift Waters” from the Lenape and Iroquois tribes, who lived and hunted by the river in the 18th century. The first permanent settlers came to the region just before the Revolutionary War. A number of skirmishes took place in the region, most notable the Battle of Minisink in 1779, when 40 settlers were killed.

 

     “Swift Waters” made for a great logging industry on the Lackawaxen and the Delaware early in the 19th century. On the Lackawaxen River alone, more than 50 million board feet of lumber sailed down river to ports in Easton and Trenton annually.

 

The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company

 

     Prior to the War of 1812 the United States imported most of its bituminous coal from England. Our own vast coal reserves had not yet been discovered although some Pennsylvania Indian tribes had been known to use the “black stones.” A number of blacksmiths had also found the “stone coal” to be useful.

 

     In 1814 William and Maurice Wurtz began to explore the hills of Pennsylvania and discovered vast anthracite coal deposits in Scranton and Carbondale. The thought of transporting vast amounts of coal to the marketplace in New York would be one of the most expensive private ventures in American history. The project would mean hauling coal over the mountains by sled and wagon and then loaded onto the canal boats in Honesdale. Later, the construction of a gravity railroad would be built to carry the coal through the Lackawanna Valley to Honesdale. From Honesdale, a canal would need to be built along the Lackawaxen River to the Delaware River, then down the Delaware to Port Jervis, then across New York via the Neversink River to Kingston, New York, then down the Hudson to New York City. The project cost was over one million dollars and was the largest private investment ever made in America. It was 108 miles long and needed to be constructed entirely by hand.

     The canal was built in an era when America’s industrial greatness was just beginning. The project helped New York City become the greatest manufacturing city in the world and helped promulgate the Industrial Revolution.

 

     In 1825, a stock company was formed for the purpose of constructing the canal with its first President Philip Hone of New York City.

    

          Construction began shortly thereafter with Irish and German immigrants as laborers. The Canal had 25,000 men with 200 teams of mules and horses working on the project. It was three years later that the canal was completed with 22 aqueducts, 137 bridges and 1078 locks. At the side of the river ran a “towpath” for mules that pulled the boats. Twenty-five tons was the weight limit for the first canal boats, but later boats were able to carry from 125 to 150 tons.

 

 

 

       Coal passed through the canal for the first time in November 1828. At 1-3 miles per hour it took 7 to 10 days to make the trip along the canal. In 1848 the D & H Canal Company was the largest private corporation in America. In 1850 over 100,000 tons of coal were transported on the canal and by 1852 over 500,000 tons were transported. By 1859, the D & H Canal was transporting over 1,300,000 tons of coal annually, as well as cement, stone, hides, iron, general merchandise and passengers. Its highest volume was in 1872, when the company reached its high water mark.  As the late 1870’s approached railway lines began carrying more goods to more markets, while transporting by canal became obsolete. On November 5, 1898 the last coal-laden canal boat left Honesdale and the canal was abandoned. Remnants of the towpath can still be seen along the Lackawaxen in many areas between Honesdale and the Delaware.

 

Floods of 1942 and 1955

 

     The D & H Canal Company was headquartered in Honesdale and the small town had grown rapidly. However, because the borough was right on the Lackawaxen River, the town was prone to flooding. There was severe flooding in 1902, 1935, 1942 and 1955, with the worst flooding in May, 1942.

  

    The flood of 1942 was the worst flood the Lackawaxen River valley had ever experienced. Honesdale was hardest hit when the Seelyville dam on the Lackawaxen River above Honesdale gave way, causing a 10 foot wall of water to sweep through the town. It was said that the water rose 15 feet in 15 minutes. Six bridges in Honesdale were destroyed, 46 homes in ruin and 1,200 homes damaged. Worst of all, 24 people from Wayne County had lost their lives.

 

    The Flood of 1955 was considered by some to be the “perfect storm.” Two hurricanes within a week of each other, Hurricane Connie and Diane, both struck in the 2nd and 3rd week in August, 1955. The two storms dropped more than 20 inches of rain in the Poconos. Trillions of gallons of water came down the mountainsides, uprooting trees and homes, swelling the rivers and streams. On the evening of August 20th the water was observed flowing over the top of the Wallenpaupack Dam. A rumor began to circulate that the dam was going to burst. Many families along the Lackawaxen were evacuating for fear of the worst. Shelters were set up at schools, churches and fire halls all over the region. Flooding took place all along the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers, all the way down to Philadelphia. The Washington Crossing Bridge had water flowing over the roadway, and further downstream the Ewing Bridge was destroyed.

 

     In 1959 and 1960 the Army Corps of Engineers built two huge dams in Prompton and Dyberry to protect Honesdale and Hawley from flooding.

    

     “Flood control dams are relatively permanent fixed structures located strategically upstream from centers of human habitation and specifically designed to trap and contain storm waters to prevent the loss of life and property damage due to downstream flooding.”

 

     Prompton has a 290 acre lake that is used for recreation, including fishing, boating, hunting and hiking. The dam is a zoned earth and rock fill embankment 140 feet high, 1230 feet long and with a base width of 620 feet. More recently, the Corps has been investigating the possibility of using the reservoir for water supply storage and substantially increasing the size of the lake.

 

     The Dyberry Dam is a “dry dam” several miles north of Honesdale on the Dyberry Creek. It was later named after General Edgar Jadwin, a native of Honesdale who served as Chief of Engineers in the 1920’s.

 

 

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