Before the Schoharie Aqueduct was built at Schoharie Crossing, canal boats had to cross the natural waters of Schoharie Creek, with horses and mules often ferried across or walked over the bridge above while pulling boats through the current; even after an upstream dam created a still-water pond, storms still forced canal closures to keep creek water out. As increasing demand led to enlargement of the Erie Canal, construction of the aqueduct began in 1839 and it opened in 1845 downstream from the original crossing, with a new canal section linking it and with Lock 30 and Empire Lock 29 built as part of the project, while the original canal became a feeder bringing water from Schoharie Creek into the Enlarged Erie Canal. The aqueduct remained in use until the Erie Canal was replaced by the Barge Canal in 1918, and afterward it deteriorated; only six of its original fourteen Roman style arches still stand after one fell in 1941, four were removed to improve creek flow and prevent ice jams, and two more fell in 1977 and 1998 after stabilization attempts failed. Schoharie Crossing now offers views of all three phases of the Erie Canal close together and is the only place in the state where locks from the Original Canal and Enlarged Canal stand side by side. Canal stores served boat crews with necessities, and after Lock 28 was opened in the early 1850s Garret Putman and his sons operated a canal store on land he had bought more than a decade earlier, supplying goods, fresh produce, meat, hay, oats, and repairs through family connections until the business closed in the early 1900s. Lock 29, the Empire Lock, about one half mile east of the visitor center, was built as a lift lock on the Enlarged Erie Canal with an eight foot lift next to a lift lock from the original Clinton's Ditch, and during the 1880s enlargement era its south chamber was lengthened to hold two barges at once. In Fort Hunter, the Quiri House began as a family home, was bought and renovated by New York State in the 1980s, and became the Schoharie Crossing Visitor Center; after Hurricane Irene flooded the town in 2011 and washed away the parking lot, the foundation of the eighteenth century Fort Hunter blockhouse was revealed, excavated by archaeologists, and some findings were displayed there along with exhibits on the Erie Canal and Lower Castle Mohawk village. The nearby Enders House, built in the early 1800s and the oldest building on the property, stands on an earlier foundation probably occupied by a Mohawk bead maker.
