Tipp City Canal Lock 15 EarthCache
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Canal Lock 15 is located near downtown Tipp City within the Canal
Lock Park. You can park in front of the lock in a small gravel
parking lot, or within the Lock Park.
Canal Lock 15
History:
This section of the Miami and Erie Canal, constructed from
1833-1837, was vital to this region's commerce and development. It
allowed for farmers and businesses to get their goods to larger
markets at a lower cost and faster speed than by hauling overland.
Passengers could also travel across the area by canal boat. John
Clark saw the location of the Lock 15, situated in Monroe Township
at the junction of the Milton-Carlisle Pike (Main Street), as an
opportunity and in 1840, platted the new town of Tippecanoe City
(now Tipp City). Many types of commerce and trade grew up around
the canal including boarding houses, saloons, a tannery, and a
mill. Some of the original buildings still stand, such as a mill to
the west of Lock 15, John Clark's home at the southeast corner of
Main and First streets, and the hotel at the northeast corner of
Main and Second streets. Travel on the Miami and Erie Canal was
limited to four miles per hour for boats pulled by mules in order
to prevent boat wash from eroding the clay banks of the canals. A
system of locks allowed a canal boat to be raised or lowered,
depending on the direction the boat was traveling. Constructed of
limestone blocks, Lock 15 is typical of most Miami and Erie Canal
locks. Large wooden gates were located on each end of the lock. A
boat would enter the lock and the gate behind it would close, while
the opposite gate would open, allowing the water lever to be raised
or lowered before the boat could proceed to its next stop. The
advent of the railroad was the beginning of the end for the canal
system. Due to extensive damage, most of the Miami and Erie Canal
was abandoned following the Great Flood of 1913.
You will see a replica canal boat behind the Tipp Roller Mill on
one side of the canal, and on the other side you will find the Ohio
Historical Marker. There is also a sign describing the Miami Erie
Canal on the telephone pole in front of the canal.
Limestone:
The limestone used for the locks was quarried as near as possible
to the canal, tuck-pointed with lime mortar. These locks were
essentially a rectangular stone channel 90 feet long, 15 feet wide,
and up to 20 feet deep.
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral
calcite (calcium carbonate: CaCO3) and often contains variable
amounts of silica in the form of chert(fine-grained silica-rich
microcrystalline) and/or flint, as well as varying amounts of clay,
silt and sand as nodules, or layers within the rock. The deposition
of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of
biological activity in the geologic record. Calcium (along with
nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) is a key mineral to plant
nutrition: soils overlying limestone bedrock tend to be
pre-fertilized with calcium.
Limestone is an important stone for masonry and architecture, vying
with only granite and sandstone to be the most commonly used
architectural stone. Limestone is a key ingredient of quicklime,
mortar, cement, and concrete. The solubility of limestone in water
and weak acid solutions leads to important phenomena. Regions
overlying limestone bedrock tend to have fewer visible groundwater
sources (ponds and streams), as surface water easily drains
downward through cracks in the limestone. While draining, water
slowly (over thousands or millions of years) enlarges these cracks;
dissolving the calcium-carbonate and carrying it away in solution.
Most well-known natural cave systems are through limestone bedrock.
Solid limestone is 162.983 lbs/cu.ft
Varieties of
Limestone:
There are many different names used for limestone. These names are
based upon how the rock formed its appearance or its composition
and other factors. Here are some of the more commonly used:
Chalk: A soft limestone with a very fine texture that is
usually white or light gray in color. It is formed mainly from the
calcareous shell remains of microscopic marine organisms such as
foraminifers or the calcareous remains from numerous types of
marine algae.
Coquina: A poorly-cemented limestone that is composed mainly
of broken shell debris. It often forms on beaches where wave action
segregates shell fragments of similar size.
Fossiliferous Limestone: A limestone that contains obvious
and abundant fossils. These are normally shell and skeletal fossils
of the organisms that produced the limestone.
Lithographic Limestone: A dense limestone with a very fine
and very uniform grain size that occurs in thin beds that separate
easily to form a very smooth surface. In the late 1700's a printing
process (lithography) was developed to reproduce images by drawing
them on the stone with an oil-based ink and then using that stone
to press multiple copies of the image.
Oolitic Limestone: A limestone composed mainly of calcium
carbonate "oolites", small spheres formed by the concentric
precipitation of calcium carbonate on a sand grain or shell
fragment.
Travertine: A limestone that forms by evaporative
precipitation, often in a cave, to produce formations such as
stalactites, stalagmites and flowstone.
Tufa: A limestone produced by precipitation of calcium-laden
waters at a hot spring, lake shore or other location.
Lime Stone Info: http://geology.com/rocks/limestone.shtml
To receive credit for this
earth cache you will need to perform the
following.
1. (Optional) Post a picture of yourself/group with GPS at the
posted coordinates, with the canal in the background.
Email me the answers to the following questions.
2. What is the elevation at the posted coordinates?
3. Do your best with the above descriptions to determine what
variety of limestone was used to make the lock?
4. Find an average sized block and measure its length, width, and
height, in inches. Then calculate (length*width*height) / 28,163 =
Weight in Tons
This formula converts the dimensions into volume and from density
into tons.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)