Published: February 17, 2009 10:57 pm      

Canal Place rewatering may not be best tourism solution

CUMBERLAND — The C&O Canal rewatering project is not the solution to drawing visitors to Cumberland, said Andy Vick, chairman for the Canal Place Preservation & Development Authority. There are many other places where people can experience a boat ride, such as Georgetown and Great Falls, and they are also close to the metro area.

This was one of the main topics covered at the authority’s orientation and visioning session Tuesday.

Vick said there is also a concern with the visual experience upon leaving the grounds as well as the cost to rewater the canal. However, ideas are in the works to cut down costs.

Frank Fowler, general superintendent of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, is in conversations with CSX as to whether CSX needs the tracks that cross the C&O Canal. If not, then there will be no need to construct a tunnel to allow rewatering, he said.

Fowler will give an update to the authority’s board members at the next meeting.

Vick said until the authority knows how that will play out, rewatering will remain on hold. He said he does not want to spend the money to build a tunnel that may not be needed.

Even with the potential of cutting down the cost, Vick doesn’t believe that rewatering the canal is the best way to bring in tourists.

“In the short term, I think there are other things that would be more advantageous to help Canal Place grow and also be at a lower cost to us,” he said. “However we’re continuing to look at rewatering the canal.”

Vick said with the need to repair the dry dock canal boat, the idea to re-create the C&O boat yard was brought to the authority’s attention.

“We have the opportunity to re-create the boat yard here,” Vick said. “It would create an experience more unique than a boat ride. And it would help us attract visitors here to experience something they can’t experience anywhere else.”

Kevin Brandt, superintendent of the C&O Canal National Historical Park, expanded on the subject by explaining what the boat yard would be.

“If you look at the master plan of Canal Place, redevelopment or new development is occurring everywhere, with the exception of the area right here,” Brandt said, pointing to a vacant spot on a map of Canal Place. “The C&O Canal Towage Boat Yard actually sits right here and it’s still in the very heart of Cumberland and Canal Place.”

Brandt said the boat yard in Cumberland was a significant part of the city’s history, with 80 to 90 percent of all boats that plied the canal being built there.

“There is no place better to tell the story of boats, or the construction of boats, then right here in Cumberland,” he said. “The boat yard was not a woodsy kind of environment that we may think of as we bike or hike down the tow path, but it was very industrial. This is a great opportunity to show in a living-history type of format.”

Brandt said this fits in nicely with projects he’s been trying to do along the C&O Canal.

“I have been trying to find a unique attribute for each of the communities that sits on the canal,” he said, “something that can’t be replicated anywhere else.”

Brandt said he thinks the park service and the authority have enough information from documents and old photographs to re-create an evocative image of the boat yard.

“It would be a critical mass to our visitor’s experience,” he said. “I think it’s something that would engage a 5-year-old or 95-year-old.”

Brandt said some trees would have to be removed in the re-creation. However, authority executive director Renee Bone said the majority of the land is currently an open field.

Brandt added that because the boat yard would lay on national park land, they would have to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. This would consist of at least three public meetings to discuss ideas and obtain feedback about the plan.

Terry Michels, co-owner of Queen City Creamery, asked how the boat yard would be staffed in order to keep the historical integrity.

Brandt said many timber framers use similar or the same techniques used when the canal boats were built. He said another possibility would be to have employees from boat museums come to Cumberland and train those who would be working at the boat yard.

Brandt’s concept would include electrically powered replicas of launches that would motor visitors from the boat basin a quarter-mile downstream to the boat yard. Park rangers dressed in period-appropriate clothing would lead visitors through a walking tour of the boat yard.

Vick said he would like to hear the public’s input on this project to help get a better understanding as to whether the authority should move forward with it.

Contact Tess Hill at thill@times-news.com.