This Schuylkill Canal Series cache can be found along a newer section of the SRT at the former site of Brower's Lock #61. You can park at the bottom of Brower Avenue in Oaks (very short walk) in the dirt area, or at Longford Park (has restrooms) at the bottom of Longford Road (longer walk). (Station Ave as shown on the map here is not the access road.) Or ride your bike from anywhere on the trail. If the lower part of the watered Oakes Canal hadn't been filled in the 1950s, this is where it would have re-entered the river. The 1840s stone lock tender's house still stands nearby. The old 1820s lock and the larger 1840s lock are both completely buried between the house and the trail.
The Oakes Canal was part of the Schuylkill Navigation, a private transportation route that tamed the river starting in 1816. This incredible 108-mile system of dams, slackwater pools, canals, and locks was built by hand for transportation and water power. It stretched from the coal-rich mountains of Schuylkill County to Philadelphia's landmark Fairmount Water Works at Dam #32. Hundreds of mills and other factories sprang up along the new canals, as coal transported from the mountains literally fueled the Industrial Revolution in this region. Unfortunately, the pollution of the river soon followed. In the 1940s, the river ran black with coal silt and other wastes, and there were no fish at all. The government Schuylkill River Project of 1947-51 dredged the river and removed most of the dams, so the river could clean itself again. But it also buried much of the Navigation infrastructure, including Brower's locks.
Recently, the American shad has been reintroduced to the Schuylkill. Along with other anadromous fishes, shad swim upriver in the spring using fishways (a.k.a. fish passages or fish ladders). As of 2009, all four remaining navigation dams – Fairmount, Flat Rock, Norristown, and Black Rock – have fishways. Happily, the Schuylkill now has 57 species of fish (2021), as well as other animals that feed on them, including the humans who come to its banks with fishing rods. These are all ecological indicators of watershed health. The Schuylkill is still the drinking water source for half of Philadelphia, as well as Norristown, Phoenixville, and Pottstown.
Several native Schuylkill River animals are in this cache, ready for trades.
CONGRATULATIONS First to Find TEAM PACT