Volunteers find community in preserving Erie Canal

The Camillus Erie Canal Park would not be where it is without its dedicated volunteers. 

Since opening half a century ago, the 420-acre site along the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor has found a faithful army of supporters who are invested in restoring and preserving a notable part of New York’s history. 

At the forefront of this effort are Dave and Liz Beebe, who were part of a local committee that recommended in 1972 the Town of Camillus buy the 164 acres that would become the initial park a mile north of the main village.

“People will say ‘You were the leaders and it wouldn’t have happened without you,’” Liz Beebe said. “But you can’t do anything by yourself. 

“The volunteers are so much of the maintenance and their spirit and enthusiasm really has made the park.” 

The spirit the Beebes revere was there from the early days. There was no clear towpath, berm grew along the edges of the waterway and the area had been used as a dumping ground for trash and debris. No was really sure where the actual source of the water was.

That is when the Beebes began recruiting volunteers to help with the much-needed clean up and repairs. Once the park’s landscape had started to shape up, the foundation was poured in 1976 for the Sims Store Museum, which serves as the park’s primary building and houses hundreds of Erie Canal artifacts.

In the late 1970s, workers built a dam near the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct, and water was pumped from the west side of Devoe Road to raise the levels within the canal. That effort enabled them to buy a pontoon boat and open the mile-stretch for school and visitor tours – starting the park’s educational mission in earnest.

The Beebes and volunteers have consistently found new ways to attract visitors. In the early 1990s, the park started offering dinner cruises with prime rib steaks. Then the park created the annual Towpath Day, which features locals dressed in 1800s era costumes, demonstrations and a host of family activities. 

“The way to get people to the canal was to invite them down,” Liz Beebe said. 

The park drew international attention when it was designated as the official location for the 1996 Olympics torch to travel by canal boat. This required work to prepare the park to have a functioning towpath and even borrow an actual mule-drawn packet boat. Police estimated the celebration attracted 10,000 people to watch the Olympic torch float down the Canal.

The park also has become a collection for many Erie Canal-era relics including a steam engine that still operates, the 1890 fishing boat The Catherine that was on the Oswego Canal in the 1890s and an outhouse that stood for 132 years for the Port Byron lock attendant. 

At one point, volunteers organized to recover an original canal lock gate that had been submerged in the Camillus waterway. Dave Beebe said the gate is the only original one known to be on display.

Work on the aqueduct that originally opened in 1845 started in the 1990s with four years of clearing trees, restoring the masonry and solidifying the bridge-like structure’s base. That effort opened up fundraising and grants for the full $2 million restoration project.

Describing it as a “labor of love,” Dave Beebe beams with pride in the park ability to raised the money and successfully reconstructing the only aqueduct of 32 that existed on the original Erie Canal enlargement of the mid-1800s.

As the work neared its completion in 2009, Liz Beebe became the first person to traverse the aqueduct in her kayak over a few inches of water. 

Well into retirement by 2022, the Beebes happily brought Lisa Wiles on as director of the park to manage day-to-day activities. Wiles had 20 years of experience in the non-profit sector, a history degree and a decade working on Erie Canal tour boats with her spouse. 

Wiles emphasized that her love of the park naturally comes from her love of history, and she often finds herself thinking of the past while taking care of what’s left of it. 

“When you see yourself in the stories of people, that to me is when history comes alive,” Wiles said. “It’s not the date or the military battles, but how people lived. We get a chance to show a glimpse of that right here.” 

One of Wiles’ primary responsibilities is working with more than 100 regular volunteers of all backgrounds and trades looking to do whatever they can to help. An annual picnic celebrating the volunteers draws people, including a few whose involvement dates back to the park’s opening 53 years ago. 

“What we’ve seen is that once we can get people here and they see that everyone is friendly, they come back and volunteer on a more normal basis,” Wiles said. 

Camillus Canal Society president Joe Menzel, who took over for Dave Beebe in 2024 after 18 years as the group’s vice president, has volunteered at the park since 1998. 

Menzel said he primarily helps with path maintenance and making repairs and improvements to the park’s many building structures including Sims Store to the two boat houses.

Menzel said he was drawn to help the park’s effort because his Camillus house backs up to the canal. He finds it fascinating to imagine 200 to 300 boats towed by mules passing by on a daily basis as would have during the canal’s heyday.

“We want to keep the park in shape so that others in the future can visualize that, too,” Menzel said.