The Lyons Drydock

The Lyons drydock, just west of the village, was the last drydock built on the New York State Canal System after nearly a century of improvements. Drydocks like the one at Lyons were needed so canal boats could be maintained and have a place to winter over. The original Barge Canal plan called for public drydocks at Schuylerville, Waterford, Little Falls, Baldwinsville, Rochester, and Lockport, but when the Baldwinsville site was dropped, Lyons was added. Completed in 1931, with a storehouse and machine shop added the next year, Lyons became one of two principal drydock sites in the canal system, along with Waterford. Today, the Lyons shop repairs equipment still used on the canal, and the drydock berths tugs in the off season and stores Dipper Dredge No. 3, one of the original Barge Canal dredges. Dipper dredges and steam derricks were the heavy equipment used to dig, clear, and maintain the Barge Canal from its inception until today, removing silt and muck from the canal bottom and depositing it beyond the banks. In 1911, during this work near Lyons, Calvin Hotchkiss Jr., grandson of H. G. Hotchkiss, stumbled on a rain-slickened deck and fell into the gears of a dipper dredge, suffering a fatal injury before the operator could stop the machine.

Lyons, New York · United States