What would we be without the Erie Canal?

The importance of the Erie Canal has been overshadowed by not connecting the dots to it's major role in the overall development of US history--environmentally, economically, politically, and culturally. The Canal affected Indigenous people’s sovereignty, global population movement, women's suffrage, species extinction, and the wildness of the Adirondacks.

We'll center our discussion on the environmental effects of the canal, but will put it in the context of the Industrial Revolution and the attitude of "Man conquering nature."

Our guests are John Montague, Director Emeritus of the Buffalo Maritime Center, who had the vision 20 years ago of recreating the first boat and the travel down the Erie Canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River then to New York City. Also joining us is Deborah Williams, who wrote a book on the Erie Canal. They were celebrating then-Governor Dewitt Clinton's idea to create the canal, and travel on the original Seneca Chief, from Buffalo to NYC, 200 years ago.

Our news articles this week are a report on grassroots disaster recovery, tropical animals helping mitigate climate change, and analysis of carbon trading, capitalism, and climate change.

Our song for this episode is Bruce Springsteen's version of “Low Bridge, Everybody Down” a.k.a. "Fifteen Years on the Erie Canal", "Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal", "Erie Canal Song", "Erie Barge Canal", and "Mule Named Sal". The song memorializes the years from 1825 to 1880 when the mule barges made boomtowns out of Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo, and transformed New York into the Empire State. It was written in 1905 by Thomas S. Allen. This version is from the album "The Seeger Sessions".

Tune in on radio or internet to get more details.

And
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Ken Gale, Donna Stein, Sally Gellert & Charlie Olson

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