Muskingum River Lock No. 10 And Canal

Lock No. 10 and its lateral canal sit on the north bank of the Muskingum River in downtown Zanesville, built to avoid rapids near the Y Bridge. The canal is about 50 feet wide and 0.8 miles long, with concrete walls. At its downstream end is a two-chamber lock of large sandstone blocks laid in regular ashlar, with wooden gates framed in iron and operated by hand. The lock and dam were completed in 1841 at a cost of $228,000, built by Josiah Spaulding under civil engineer David Bates. They belong to a series of locks, dams and canals opened between Marietta and Dresden under a state act of 1836. Commercial traffic declined after the railroad arrived in 1857, and the federal government took over the system in 1886. Steamer service ended in 1922, and commerce faded after 1943. The towpath is now a state-owned park, and the lock still serves hundreds of pleasure boats each year.