Lock 36, also known as Gaston's Lock, was built in 1836 as part of the Eastern Division of the privately financed Sandy and Beaver Canal, one of more than 90 locks on a canal planned to connect the Ohio River at Glasgow, Pennsylvania, with the Ohio-Erie Canal at Bolivar, Ohio. The canal company was incorporated in 1828, construction began in November 1834, and financial problems delayed completion until January 1848, by which time railroads were already affecting transportation; the canal operated with moderate success for about four years before the Cold Run Dam broke in the spring of 1852 near New Lisbon, causing heavy damage and helping bankrupt the company. The canal included notable engineering works such as two tunnels near Dungannon, including the 1060-yard Big Tunnel, the longest canal tunnel in America, and West Fork Canal Reservoir was built to supply water. Beaver Creek State Park contains seven locks, including Lock 36, and preserves some of the canal's finest masonry. Locks on the canal raised and lowered boats between levels of flat water through hand-operated mitre gates and sluice valves, a process that usually took 8-10 minutes. After ten years of planning, fundraising, and reconstruction, restoration of Lock 36 entered its final phase in May 1991; begun in August 1988, the project created a working model with gates fabricated and hung in May 1991, and the restored lock was dedicated to Jack A. Lanam, a Columbiana County historian whose research revealed previously unknown facts about the canal and local history.