Recreation and Tourism

Boating along the canal has long been popular, from the early days when locals used flat-bottomed barges for travel and sightseeing to the present, when locals and tourists frequently use private boats, especially in summer, and take boat tours including ecotours and entertainment cruises. Fishing has also remained a popular pastime; Jim Joseph recalled that in his boyhood the canal was teeming with crabs, eels, oyster crackers, minnows of all varieties, and even flounder, and local boys earned spending money by crabbing, with soft shell crabs a particular prize. Although the canal has fewer types of fish today, anglers can still be seen along its shores. The Lewes Rehoboth Canal Improvement Association works to make the canal corridor viable as an alternative to vehicle transportation by creating safe, rider-friendly infrastructure, including a water-taxi terminus at Grove Park Dock, and after years of planning it also facilitated the construction of the dock and walkway, completed in 2020 through a public-private partnership on Army Corps of Engineers land.

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware · United States