Linear Park Links:
The Cheshire Linear Park
A portion of the former Farmington Canal is now the Farmington Canal Linear Park in Cheshire Connecticut. The original canal was used for transporting cargo barges, pulled by mules or horses, from Massachusetts to New Haven from 1828 to 1848 and ran for about 60 miles. Cheshire's trail is part of the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail.
After 1848,the Farmington Canal Line became the mainline of the New Haven & Northampton Railroad. The rail line was abandoned in the 1980s.
Today, the former canal line is part of the East Coast Rails to Trails Initiative. The park is approximately 3 miles long in Cheshire and connects to an additional three miles south to Hamden and New Haven Connecticut. Expansion continues north to Southington, Connecticut.
Lock 12 is a historic reconstruction of the actual lock used on the Farmington Canal. It is located on the Linear Park in Cheshire. There is also a small museum about the Canal on the Lock 12 site.
Text from the Plaque located at Lock 12 composed by the Doolittle Elementary School VolunteersIn the early 1800's The Farmington Canal was built between Northampton and New Haven. Irish immigrants dug the canal by hand. The canal locks controlled the flow of the water to compensate for the slope of the land. Farmers living nearby would answer the barge captain's horn, coming to maneuver the locks. Flat bottom boats were pulled by mules walking alongside the canal.
The barges carried goods and passengers between ports. A trip from New Haven to Cheshire cost sixty two cents and took nearly five hours. Local children enjoyed swimming on the canal in the summer and skating on the canal in the winter.
It has been reported that in 1839, the Amistad slaves were transported on the canal from the New Haven Prison to Farmington. Horse carts then took them to the Courthouse in Hartford for trial. The canal operated from 1828 to 1848; trains then became the preferred form of transportation. Lock 12 is the only restored Lock remaining today.