The Morris Canal series of caches are placed along the canal towpath in partnership with the Waterloo Village Historic Site and the Canal Society of New Jersey to showcase the important early transportation across New Jersey. The Morris Canal connected the Delaware and Hudson Rivers and facilitated development of cities and industry in New York and New Jersey.
The Morris Canal was busiest around the time of the Civil War in the 1860s. Just a few years later, however, railroads became very popular. The railroads were continuously encroaching on the canal company's business. Especially for transporting coal, railroads are faster and more reliable than canals, and they don’t have to close in the wintertime, when demand for coal is greatest.
Shipments of coal reached a maximum of 150,000 tons during the year 1867, but completely disappeared after 1870 when all coal was shipped on the Morris and Essex Railroad. In 1865 the Ogden Mine Railroad was built to carry iron ore from Jefferson Township to Lake Hopatcong. This ore was transferred to canal boats which were towed across the lake into the main canal. Although the canal company transported 50,000 tons of ore a year, this business was lost when the Central Railroad of New Jersey connected the Ogden Mine Railroad to their High Bridge Branch in 1881.
The coal and iron ore losses were major ones. To try to compete, the canal was expanded and widened to handle larger boats and more traffic. It didn’t work and finally by the 1890s, there was almost no commercial traffic on the canal.
Dynamiting the Little Falls Aqueduct
By the early 1900s, the canal was barely used and had become a hazard. In 1922 the State of New Jersey assumed ownership. In 1924 the State decided that it was too dangerous and expensive to maintain the canal and they abandoned it. Over the next five years, the state largely dismantled the canal: the water was drained out, banks were cut, the canal was filled with dirt and rubble, and the canal works destroyed, including needlessly dynamiting the Little Falls aqueduct.