Ghost Town

     "...the little yellow house on the towpath..." was lurking in my thoughts. The haunted one where a pack peddler had been murdered and buried in the cellar. I didn't so much want to find it as to avoid it. But it soon became apparent that there was nothing to worry about. I wasn't going to come upon a yellow house or much else in what had once been the bustling canal settlement called Moses Kill.

The canal (red line) at Moses Kill

One of the buildings along it might be the haunted "little yellow house"

     I was using Captain Fred G. Godfrey's The Champlain Canal: Mules to Tugboats as my tour guide. It's a fun little book with lots of quirky details about the old canal. He tells about a Mrs. Sanders from Fort Miller who sold four-layer cakes for $.25 and delicious pies for $.20. The boatmen appreciated that bit of indulgence before the three mile pull to Moses Kill past the dreaded "little yellow house".

A surveyors view of Moses Kill

The Hudson River would be just off the top of the map 

    At Moses Kill they could stock up at Will Patterson's store before going thru Lock 14 and crossing the Moses Kill Creek on an aqueduct. Just beyond that was a dry dock operated by George "Boney" Sanders. A place where needed repairs could be made. Then came a long, five mile, hard towing level to Fort Edward. Fortunately Satterlee's grocery store was located along here providing canalers with fresh food.

Two views of the aqueduct  

Top is the abutments as they appear today

Bottom is an old photo showing the framed trough

that was filled with water for the boats to float over the creek

     You would think Moses Kill would be an interesting place to view some of this historical infrastructure but that's not necessarily the case. Some of the water filled depression that was the canal is still visible near Patterson Road, while back in Richardson Lane there is an older building presently used as a residence. This may be where Patterson's store was. That's about it if you drive there. Tax maps show a corridor of New York State owned land along the old canal route but it's a honeysuckle choked, tick infested jungle with no place to park and threatening POSTED signs put up by a private party. 

Tax map of area where the Moses Kill flows into the Hudson River

Town of Fort Edward, Washington County, New York

Narrow checkered corridor is route of old canal

Richardson Lane (old Rt. 4) and buildings that might have been part of Patterson's store

What remains of the canal ditch is in the trees at right edge of photo

     The best way to see what's left of the settlement is by paddling up the Creek. You can examine the aqueduct abutments and an arched trolley bridge from the water but getting out to look for the lock, the dry dock or anything else associated with the canal takes some determined effort and it's hard to tell what parts of the shore are public and what are private. The yellow house and its ghost may have once been here but if so they're like the rest of the Moses Kill ghost town. Gone and almost forgotten. 

 

The trolley bridge

    

'Ghost' structures from canal days are common along the Rt. 4 corridor

These moss covered limestone blocks form an abutment at the entrance to the 

Denton Preserve

Speaking of Ghost Towns...

     A few photos from Greenwich all decked out for Halloween: