‘Y Walk Wednesday’ events cover various topics
Walk leader Joe Butkiewicz, at right, a board member of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, tells ‘Y Walk Wednesday’ participants that the railroad tracks beside them, which are near South Pennsylvania Boulevard between Market and Northampton streets in downtown Wilkes-Barre, were once the site of the Pennsylvania Canal.
Bryn Stiles | For Times Leader
More than 30 walkers took part in Wednesday’s ‘Y Walk Wednesday’ event. Topics of future walks range from downtown murals to plant life in the Kirby Park natural area.
Bryn Stiles | For Times Leader
Michele Schasberger, Healthier Communities Coordinator at the YMCA, welcomes participants to the recent ‘Y Walk Wednesday’ event, during which walk leader Joe Butkiewicz discussed the Pennsylvania Canal that once connected Wilkes-Barre to distant destinations.
Bryn Stiles | For Times Leader
Participants in the recent ‘Y Walk Wednesday’ ranged from self-described ‘canal buffs’ to people who had no idea a canal ran through Wilkes-Barre in the 1800s.
Bryn Stiles | For Times Leader
The ‘Y Walk Wednesday’ group sets off walking from the YMCA along South Franklin Street.
Bryn Stiles | For Times Leader
Pausing near Movies 14 on East Northampton Street in Downtown Wilkes-Barre, hike leader Joe Butkiewicz, center, talked about pre-canal days, such as 1820, when the population of Wilkes-Barre was 755 people. At left is Butkiewicz’s wife, Carole Poggi, carrying a satchel of visual aids. At right are walk participants Charles and Judy Miller of Mountain Top.
Bryn Stiles | For Times Leader
If you’re traveling along South Pennsylvania Boulevard through downtown Wilkes-Barre today, you’re likely in a car. You might see a few pedestrians, or cyclists, or even the occasional passing train.
But almost 200 years ago, there would have been another form of transportation near what is now the boulevard. Close your eyes, and you can imagine mule drivers — most likely young boys — walking 15 miles a day, prodding and encouraging mules that pulled boats laden with coal for distant markets.
“We can walk on the canal … right here, where the railroad tracks are,” Joe Butkiewicz from the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor said early Wednesday evening, pointing to the one-time site of a portion of the canal that had been built close to what is now Pennsylvania Boulevard, between East Northampton and East Market streets.
“I had no idea there ever was a canal in Wilkes-Barre,” said Betsy Summers, who was one of about three dozen people who took part earlier this week in a “Y Walk Wednesday” two-mile walking tour of the downtown.
The Wilkes-Barre Family YMCA is holding a series of such walks, scheduled to depart from the YMCA lobby at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays through Aug. 19. Each walk has a leader who will discuss a different topic, offering education and a chance for exercise.
The June 24 walk was devoted to discussing the local portion of the Pennsylvania Canal, which was open for use as of July 1834. The topic attracted self-described canal buffs Charles and Judy Miller from Mountain Top, who have enjoyed traveling to the Erie Canal in New York State, which still exists and is mainly used for recreation.
The Millers have ridden bicycles on the canal and, in colder weather, Charles Miller said of his wife, “This show-off even ice skated on it.”
As for the local canal, it was abandoned in 1882 after railroads had become the primary way to haul freight and transport passengers. By 1883, Butkiewicz told the YMCA group, workers were using culm, a byproduct of the coal industry, to fill in the canal, which people at that point considered an eyesore and “a stinking ditch.”
But at its debut in 1834, the Wilkes-Barre canal would have been welcomed as a smoother way to transport cargo than trying to navigate a raft or barge along the Susquehanna River.
Before the canal reached the Wilkes-Barre area, the North Branch of the Pennsylvania Canal covered 55 miles from Northumberland to the Nanticoke area, and it was on the West side of the river.
For the Nanticoke to Wilkes-Barre portion, the canal was switched to the East side of the river, where it intersected the Hollenback property and pleased the wealthy landowner.
Bridges spanned the canal at several locations in the city, Butkiewicz told the YMCA group, and warehouses sprang up in the area once known as Back Street, then as Canal Street, and today as Pennsylvania Boulevard.
“It was the commercial district in Wilkes-Barre into the 1970s,” he said.
The canal was 40 feet wide, Butkiewicz said, illustrating just how wide that dimension is by having walk participant Joe McHale hold one end of a tape measure while he held the other.
The next Y Walk Wednesday is scheduled for 6 p.m. July 1 and will take walkers to the Kirby Park Natural Area, where the walk leader will help them download a free community science app that can identify plants and insects. The July 8 walk is titled “Walk With a Doc,” the July 15 walk is titled “What’s New Downtown,” and the July 22 topic is “Arts and Murals Downtown.”
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