Established in the 1830s, Port Penn grew with traffic on the West Branch of the Pennsylvania Canal and became a busy port with hotels and taverns, blacksmiths who shod mules, lumberyards and sawmills, boatyards and docks for building and repairing canal boats, and dry goods merchants handling products by the ton. Its chief exports were hogs, wheat, flour, lumber, dried and salted meats, leather, and whiskey, and in canal days the Muncy area had 13 distilleries producing 1,200 to 1,500 gallons a day. From 1830 to 1890, canals fueled new businesses and industry, reduced the isolation of large parts of the country, opened markets for farmers, mills, and factories, and provided work for owners, captains, boaters, and lockkeepers as river communities grew into thriving ports and immigrants arrived in large numbers. The canal made the development of river towns like Muncy possible through abundant water power and reliable, inexpensive transportation, helping industries such as the Stolz Flour Mill, Muncy Woolen Mills, Sprout-Waldron's metal fabricating business, and the Clapp and Rissel lumber and shingle mill at Port Penn flourish. In 1838, canal boats carrying cargo or passengers were towed by mule teams from dawn to dusk, and boats coming upriver from Harrisburg with cloth and barrels of goods for Muncy entered Lock No. 21 and tied up at the basin just beyond it to await unloading. A packet boat was a passenger boat that carried people more comfortably than stage coaches, but such boats quickly disappeared from the canals as railroads expanded through Pennsylvania; in the Muncy area, passengers could board or leave only at Port Penn, while cargo boats could load and unload along the Port Penn-Muncy section of the canal. Lock No. 21, a combination outlet and lift lock, and nearby lift lock No. 22, one-eighth mile away, were operated from sunrise to sunset by a lockkeeper who lived there with his family in a lockhouse near the lock, used a drinking well, and disposed of trash in a pit beside the canal. As a canal company employee, the lockkeeper cared for and operated the lock, prevented waste of water and damage to the canal and lock, and ensured prompt passage for boats six to seven days a week.