Pennsylvania Canal

Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company

The state built a 4-mile side-cut canal from Lock Haven to a point on Bald Eagle Creek and from there a 25-mile water connection with Bellefonte was completed by private investors through the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company.

The Centre Democrat of May 28, 1831, reported on a public meeting held in the Bellefonte Court House "to consult on measures in relation to the West Branch Improvement."  Roland Curtin, Esquire, was appointed president, John Rankin, Esquire, and George Valentine, vice-presidents, and Dr. John Harris and John Bigler, secretaries.  Much of the initial interest in the construction of a canal into Bellefonte was from the areas ironmasters who for years had struggled to find ever more efficient ways of transporting there product to the markets outside the area.  Originally their only means of transport were wagons and latter the used arks on the water swollen streams of spring and late summer.  If they could become connected to the Pennsylvania canal system they could transport even more iron to more customers in Pennsylvania and beyond.  A number of resolutions pertaining to a canal and its construction were presented.  A committee composed of Judge Burnside, John Blanchard and Roland Curtin was appointed to wait upon the canal commissioners at Williamsburg, June 1st, to express the wishes of the people of Centre County in regard to the proposed canal.

On the 14th of April, 1834, the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company was incorporated, with authority to construct a canal from the state works at "Great Island" (now Lock Haven) to Bellefonte, a distance of twenty-five miles.  Unlike the "Pennsylvania Canal" which was paid for by the funds of the Commonwealth, appropriations  were made to cover only certain expenses and the bulk of the money was raised by stock subscriptions, in which municipalities benefited by its construction were permitted to join.  Consequently the Commissioner of Centre County subscribed to certain shares of the stock and block were taken by all of the ironmasters.

There was heavy flooding in 1847, which damaged portions of the canal construction.

By September 1848, the canal finally opened and the first barge, named the Jane Curtin, arrived and docked near Lamb Street.  The packet carried supplies for the Valentine and Thomas firm.   For nineteen years the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company would have a large impact on the growth of the area and especially the iron industry, but in 1867 a flood ravaged Bald Eagle Valley, ruining much of the canal system.

There was talk in 1868 of removing the old locks and sunken canal boats from the abandoned canal, but they remained for many years.

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