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Erie Canal boat project nears final stages at Canalside

The replica of the Seneca Chief will be completed by this summer for the bicentennial celebration of the opening of the Erie Canal in 1824.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — If you've been to Canalside recently, you've probably noticed all the activity in the Longshed Building

Volunteers with the Buffalo Maritime Center have been hard at work building a replica of an important vessel that once sailed on the Erie Canal. 

"This is a replica of Governor DeWitt Clinton's Seneca Chief. That was the name of his canal boat that he took for the inaugural trip from Buffalo to New York City at the opening of the Erie Canal in 1824," Master Boatbuilder Roger Allen told 2 On Your Side. 

The plan is to have the ship completed and in the water this summer, in time for the bicentennial celebration of that event.  The effort has taken countless hours from more than 200 volunteers. 

"On any given day there could be 20 people working here and we'll have three crew chiefs," Allen said. "The other staff person and I are working with them, and we're passing the information and the skills down into the rest of the crew." 

It will eventually travel up and down the Erie Canal towed by a tugboat, stopping for community festivals and events throughout the season. 

"We want people to get back involved in the Canal. The Canal is an incredible asset," Allen said. "It's a very valuable asset, and we want to reconnect people with that. We want to reconnect communities with the canal as much as possible, and we think having her go to festivals and give the communities a reason to have a festival because the Seneca Chief is coming to town, we want to do that to reconnect people to the community." 

The Buffalo Maritime Center will host a big celebration to launch the ship in May. 

More information is available here

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