1890s, Independence
Summer is the perfect picnic season as men and women — outfitted in slacks and dresses — enjoy an outdoor lunch while floating on the Ohio & Erie Canal in 1890s Independence. Starting in the late 1820s, the 308-mile waterway enabled the transportation of goods like flour, grain, pork and coffee. In the first six years, about 250,000 barrels of flour went through Cleveland eastward, and prices dropped. Gristmills with waterwheels prospered along the canal. Pioneers opened general stores and taverns. Moses and Polly Gleeson’s tavern at Lock 38 is now the site of the Canal Exploration Center in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Great Flood of 1913, however, destroyed the canal and its economy. Today, the center and signs along the Towpath Trail preserve the canal’s legacy, while restaurants, like Canal Boat Lounge in Canal Fulton, keep canal-side dining alive.