The town of Hollidaysburg in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania is a suburb of Altoona, the city famous for the World Famous Horseshoe Curve. Hollidaysburg is also the home of the Everett Railroad. Not far from the Everett Railroad is a park called the Canal Basin Park. What is the Canal Basin Park?
Some of you are saying, “Well, it is a park designed around a canal basin.”
You are correct. Well, you are mostly correct. The park was designed around an old canal basin of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal. Canal basins was an area where boats would wait until the canal channel was cleared, and then they continued on. The canal, like many of the old canals, was destroyed by flooding. Today, the Canal Basin Park consists of the remains of the basin, a replica canal lock, and a museum housed in an old Victorian home. The Canal Basin Park is a site that preserves American history.
Some of you are saying, “This is great. They take an old canal basin and build a park around it. There is a problem. This is not a railroad site. Therefore, you will not see me here.”
So why visit the Canal Basin Park in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania?
The Pennsylvania Main Line Canal was one of many canals built to allow boats to bring goods from the ocean port cities to the inland cities and towns. Each canal was built with a channel wide enough for a boat that was pulled by either mules or horses through the channels and the canal locks which allowed the boats to climb different elevations along the landscape. The Pennsylvania Main Line Canal was built connect the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Along these canals, small towns were erected.
Then they came to the Allegheny Mountains. How in the world are you going to build a canal over the high mountain range.
This brings us to Canal Basin Park. Yes, it was a basin where boats waited. It was not for the channel to be clear of boat. It was for the boats to be placed on a flatcar on a train. It was here in Hollidaysburg where the canal boats were put on the Allegheny Portage Railroad. The Pennsylvania Main Line Canal used the Allegheny Portage Railroad to carry the canal cars over the mountain range and then placed back into another canal basin where it continued along its way.
You see. You think that Canal Basin Park is about boats. It is, but it is boats combined with the railroad.
Canal Basin Park is located at 101 Canal Street in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. It is a short drive from U.S. Route 22 and the Everett Railroad. The park is open from sunrise to sunset.
Next time you are in Hollidaysburg and riding the Everett Railroad, take a little time to visit Canal Basin Park. The boats and the railroad are long gone, but you can see a place where American history took place.
John Cowgill: Stories of the Railroad 