Just west of this location are the ruins of Lock No. 53, built in 1841 as part of the Enlarged Erie Canal as a double-chamber lock with a lift of 4.63 feet, including a double-length north chamber. Just north of this location is the unfinished Sodus Ditch, a canal project begun in 1837 to connect Sodus Bay to the Erie Canal at Clyde, dug intermittently until it was abandoned in 1851. Just south of this location, in 1808, Jonathan Melvin, Jr. erected a “miserable shanty” on the north bank of the Clyde River near the brook that bears his name; he was the first Supervisor of town of Galen. From here, the old Erie Canal towpath runs eastward into the Village of Clyde.