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tour:
Joliet Area
| Lemont
Canal trail
From downtown Lockport the 2.5 mile Gaylord Donnelley Trail extends north
and
south along the I&M Canal, and connects to the 80-mile I&M Canal
trail system. As you walk along the trail, bear in mind that in Lockport
the canal was once twice as wide as it is today, allowing boat captains
to tie up and transact business. When the canal was active, the trail
you are walking on was under water.
Informative signs and mile markers and sculptural silhouettes of people
who contributed to Lockport’s history are located on the trail. The
trail was renamed to honor Gaylord Donnelley, who spearheaded the award-winning
restoration of the Gaylord Building in 1985.
Canal lock
A half-mile south of the Public Landing are the massive limestone walls
of I&M Canal Lock No. 1. Five I&M Canal locks carried boats down
the 40-foot drop from Lockport to Joliet. Water power generated by this
drop attracted one of the state’s largest flour mills and other industries.
The gates and locktender’s house at Lock No. 1 are gone, but the
walls, repaired in the 1980s, providea sense of the challenges of canal
building and 
operation.
Locktenders lived in small houses along the canal and were on call 24
hours a day to open the gates that controlled the water level in the locks.
Among the locktenders at Lock 1 was a woman, Anna Schuberg, who worked
here from 1909 to 1914, taking over from her husband.
