Lockington Locks Historical Area

Lockington Locks is a stretch of the Miami and Erie Canal in Shelby and Miami counties, Ohio, covering about 3 3/4 miles of canal right-of-way. Work began in 1833. The district includes seven stone locks, an aqueduct abutment and turning basins. Engineers built a battery of six locks to lift boats 67 feet to the plateau at Lockington. The locks were made of cut freestone, many blocks over 500 pounds, hauled by ox team from Dayton. The nomination describes the site as the largest and most striking concentration of original canal features in Ohio and one of the costliest engineering efforts in the state's canal network. The canal segment carried traffic from 1845 to 1877, and local traffic continued until 1899, when the aqueduct broke under a stone-hauling boat. The locks decayed after 1900 until cleanup in the 1950s. The Ohio Historical Society took custody in 1966 and now maintains markers, light park facilities and a restored canal section.