The Chenango Canal was part of a vast network of canals that connected New York State's cities with the Great Lakes, the Hudson River, and the Atlantic Ocean. Opened for navigation on May 6, 1837, it carried people between the Erie Canal at Utica and the Susquehanna River at Binghamton. It encouraged development of industries and the creation of communities like Chenango Forks along its course, provided inexpensive transportation for the region's residents, and gave access to distant markets. The Chenango Canal was one of the lateral canals that branched off the hugely successful Erie Canal completed 12 years earlier. Like most of the other lateral canals, it never made enough money to pay for its maintenance and was officially closed in 1878.