{"nrhp_refnum":"99001708","name":"Morris Wide Water Canal Boat Site","other_names":["11gr205"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"East Washington St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Morris","county":"Grundy County","state":"IL","lat":41.36651778550004,"lon":-88.40350580645793,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-02-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Commerce","Exploration/Settlement","Architecture","Historic - Non-Aboriginal"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An archaeological site at the Morris Wide Water, a turning basin on the Illinois and Michigan Canal at the eastern edge of Morris, Grundy County, Illinois, holding the remains of seven wooden nineteenth-century canal boat hulls.","why_significant":"The hulls, though preserved only in their bottom 1 to 1.5 feet, retain enough archaeological integrity to show how canal boats on the Illinois and Michigan Canal were built and used. Excavation also recovered artifacts tied to the lives of the people who worked and lived aboard. The boats are not covered by the canal's National Historic Landmark designation, which does not address archaeology.","narrative":"Seven wooden canal boat hulls lie in the Morris Wide Water, a turning basin on the Illinois and Michigan Canal at the eastern edge of Morris, Illinois. Each boat measured roughly 14 to 16 feet wide and 100 feet long, with oak hull planks fixed to floor and side frames. Built perhaps between 1865 and 1885, they were moored here as canal traffic declined, then sank, were stripped of hardware, and burned to the waterline. Only the bottom foot or two survives. The hulls were exposed in 1978 and again in 1996, when a storm destroyed a dam and drained the canal section. Archaeological work, concentrated on Boats 5 and 6, documented construction details and recovered leather, glass, metal and wood artifacts linked to life aboard. The site was nominated because the canal's landmark status does not cover archaeology, and these remains add evidence about nineteenth-century canal boat building and use.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Other: Canal Boats","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the State of Illinois within the Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail; the wide water is now silted to about 3-4 feet deep and the boat remains lie submerged. Function is listed as vacant/not in use and landscape/park.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.490256-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/8929/28892933/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/99001708.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99001708/8c97e7930f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/99001708/8c97e7930f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Teemu08","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Morris_Wide_Water_Canal_Boat_Site.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Teemu08</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Morris_Wide_Water_Canal_Boat_Site.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892933","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Wide_Water_Canal_Boat_Site","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14687898"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/grundy-county/morris-wide-water-canal-boat-site-99001708/"}