Lock #10 and a Covered Bridge

 Day 16 - Saturday, July 30, 2022

Shenango Recreation Area Campground, Transfer PA

This Corps of Engineer's park is located near several small towns that almost look like one large town, so today's plan is to visit two of them.  The brochures we were given at the Pennsylvania Welcome Center have a wealth of information on touristy things to do.  We love history and plan our day to see the abandoned Lock #10 on Shenango River, as well as an old Covered Bridge.

With a cool start to the day, 57 degrees, we take a morning exercise walk before heading into Sharpsville to see the well preserved lock, which is a half mile downstream of the dam on the Erie Extension Canal.  Because of so much construction in the area, we are not able to get to the dam.

The lock was built in 1839 and preserves part of romance of the Erie Extension Canal.  Stone aqueducts carried boats across rivers and locks.   At this point, canal boats left the slackwater of the Shenango River to enter the canal channel, with a difference in water level of 7 feet.

This one, obviously no longer used, is very narrow, so only small boats, either paddled or pushed, went through to the other side.  In the photo below, I stand in the area where boats had gone.

Walking back to the car, Herb hears something in the river, and looks to see a very large fish jump in the water.  I miss it, but hope it greets us again!

The towns of Sharon, Hermitage, Greenville, and Sharpsville are within ten miles of each other, so it is easy to get to our other place of interest, a Kidd's Mill Covered Bridge, back in Transfer.  But first we drive into Greenville for lunch at Compadres Mexican Restaurant.  I don't usually post photos of my food, but this generous serving of shrimp is so amazing to me, and there will be plenty left on the plate when I have dined.

What a fun day!  Now we drive five miles south to see the bridge.  It is also called Mercer County Bridge No. 1801, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is Mercer County’s only remaining covered bridge.  The bridge is in a rural area and spans the Shenango River. In reading about it, I learn that the structure was constructed by the Smith Bridge Company of Tipp City, Ohio.  Both tension and compression members were all wood. The Kidd's Mill bridge is the only one of Smith’s patented bridges still standing east of Ohio.

We drive to one end of the bridge for a photo, but dare not walk onto the boards.  then to the other end of the bridge, where a group of young people are preparing to launch their kayaks into the river.  

Seeing this bridge is worth the trip from Texas, as covered bridges are a favorite of ours.

Willie of Sweet Georgia Brown,

   and of Walldog and Willie

   Saturday, July 30, 2022